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A teller counts rupiah bank notes at a money changer in Jakarta on Jan. 20, 2026.

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BI can hold rates, but Indonesia cannot escape expensive money

As high-cost borrowing collides with ambitious state spending, Indonesia must master smarter debt management and innovative finance before fiscal pressure catches up with its national ambitions.

13 hours ago

Glimpses of hope from the UN General Assembly

While users should make informed decisions on when and how to use generative AI, its environmental cost vis-à-vis climate change should be an integral part of the ongoing debate on the rapidly advancing technology's regulation and sovereignty. ...

8 hours ago

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Protecting workers, livelihoods from El Niño’s fallout

Across Asia and the Pacific, El Niño’s effects can quickly reach workplaces, household budgets and local economies, hitting vulnerable workers, particularly those in the informal economy. Protecting their livelihoods will require an integrated approach linking climate preparedness with social protection and sound macroeconomic policies. ...

9 hours ago

The Latest

Police officials carry out an on-site investigation following a blast at state high school SMAN 72 in Jakarta on Nov. 7, 2025. Two explosions in the school campus injured at least 55 people.

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Indonesia’s new terrorism challenge: The terrorist criminal continuum

As violent extremism shifts from structured networks to decentralized online subcultures, Indonesia’s counterterrorism strategy must evolve from dismantling terrorist organizations to intercepting individual pathways to violence before tragedy strikes.

10 hours ago

Farmers wearing hats reading “True agrarian reform“ protest on Sept. 24, 2024, against what they described as the government's failure to implement agrarian reforms as they commemorate the National Farmers' Day in front of the Senayan legislative complex in Central Jakarta.

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A dangerous loophole awaits agrarian reform law

Behind the reformist rhetoric of Indonesia’s new Agrarian Law lies a dangerous corporate loophole: a legal apparatus designed not to return land to the people, but to legitimize its capture by the powerful.

1 day ago

Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) and United States President Donald Trump converse on Sept. 24, 2026, during a state dinner at the White House in Washington, DC.

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China's art of trade

Jakarta can take a critical page out of Beijing's playbook, the outcome of which was proven at last week's Washington summit: Hold vital assets hostage to extract a pragmatic deal.

1 day ago

United States President Donald Trump (center left) and US First Lady Melania Trump (left) greet Chinese President Xi Jinping (center right) and China’s First Lady Peng Liyuan (center right) upon their arrival at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, the US, on Sept. 23, 2026.

Greater China-US exchanges crucial for deepening trust between peoples

People's diplomacy is valuable because it acknowledges competition while setting boundaries, fostering cooperation and providing buffers for tensions.

1 day ago

Resilient pursuit: Activists of the Justice for Victims Solidarity Network partake in the Kamisan (Thursday) rally on Sept. 19, 2024 in front of Merdeka Palace in Central Jakarta, to demand the settlement of past human rights violations, including the mass killings following the abortive coup on Sept. 30, 1965 that was blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

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After Gestapu monuments a Gestok memorial must follow

Indonesia’s monuments remember the generals slain in 1965, but true democratic strength lies in finally carving out stone for the hundreds of thousands murdered in the purge that followed.

1 day ago

Protesters during a “Stop the AI Race“ demonstration on Sept. 17, 2026, calling for a slowdown in the development of advanced artificial intelligence outside City Hall in San Francisco, California, the United States.

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How to stop the AI-pocalypse

Anxiety has recently taken an existential turn, as the industry’s leaders have begun warning that AI could very well end humanity.

1 day ago

A teller places a bundle of Rp 100,000 banknotes in a money counting machine on June 4, 2026, at a currency exchange office in Jakarta.

Where will Fed tightening hit hardest in Asia?

Asian economies are likely to see deepening diversion between countries with low inflation and those with spiraling inflation alongside heavy deficits amid headwinds from US monetary tightening.

1 day ago

Padaidori fishermen show their catches on a beach in the Padaido Islands, Biak Numfor regency, Papua, in this file photo published on Aug. 7, 2026.

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The vanishing of Indonesia from the heart of Papua

Beneath the machinery of state security and industrial extraction, Papua’s deepest resistance lives in what cannot be cleared: Its people’s ancestral bond to the land.

1 day ago

Police officers stand guard during a rally organized by university students on Aug. 19, 2025, in front of the building of East Java Regional Council (DPRD) in Surabaya, East Java. The Surabaya Police deployed nearly 700 personnel to safeguard the rally, during which protestors called for the government to scrap its controversial national history book project and push for protection of freedom of expression.

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If history belongs to the victors, civilization has no place

A nation cannot build a democratic future on sanitized myths: until Indonesia confronts the violent truths of its past, its history remains an instrument of power rather than a measure of civilization.

2 days ago

Communist resurgence?: Police officers display a symbol of the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) alongside Molotov cocktails seized from a group of protestors following their rally in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, on Sept. 2, 2025.

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Time to stop scaring the nation with the communist boogeyman

More than six decades after the bloodshed of 1965-1966, President Prabowo has a historic window to finally bury the red phantom and lead the nation into a future free from manufactured fear.

2 days ago

Talking point: IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva speaks during a press conference during the IMF/World Bank annual meetings at the IMF headquarters in Washington, DC, on Oct. 16, 2025.

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Navigating systemic global multidimensional crises

As concurrent crises collide ahead of Bangkok’s IMF-World Bank meetings, small and emerging economies are left footing the bill for a fractured global order they did not create.

2 days ago

President Prabowo Subianto inspects the implementation of the free nutritious meals program on June 2, 2026, at State Junior High School (SMPN) 111 Jakarta.

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In search of excellent and honorable minds in Indonesian politics

As President Prabowo marks two years in office, the true test of his administration is not the tally of his policies but whether it is forging the intellectual and moral backbone required to govern a great republic like Indonesia.

