The sprawling Plaju refinery of state-owned energy giant Pertamina stands alongside a green space and residential settlement in South Sumatra’s provincial capital Palembang on Oct. 24, 2018.

Indonesia’s gas policy must deliver more than energy sovereignty

By choking off gas to Singapore to fuel the domestic industry, Jakarta is gambling that resource nationalism can build real economic muscle rather than simply leave stranded promises in its wake.

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Fifth year and counting: ASEAN-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership

From elevating ties to an unprecedented strategic partnership five years ago to tackling shared regional challenges, Australia and ASEAN continue to prove that our collective security and economic future are inextricably intertwined. ...

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Strengthening EU-Indonesia dialogue, advancing human rights

At a defining moment for global justice, the European Union and Indonesia are proving that defending universal human rights demands more than shared values: It takes a decade of sustained dialogue, bold reform and united action. ...

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Workers wait for the cargo ship Towuti, carrying 119,000 cubic meters of liquified natural gas (LNG) from Tangguh, West Papua, to moor on Jan. 19, 2015, at the Arun storage and regasification facility in Lhokseumawe, Aceh.

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Indonesia's gas export cuts: A costly blow to trust and regional leadership

At stake are Indonesia's credibility as an economic partner, its ability to attract long-term investment and its standing as a regional leader.

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An employee demonstrates the working of a humanoid robot on April 15 during the China Import and Export Fair, commonly known as the Canton Fair, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China.

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Is a Chinese implosion looming?

Though few dare to speculate about it publicly, an economic and political perfect storm is bearing down on China.

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President B.J. Habibie addresses the House of Representatives on Aug. 15, 1998, where he called for military reform and a new democratic paradigm during the early days of the Reform Era.

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BJ Habibie’s status in Indonesian history

One of the criteria for becoming a national hero is not having committed treason against the nation. Was BJ Habibie excluded because of this issue?

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Attorney General Sanitiar Burhanuddin (front, left) and state energy holding firm Pertamina executive director Simon Aloysius Mantiri (front, right) attend a press briefing to assure the public that Pertamina's current fuel meets standards and is unaffected by the 2018-2023 fuel supply corruption case at Pertamina subsidiaries at the Attorney General's Office building in Jakarta on March 6, 2025.

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Redefining corruption: Protection for economic power?

Narrowing corruption down to bribery may protect state investors from criminalized business losses, but without strict checks, it risks turning legal certainty into a shield for oligarchic power.

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Indonesian nationals who had worked at scam centres in Myanmar are greeted by officials upon arrival from Thailand, at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten near Jakarta on March 18, 2025. Indonesia on March 18 began repatriating more than 500 of its nationals freed from online scam centres in Myanmar, officials said, bringing them home from grim holding camps in Thailand where many have languished for weeks.

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Jakarta should not lower the bar for Myanmar

As a member of the Financial Action Task Force, Indonesia can help ensure Myanmar is judged by enforcement results, not by its new civilian title.

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People watch a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a train station in Seoul on April 19, 2026.

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ASEAN should press its Plus Three partners on denuclearization

With East Asia on the brink of a dangerous nuclear tipping point, ASEAN must abandon quiet diplomacy and force frank answers from Beijing, Tokyo, and Seoul at next month’s summit.

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A worker checks sacks of locally produced rice on May 30, 2024, at a of warehouse state food company Perum Bulog in Indramayu, West Java.

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Indonesia has a mountain of rice, but not food security

A record rice surplus is filling Bulog warehouses rather than lowering market prices, exposing a costly food policy that prioritizes managing inventory over feeding the poor.

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Migrant deterrent: A tent camp for holding immigrant detainees stand in a yard at the Illegal Alien Holding Operations Center at the Guantanamo Bay United States military prison in Cuba on Feb. 6, 2025.

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Hambali: Southeast Asia’s last Guantanamo detainee

More than two decades after his capture, Southeast Asia’s most notorious jihadist remains trapped in legal purgatory at Guantanamo Bay, a relic of a forgotten war that neither Washington nor Jakarta has the political will or legal means to resolve.

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Students attend classes at state elementary school SD Pekayon 05 and state junior high school SMP 91 in Jakarta on Oct. 12, 2026.

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How Indonesian language could bridge education gaps

Advancing alternative and equitable ways of thinking about education is urgently needed, and the Indonesian language may have a role to play.

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Big tent: Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council (Wantimpres) Pratikno (second left) shares a light moment with fellow council members including former government critic Rocky Gerung (third left) on Oct. 21, 2026 on the sidelines of their meeting.

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Dissent in the halls of power: The intellectual’s dilemma

The ultimate test of an intellectual is not challenging power from the outside, but refusing to become its mouthpiece once invited inside.

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Youths and activists holding banners as they march towards the National Monument (Monas) complex during a Global Climate Strike to protest against climate change in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 3, 2023. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

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Fostering, empowering youth in Indonesia’s foreign policy

To navigate a fractured world, Indonesia’s foreign policy must move beyond symbolic inclusion and treat its youth not just as tomorrow’s leaders, but as today’s strategic diplomatic partners.

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A visitor looks at an electronic display showing movements of the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) Composite index on Oct. 16, 2026, at the bourse in South Jakarta.

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Resetting Indonesia’s capital market needs verified integrity

Indonesia cannot restore foreign investor confidence with emergency price supports or rhetoric. It must prove the integrity of its markets through independent verification of ownership and true liquidity.

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Activists from labor groups hold a sit-in protest on May 1, 2026, during a rally to mark International Workers’ Day at the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta.

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Breathing new life into organized labor

Fulfilling the ILO’s promise of defending workers’ rights will require more than another declaration or incremental institutional reform: There must be a concerted global effort to create an enabling environment for all workers and their organizations to operate across borders as easily as capital does.

