Indonesia can always scramble cash after tragedy strikes, but with national buffers tied up and disasters arriving back-to-back, running preparedness on a shoestring is a gamble we can no longer afford.

Street protests have reignited the drive to pass the long-stalled asset forfeiture bill. Under renewed public pressure, the House of Representatives has committed to wrapping up deliberation by year-end, nearly two decades after the reform was first tabled. The real test now is whether this self-imposed deadline will finally overcome years of legislative foot-dragging, and whether lawmakers can be held accountable if it slips again.

As Washington pushes allies to gang up on Beijing, Indonesia must resist the pressure and stay true to its non-aligned roots, or risk becoming the mouse deer crushed between two fighting elephants.

Energy trade routes that optimize distance and costs may no longer be suitable for the fractured and fractious modern world, especially for major importers.

This year's El Nino is forecast to be the strongest ever, compounding the effects of climate change, and it may just catalyze the world into finally abandoning fossil fuels.

If Indonesia wants its global diplomacy to truly pay off, it must stop sending cheap labor into the shadows and start exporting certified talent the world will actually invest in.

Physical hazards can quickly morph into macroeconomic shocks.

When a government outsources repression to street militias, it isn't preserving order; it is waging a reckless, authoritarian war against its own people.

History proves political recovery is entirely possible. SBY and Jokowi successfully restored their approval ratings above 50 percent. Not only did they improve their numbers, both went on win re-election. 

The revision to the Oil and Gas (Migas) Law is now being pushed through the House of Representatives at unusual speed, with lawmakers targeting completion by mid-October 2026 and hoping to conclude deliberations before the current sitting period ends. The pace is notable because the Migas Law revision was not originally included in this year’s national legislation program (Prolegnas), despite years of delays.

Rather than mirroring the geo-economic fragmentation besetting the world, member states need to come together and negotiate favorable trade terms for the region as a whole.

We must stop treating the parliamentary threshold as an arbitrary political horse trade and replace static cutoffs with an adaptive, evidence-based mechanism that protects voter representation.

Universal jurisdiction can open the courtroom doors to Myanmar’s survivors, but without cross-border political will, investigative muscle and survivor-centered networks, a growing docket of foreign cases will never amount to real accountability.

A single top-down mandate is draining Indonesia’s village coffers for state cooperatives, gutting the local budgets that keep maternal clinics running, malnourished children fed and grassroots democracy alive.

Timely agricultural assistance can prevent manageable shocks from becoming entrenched humanitarian emergencies.

In the face of climate shocks and systemic neglect, rural Indonesian communities are rewriting the rules of parental care from the ground up.

Several of the country’s external sustainability indicators have weakened, as reflected in a widening current account deficit and rising external debt and external debt-to-gross domestic product ratio. The development is not entirely unexpected, as the government has signaled a greater willingness to rely on debt financing to support its growth agenda.

From 19th-century Himalayan telegraphs to real-time satellite ocean grids, history proves that disasters are inevitable—but mass casualties are not, provided we heed the warning in time.

If Jakarta wants to break free from its crippling gridlocks, choking air and other perennial issues, it must end the era of cheap parking and force drivers to pay the true cost of the road.

Nature remains unpredictable and largely indifferent to human attempts to intervene in its course.

Winning in ASEAN takes more than deep pockets and borrowed playbooks—it demands the rare operational discipline to dismantle corporate dogma and adapt faster than the market.

Indonesia must stop selling cheap land and labor—and start building high-performing, sustainable industrial ecosystems that modern global investors actually want.

The Trump administration’s mounting blunders are hastening the transition to a post-American world order.

Southeast Asia's skies aren't choking simply on bad weather; they’re choking on decades of Jakarta’s governance failure.

Drilling with the Pentagon in the west while exercising with Beijing in the east isn’t Indonesia playing a double game, it’s a masterclass in surviving between two superpowers without answering to either.

President Prabowo Subianto recently launched the country’s massive solar power program at a ceremony in Bali, marking the construction of 14 solar power plants across the country. The projects form part of Indonesia’s push to develop 100 gigawatt-peak (GWp) of solar power capacity, aimed at providing reliable electricity to isolated villages, accelerating the transition to clean and renewable energy and strengthening energy independence.

When the state embraces street thugs as political muscle, the violence that follows isn't an accident - it is government policy.