Murky schooling: A schoolgirl waits to be picked up on Sept. 16, 2026 next to a sign on drop-off/pickup rules at a school in Padang, after classes were let out early as West Sumatra’s provincial capital reinstated remote learning in response to a spike in the air pollutant standards index (ISPU) to 900 due to dense haze.

If haze can be predicted, learning loss can be prevented

Indonesia cannot stop climate disasters from arriving, but its schools must stop waiting for the smoke to clear before they start preparing.

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Education should engender critical thinkers

Vocational schools may train obedient workers, but without critical thinking, they risk producing a generation of citizens who can only follow orders. ...

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The fading away of Indonesian in Australia

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center right) accompanied by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (right), waves to students during a welcoming ceremony upon their meeting at the State Palace in Central Jakarta on July 7, 2026.

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India-Indonesia: Multipolarity and Global South

India maintains that a global multipolar order must start with a multipolar Asia, rejecting both a US-dominated unipolar structure and a China-centric "Asia for Asians" model.

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Net zero timing matters for the future of El Niño

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A wind power plant (PLTB), financed by PT SMI, is pictured in Sidrap, South Sulawesi. (Courtesy of PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur)

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Why the Asia-Pacific needs stronger development finance institutions

Indonesia’s journey, and PT SMI’s contribution to it, is but one part of a broader regional narrative. What I carried home from Colombo was a profound sense of optimism that our development finance institutions are becoming more than financiers of growth; we are becoming a community of practice, united by a shared purpose and enriched by the exchange of ideas and experience.

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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 Jakarta on Oct. 12, 2026.

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Foreign Ministry back in the driver's seat, but not alone

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How worried should we be about the global economy?

The global economy is entrenched in a cycle of sluggish economic growth, with rates in many countries, particularly the major developed economies, stalling well below 3 percent.

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Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka looks toward the central dais on May 20, 2026, prior to President Prabowo Subianto's speech on the macroeconomic framework to lawmakers at the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta.

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The House’s right to act and the political agenda of 2029

The controversy over Gibran’s credentials is no longer just about a diploma: It is a defining test of whether the national legislature still checks executive power or merely bows to it.

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Farm workers spray green paddy on Oct. 2, 2026, at a rice field in Sukakarya district, Bekasi, West Java.

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From farm innovation to food security for all

The main challenge to food security for all is not innovation but adoption, which involves localizing proven solutions and ensuring that they are affordable to use, maintain and grow.

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A woman walks past the Wisma Danantara Indonesia building on Aug. 11, 2026, on Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto in South Jakarta.

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When investor protection risks becoming financial immunity

Indonesia’s push to lure capital through Danantara’s special bonds risks turning investor protection into a legal shield for financial crime and tax evasion.

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Protesters hold posters, one of which reading “Oligarchic families should be eradicated", on Aug. 23, 2024, during a rally in front of the General Election Commission (KPU) building in Jakarta.

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Indonesia badly needs inclusive institutions, not rhetoric

Indonesia’s path to lasting prosperity depends not on the myth of a strongman savior, but on dismantling elite capture to build institutions that are truly fair, accountable and built to outlast power.

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(left to right) Finland’s Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Riikka Purra, World Bank president Ajay Banga, Thailand’s Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas, International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva and BBC economics editor Faisal Islam sit during the "Building Resilience in a Fragmented World" panel at the Annual IMF and World Bank Meetings at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok on Oct. 13, 2026.

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Public investment is fiscally responsible

Governments’ fiscal policies should be judged by whether they strengthen the economy’s capacity to meet public obligations over time.

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Gowa Regent Sitti Husniah Talenrang (center) walks to an interrogation room in the Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) on Oct. 1, 2026, after arriving at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta for questioning as a suspect in four cases involving corruption, extortion and money laundering.

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Women in power, corruption and the limits of affirmative action

Affirmative action can open the corridors of power to women, but it was never meant to be an immunity card against the corrupting machinery of Indonesian politics.

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Middle East LNG industry remains hostage of Iran war

Until a durable resolution of the United States-Israeli war with Iran is reached, Gulf shipments will be heavily curtailed, leaving the global LNG market seriously strained.

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Two schoolgirls look at an informal riverbank settlement on Aug. 7, 2026, from a bridge in Kebon Melati village, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta.