2 days ago

Heavy equipment is parked at a silica sand mine on Sebangka Island, Riau Islands province, in this file photo published on April 21, 2024.

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Semiconductor diplomacy: How Indonesia can play its hand

By trading raw mineral wealth for technology transfers and seizing the neutral ground in the chip war, Indonesia can turn a high-stakes geopolitical scramble into its greatest industrial leap.

2 days ago

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The Millennium Prize proof shows why AI governance can't wait

When AI outthinks the world’s elite mathematicians in under four days, it shatters the myth that human expertise is untouchable, at the same time warning policymakers that regulating machines can no longer wait until tomorrow.

3 days ago

Chinese Foreign Minster Wang Yi poses for a group photo with ASEAN foreign ministers on July 22 during the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference with China on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Pasay, Metro Manila.

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Why ASEAN and China should join hands on global governance

China and ASEAN are well-poised to turn the call of the Global Governance Initiative into concrete results that benefit the region and beyond.

3 days ago

Delegates walk out as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 81st United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, on Sept. 24, 2026.

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The un-ordered UN order

With the UN about to choose a new secretary-general and United States President Donald Trump’s administration openly hostile to multilateralism, it is unclear how much longer the system can stagger on.

3 days ago

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son (left) and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attend a discussion in Tokyo on Feb. 3, 2025, when Son announced a joint venture with the United States tech company to offer advanced artificial intelligence to businesses.

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Lessons Indonesia can learn from the recent OpenAI agent breaches

When an AI agent mistakes a government firewall for an ordinary puzzle, it is a warning shot Indonesia cannot afford to ignore as it writes its cybersecurity laws.

3 days ago

A man (top, left) climbs a flagpole as he attempts to raise a Free Aceh Movement flag alongside the Indonesian national flag during a rally outside the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh, Aceh, on Aug 15, 2026.

Twenty-one years on, Aceh’s peace faces new strains

A decades-long insurgency in the Indonesian province ended after 2004’s devastating tsunami. But pro-independence talk is on the rise again.

3 days ago

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In the age of AI, purpose is becoming a business strategy

AI, social media and universal connectivity are making corporate behavior radically more transparent.

3 days ago

Protesters hold posters and banners that read '481,000 hectares is not just number, but our lives!' (left) and 'Customary land is not empty land' (right) during a rally in front of the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry in Jakarta on Oct. 7, 2025, to protest deforestation that threatens indigenous land in South Papua.

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The agrarian reform law and investment prospects of palm oil

Rushed through the House, Indonesia’s new agrarian reform law will either secure the future of the nation’s multi-billion-dollar palm oil sector or paralyze it with unprecedented legal uncertainty.

3 days ago

President Prabowo Subianto (left) raises his hand, next to Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, as he shouts 'merdeka’ (freedom), during his annual state of the nation address before members of the legislature, ahead of the country's 81st Independence Day, in Jakarta, on Aug. 14, 2026.

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Land reform is here. Now let Prabowo prove he meant what he said

The will clearly exists. The only question that matters now is whether that will reach into the president's own back pocket.

4 days ago

Motorcyclists ride on a haze-shrouded road caused by forest and land fires in Palangkaraya city, Central Kalimantan, on Aug. 28, 2026.

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Mandatory budget refocusing amid nationwide disasters

When populist national programs hollow out regional budgets, local governments are left fiscally paralyzed just as nationwide disasters strike—turning centralized ambition into a fatal governance failure.

4 days ago

Protesters during a “Stop the AI Race“ demonstration call for a slowdown in the development of advanced artificial intelligence systems outside City Hall in San Francisco, California, the United States, on Sept. 17, 2026. The world's biggest AI companies are working on creating a standards body, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said on Sept. 15, as fears rise about the dangers of AI and pressure is on to create a safer version of the technology.

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Artificial intelligence needs trusted journalism

As people increasingly rely on AI chatbots for news, siphoning traffic and profits from outlets often operating on a shoestring budget, good journalism is at risk of disappearing.

4 days ago

A man fishes at Pasauran beach, Anyer in Serang, Bantedn, on April 24, 2022 while Mount Anak Krakatau spews thick smoke into the air.

Anak Krakatau’s eruption begins a new soil story

Satellite imagery reveals a dramatic shift on Sertung Island following Anak Krakatau’s eruption. As lush greenery turns to ash, a new natural laboratory emerges for studying the birth of soil.

4 days ago

In Indonesia, waqf revival has been very significant in the past decades after the consolidation of regulation and bureaucratic procedures in the waqf sector in the form of Law No. 41 of 2004 on Waqf and the establishment of the Indonesian Waqf Board (BWI) in 2007.

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From oil wealth to waqf: Building intergenerational social capital

By borrowing the institutional discipline of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, Aceh and Indonesia can transform ancient traditions of waqf into an engine of permanent, intergenerational prosperity.

4 days ago

A handout photo taken on May 6 and released by the Batam Immigration Office shows computers seized during a raid by immigration authorities and police that detained 210 foreign nationals over an alleged online investment scam operation at an apartment complex in Batam, Riau Islands.

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Indonesia can't afford to sit out the first cybercrime treaty

With billions of cyberattacks and millions in losses, Indonesia helped write the world’s first UN Cybercrime Treaty - now it must ratify it before borderless syndicates outrun the law.

4 days ago

Haze from forest fires shrouds the Ampera Bridge in Palembang, South Sumatra on Sept. 6, 2026.

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When the fires are out, the health bill comes due

The rains may put out Indonesia’s forest fires, but the real disaster begins once the smoke clears, leaving thousands of rural children to bear a hidden, long-term health crisis alone.

6 days ago

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