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President Prabowo Subianto (right) and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka (second left) congratulate and shake hands with new cabinet members on Oct. 1 during a cabinet reshuffle at the State Palace in Jakarta.

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Maximum coalition, minimum performance

Political stability at the elite level has not yet translated into improvements in the economy, public services and the quality of governance.

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Customers purchase vegetables during a government-sponsored affordable food market in Panyileukan, Bandung, West Java, on July 16, 2026. Organized by the Bandung Food Security and Agriculture Agency (DKPP), the program offers staple food items at below-market prices to help stabilize supplies and curb inflation in the city.

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The FAO we need for the future of food security

To end global hunger in an era of compounding crises, we must stop reacting to disasters and start turning frontline innovations into rapid, equitable impacts.

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Firefighters work to contain a wildfire on Oct. 13 in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan.

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Why Indonesia keeps repeating its forest fire crisis

We have accumulated experience, yet too often respond as though we are encountering fires for the first time.

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Nickel processing facilities operate on Oct. 8 at the Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park in Central Halmahera regency, North Maluku province.

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Going green is not enough for industrial parks to thrive

The upcoming Industrial Estate Law must decide whether its manufacturing hubs remain mere clusters of concrete and carbon targets, or evolve into fully integrated, people-first eco-industrial ecosystems.

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Defendants in a murder case of a bank branch head in Jakarta, namely Chief Sgt. Frengky Yaru (second left), Second Cpl. Feri Heriyanto and Chief Sgt. Mochamad Nasir (second right), are escorted out of the courtroom after their verdict hearing at the Jakarta Military Court in Jakarta on June 3, 2026. The judges sentenced Nasir to 13 years in prison, Feri to seven years and Frengky to a year after finding them guilty in the murder case.

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Impunity for military ends, may justice for all begin

By dismantling the shield of military courts for ordinary crimes, the Constitutional Court's landmark ruling reclaims civilian supremacy and demands an end to institutional impunity in Indonesia.

5 days ago

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (left) greets Chinese President Xi Jinping as the latter arrives in Kuala Lumpur on April 15, 2025, for a three-day visit to the Southeast Asian country.

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Understanding, adapting to the new world disorder

As the post-war order fractures into a volatile new world disorder, Malaysia must abandon diplomatic complacency and master the art of strategic autonomy—or risk becoming collateral damage in the next great-power shock.

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A street is choked by haze from forest fires on Oct. 15 in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan. Toxic haze has covered parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore for weeks as Jakarta struggles to contain fires that have scorched large tracts of Borneo and Sumatra, with smoke drifting across the region.

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Who are really behind Indonesia’s forest fires?

Holding those behind Indonesia’s forest fires truly accountable means looking past the individuals striking the matches and following the corporate paper trail straight to the parent companies profiting from the burn.

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President Prabowo Subianto (left), who also chairs the Gerindra Party, and former president Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo pose on stage during the party's 17th anniversary in Bogor, West Java, on Feb. 15, 2025.

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Prabowo braces for a 2029 showdown with Jokowi

If the latest cabinet reshuffle says anything about their relationship, it is safe to say it is going downhill and that they are in for another political showdown.

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Tanker vessels unload imported crude oil on July 16, 2026, at Qingdao port in Shandong province, East China.

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High shipping costs deepen the oil market crisis

Even as Asian crude imports head toward recovery, soaring logistics costs due to the Middle East war are cutting into refiners' margins, prompting them to seek solutions that would put pressure back on Gulf producers.

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Protest signs are pictured on Dec. 5, 2024, on the outskirts of Sembulang village on Rempang Island, where a glass and solar panel manufacturing site is to be constructed. Set up by a group of villagers resisting eviction for the industrial project, the signs reads: “To those who have accepted relocation: You are strictly prohibited from coming back to Sembulang!!!”.

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The illusion of customary rights protection in Indonesia

Behind the veneer of administrative procedure, Indonesia’s legal system continues to sacrifice ancestral lands to state-backed megaprojects, reducing constitutional rights for Indigenous peoples to little more than a paper tiger.

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Newly appointed Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir (right) reacts as former foreign minister and current Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs, Sugiono, embraces him during a handover ceremony at the Foreign Ministry in Central Jakarta on Oct. 12, 2026.

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Can Minister Arrmanatha make Foreign Ministry great again?

Arrmanatha inherits an institutional legacy, but his real test is whether he can restore the ministry’s authority in shaping Indonesian foreign policy.

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A man uses his mobile phone in front of an electronic board displaying stock prices at the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) building in South Jakarta on Oct. 14, 2026.

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Capital market needs enforcement, not more rules

With MSCI threatening to reclassify Indonesia as a standalone market, Jakarta's credibility will not be saved by issuing more rules, but by proving it has the muscle to enforce them.

6 days ago

An electronic board displays stock prices at the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) building in South Jakarta on Oct. 14, 2026.

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Perception and reality: Prabowo’s two years of presidency

As markets plunge and public trust evaporates, President Prabowo’s grand gamble on state-led capitalism is colliding head-on with harsh fiscal and political realities.

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A handout underwater picture taken in September 2025 by environmental NGO Auriga Nusantara shows bleached corals caused by nickel waste pollution near Manuran Island in Raja Ampat, Southwest Papua. Nickel mining continues to threaten one of the world's most important marine biodiversity and coral hotspots in Indonesia, despite the government revoking several permits, a report warned on Sept. 25, 2025.

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Productivity, competitiveness and quality employment: Keys to prosperity

To achieve Golden Indonesia 2045, the nation must look beyond headline GDP growth and fundamentally transform its economy through higher productivity, competitive industries and quality jobs for all.

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