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The rich world’s climate distraction

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Trump’s Russian diesel deal is a warning to Asia

By breaking ranks to cut a private fuel deal with Moscow, Washington just handed Asia an urgent lesson: Build your own energy reserves, or get priced out of the scramble.

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A motorcyclist rides past a Red and White Cooperative outlet that had yet to begin operations on July 11 in Ternate, North Maluku. The government aims to have 40,000 Red and White Cooperative operating by the end of 2026 as part of efforts to strengthen rural economies, complete cooperative facilities and prepare professional staff to manage the program.

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Bending, not breaking? Indonesia’s resilience paradox

Indonesia’s increasingly centralized economic model promises greater protection against external shocks. Yet concentrating both authority and financial risk in the state may be eroding the many shock absorbers on which the country’s resilience has long depended.

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The data center construction project is underway in the Nongsa Digital Park Special Economic Zone in Batam, Riau Islands, on Aug. 29, 2024.

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The next world order will be built on systems capacity

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A man rides a bicycle past the Marina Barrage fountain in Singapore on Oct. 6, 2026, just three days before the Formula One Grand Prix, when the air quality in four of the island state’s five regions was unhealthy due to transboundary haze from Indonesia.

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Indonesia generates smoke, ASEAN merely suffers

Southeast Asia has mastered moving capital across borders. Now it must stop letting corporate responsibility stall at customs while millions breathe transboundary haze.

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Farmers loosen soil using water flow from an irrigation canal in Batang regency, Central Java, in an aerial photo released on May 19, 2026.

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Can Central Java afford the water cost of AI?

Java’s northern coast faces severe water-catchment degradation, yet an AI center requiring massive amounts of water is planned there.

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A man opens the Jateng Ngopeni Nglakoni application by the Central Java administration in his smartphone to access a free psychological consultation service in Semarang, Central Java, on July 3, 2026. The Central Java administration launched the app as an effort to early detect mental health issues among its residents, including children and students.

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Shifting mental health care to communities

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An aerial view shows a farmer spraying crops on Oct. 2 in a rice field in Sukakarya, Bekasi, West Java.

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A seller serves a customer on July 21 at a pharmacy during the launch ceremony for a cooperative under the government's Red and White Cooperatives program, in Serang regency, Banten, West Java.

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Why pharmaceutical sovereignty must become a national priority

Indonesia covers nearly its entire population under national health insurance, yet relying on imports for 90 percent of its active medicine ingredients leaves the country dangerously exposed to the next global shock.

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International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva (left) speaks as Singapore's President Tharman Shanmugaratnam (center) and World Bank Group President Ajay Banga look on during the IMF-World Bank 2026 Annual Meetings in Bangkok on Oct. 12, 2026.

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Resetting the World Bank-IMF’s relationship with the world

In the decades of their work, various challenges have arisen in relation to negative impact on human rights, and social and environmental issues.

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Rows of young oil palm trees are planted just on the border of Sebangau National Park area in Central Kalimantan on April 28, 2026.

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Outlook of the national palm oil sector in 2027

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President Prabowo Subianto (left) and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announce the 'political agreement' of the Indonesia-EU Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (IEU-CEPA) on July 14, 2025, in Brussels.

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EU–Indonesia CEPA: Turning commitments into trade and investment opportunities

Sweden and Indonesia’s partnership is increasingly focused on the future: supporting Indonesia’s industrial transformation while accelerating digitalization and the green transition in a rapidly changing global economy.

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Residents of Nongsa district in Batam, Riau Islands, block access to Nongsa Digital Park during a protest on Oct. 5, 2026, over months of water shortages in their community, while water supplies to data centres in the park remain uninterrupted.

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The extractivist logic haunts the AI data center rush in Indonesia, Malaysia

Behind the promise of Southeast Asia’s AI revolution lies a destructive reality: an old-school scramble for power, land and minerals that is reviving fossil fuels and pushing fragile ecosystems to the brink.

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China Coast Guard's (CCG) patrol vessel CCG 5401 (left) is shadowed by Indonesian Maritime Security Agency's (Bakamla) patrol boat KN Tanjung Datu and Indonesian Navy's corvette KRI Sutedi Senoputra inside Indonesian exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on North Natuna Sea on Oct. 21, 2024.

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Indonesia-China: Maritime cooperation without compromising national interests

Maritime cooperation with Beijing cannot come at the expense of sovereign rights: for Indonesia, the smart play is engagement backed by unyielding legal firewalls and a fortified presence in the North Natuna Sea.

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