Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (right) and his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail arrive during the 69th National Day celebrations in Malaysia's administrative capital Putrajaya on Aug. 31, 2026.

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Can Malaysia's UMNO pressure Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim into calling for an early election?

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The Land Bank paradox: For profit or justice?

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People walk near DayOne data center at Nongsa Digital Park (NDP) on July 20 in Batam city, Riau Islands. Batam has attracted at least 16 new data centers in various stages, despite limited utility infrastrucutre of clean water and electricity.

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Cyber resilience requires fixing Indonesia’s old tech

But a law that responds to cyber-attacks without addressing the governance conditions that made it so damaging will leave the country just as exposed.

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Banners decorate the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington on April 13, the first day of the 2026 Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group (WBG).

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The program redesign the IMF needs

As the IMF undertakes the first major evaluation of its guidelines for program design since 2019, it should focus on three features of its lending toward reform, given widespread debt distress in developing countries.

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A boy is treated for food poisoning at a Jakarta hospital on April 4, 2026, after consuming food provided via the government’s free nutritious meal program.

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The benefit of the doubt has expired

The government must urgently start turning its authority into results to fulfill the promises made to the people in 1945.

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People protest against South Korea’s potential military involvement in the US operations in the Strait of Hormuz on Sept. 9 in Seoul.

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Korean troops for the US-Israeli war against Iran?

The question now is whether Seoul will send military forces to support the US-Israeli war with Iran. But even limited participation could carry serious risks.

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An online motorcycle transportation driver drops off a passenger on Jan. 14, 2026, in front of a shopping mall in East Jakarta.

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Skepticism around green ride‑hailing: How to gain riders’ trust

Without clear standards, it will be difficult for users to distinguish between serious environmental commitments and superficial green promotion.

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Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin delivers a presentation on April 20 during a meeting with House of Representatives Commission IX at the Senayan parliamentary complex, Jakarta. The meeting discussed the handling of extraordinary outbreaks of measles and other infectious diseases, as well as an evaluation of the national immunization program.

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Electing a new WHO boss: An opportunity for Indonesia and the world

Faced with an existential budget crisis and a fractured world order, the WHO needs an executive turnaround more than another doctor - and Indonesia’s Budi Gunadi Sadikin may be the outsider built for the job.

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Free speech on trial: Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) coordinator Fatia Maulidiyanti (center) leaves the courtroom after a hearing on Nov. 13, 2023 at the East Jakarta District Court. State prosecutors are demanding a three-year prison sentence for Fatia for her alleged defamation of Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.

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A small victory for big freedom: Court shows the way

A government institution has no feelings to hurt, and the Constitutional Court just reminded power that its reputation is protected by performance, not prison.

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Anti-contagion bastion: The bright facade of the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Disease Hospital stands out on May 12, 2026 in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

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When an invisible hazard crosses national borders

Unlike seasonal smoke, the next cross-border hazard won't announce itself in the sky—it will quietly arrive on the workplace floor.

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Health advocates: People hold a rally on Sept. 8, 2026 in Yogyakarta to demand the government end the free nutritious meal (MBG) program following repeated cases of mass food poisoning.

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Civil society needs protection, not stigmatization

Prabowo’s londo ireng remark directed at civil society groups does not reflect the actual policy work civil society is providing, including the promotion of democratic values, good governance and human rights perspectives.

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Silvery glow: President Prabowo Subianto (left) and Democratic Party chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono symbolically light an electric flame on Sept. 9, 2026 to open the party’s 25th anniversary celebration at the Indonesia Arena at the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex in Central Jakarta.

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SBY’s foreign policy legacy and the Democratic Party

SBY tenure marked a phase of both consolidation and a renaissance for Indonesia’s foreign policy.

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An Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) is displayed on Aug. 27, 2025, during the inauguration of a new artillery plant of ammunition maker Rheinmetall, in Unterluess, Germany.

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Europe’s greatest mistake: Military interests trump security

The collision of an aging population, escalating climate damages and massive remilitarization is set to present an unprecedented, compounding threat to the future well-being of Europeans.

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A diver swims on March 7, 2022, amongst the coral on the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of the Australian state of Queensland.

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The Great Barrier Reef refuses to die on schedule

Despite decades of media obituaries and rescheduled catastrophes, the Great Barrier Reef just delivered the best five years of coral cover in its 40-year recorded history.

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A group of women crosses a street in front of Perdana Putra, the office of the prime minister in Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya, shrouded in haze from regional wildfires on Aug. 13, 2026.

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The remedy gap in transboundary haze

Building on the 2002 agreement, ASEAN has since declared the right to a clean and healthy environment and is now working on an action plan that may finally provide access to legal recourse for the region’s citizens harmed by transboundary haze pollution.

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President Prabowo Subianto looks on as he arrives on Aug. 14 at the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta for the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) plenary meeting, in which he delivered the State of the Nation address and the 2027 state budget proposal. (Reuters/Stringer)

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Assessing the merit of the strategic commodities bill

In order to ensure the viability and merit of the bill, it is imperative for all of us to get clarity on ultimate purpose, intended impacts and legal soundness during the legislative process.

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Local members of Operation Madago Raya, a joint public security initiative on deradicalization and counterterrorism run by the National Police and the Indonesian Military, provide a box of basic staples to a former terrorist (second right) on Nov. 3, 2025, during a social assistance handover event in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

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The war on terror and its unintended consequences

We cannot claim our war on terror as a success if it breeds new generations of anger, alienation and hatred.

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A worker sorts copper production at El Teniente mine, the world's largest underground copper mine in Machali, near Rancagua, Chile, on April 2, 2025.

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In a global economic heatwave, beware financial wildfires

Global growth is running hot into the second half of the year, forcing asset managers to find firebreaks while staying invested.

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(left to right) Foreign Minister Sugiono, Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Laos' Foreign Minister Thongsavanh Phomvihane and ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn talk before a group photo during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Pasay, Metro Manila on July 23, 2026.

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From trust to Kizuna: 20 years of Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund

The next chapter of Japan-ASEAN relations will test whether the bond can endure amidst increasingly self-seeking and divisive geopolitical tendencies.

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The Kapuas River delta, formed by the Landak (left) and Kapuas Kecil rivers, looms out of thick haze on Aug. 27, 2026, in Pontianak, the provincial capital of West Kalimantan.

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When forests burn, climate commitments falter

As peatlands burn and flagship carbon projects go up in smoke, our market-driven climate pledges are failing. Only recognizing the legal rights of nature, as constitutionally mandated, can pull us back from the brink.

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Students rest while receiving treatment for food poisoning at the regional general hospital after eating government-sponsored free school meals in Sidoarjo, East Java, on Sept. 2, 2026.

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Children are no longer the priority, were they ever?

When a national school lunch program turns kids into hospital patients, it’s time to ask whether our children are the priority, or just collateral damage for an economic machine.

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Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (right) and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung pose on Jan. 12, 2026, for photographs before performing on drums after their meeting in Nara, Japan.

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The Donald Trump shock in East Asia

The consequences of Trump’s behavior are even more serious for East Asia than they are for Europe.

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People gather in front of the Parliament Complex in Jakarta on Aug. 26, 2026, in preparation for a peaceful protest by the United Pati Community Alliance, or AMPB. The group held a peaceful protest that Thursday over corruption eradication and the passage of the Asset Forfeiture Bill.

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Asset forfeiture bill: The paradox of Prabowo’s anticorruption rhetoric

Prabowo promised to chase corrupt actors to Antarctica, but passing the asset forfeiture bill without democratic safeguards risks handing the state a weapon against its own people.

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A worker checks an aluminum sheet roll on Feb. 11, 2025, at an aluminum processing factory in Huaibei, Anhui, China.

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Capped at home, China extends its aluminum dominance abroad

China's aluminum producers are increasingly turning to developing smelters abroad against a capacity cap of 45 million tonnes at home, extending the country's industry dominance further afield.

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Activists led by Greenpeace Malaysia and Himpunan Advocacy Rakyat Malaysia (HARAM) stage a rally in front of the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Sept. 4, 2026, calling for transparency and corporate accountability over transboundary haze due to wildfires in Indonesia.

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Ending Southeast Asia’s never-ending haze cycle

Southeast Asia’s recurring haze is rooted in fires burning in Indonesia, but its regional impact calls for stronger ASEAN cooperation, accountability and prevention.

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Stranded passengers wait in a terminal at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang on Sept. 7, 2026, after the main airport serving Jakarta halted operations following the eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau in the Sunda Strait.

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When volcanoes reshape geopolitics and ASEAN's balance of power

Superpowers and treaties shape the balance of power in Southeast Asia; until the volcanoes beneath them decide to rewrite the map.

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Mount Anak Krakatau volcano spews hot lava as seen from Pasauran village in Serang, Banten, on Sept. 5, 2026.

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Anak Krakatau doesn't need an earthquake to kill

Tsunami sirens are built to detect earthquakes, but Anak Krakatau can kill without one, and our warning systems are still waiting for a shake that’s never coming.

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The construction of Digital Edge Indonesia data center in Cikarang, West Java, is underway in this undated picture. State power producer PT PLN is set to supply 2x 725 megavolts of electricity to support the operation of the country’s largest data center.

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Who controls the data, controls the future

AI now sits inside finance, defense, health care and public administration, and it runs on two things most governments do not actually control: the data that train it and the compute that processes it.

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A man looks at an electronic display in Seoul on July 28, 2026, showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) after the close of trading.

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Asia's next leverage-driven market crash could be brewing

The recent crash of tech-heavy KOSPI rings an alarm bell for retail investors in navigating Asian equities as regulators move to rein in single-stock ETFs across the region.

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