Chinese President Xi Jinping greets visiting President Prabowo Subianto (right) at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing on Nov. 9, 2024.

A leader abroad, a nation in turmoil, democracy at risk

A government that relies too heavily on security forces and foreign symbolism without addressing domestic grievances may find its legitimacy steadily eroding.

1 month ago

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Pink is the new color of resistance

A woman who confronted a group of riot police last week has inadvertently elevated pink to the color of resistance, reminding us of the significant influence Indonesian women wield when they step outside their prescribed identity of mother-wife to embrace the role of activist ibu. ...

1 month ago

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What’s behind the rioting? And will the much-loathed political elite back down?

The recent protests have evoked memories of the 1998 Jakarta riots, but it remains to be seen how underlying interests related to the police-military rivalry and the oligarchic elite will play out against the demonstrators' anger over genuine socioeconomic and political concerns. ...

1 month ago

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A US$100 bill lies on top of euro bills in Bogota on July 12.

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Europe needs a euro stablecoin

As envisioned, the digital euro will be useless for corporate transactions, and it will probably not play a significant role in liquidity management or wholesale payments.

1 month ago

A military transport aircraft drops humanitarian aid over the northern Gaza Strip, on July 27, 2025. Jordanian and Emirati planes dropped food into Gaza on July 27, as Israel began a limited “tactical pause“ in military operations to allow the United Nations and aid agencies to tackle a deepening hunger crisis.

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Manufactured famines in Gaza: Why haven’t they been halted?

There have been effectively three waves of famine in Gaza since spring 2024. First weaponized 18 years ago in the Strip, these hunger games could have been preempted several times. Why weren’t they?

1 month ago

University students shout slogans during a protest against lawmakers' pay and housing allowances, outside the House of Representatives building in Jakarta on Sept. 1, 2025.

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Indonesian students abroad, riots at home, and the real meaning of merit

Wasteful perks for officials, riot police suppressing citizens, and education budget cuts are not only failures of policy, they are failures of privilege, of leadership and of moral clarity.

1 month ago

University students protest as they demand police reform in front of the main entrance gate of the House of Representatives complex in Jakarta on Sept. 1, 2025.

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Redefining government ‘harmony’: Not at the expense of people's lives

Influencers, students, and community voices collectively shape public opinion and, beyond that, provide effective and innovative policy literacy tools more effectively than the government or any lawmakers.

1 month ago

People take part in a demonstration call on Nov. 28, 2024, in front of the Central Java Police headquarters in Semarang, demanding a complete and transparent investigation into the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old senior high school student on Nov. 24 in the provincial capital.

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Why the police have become a public enemy

The latest incident of police brutality, which led to the death of an ojol driver last week, shows that comprehensive reform of the National Police can no longer be postponed amid the persistence of brutality and their increasing authority as an apparatus that shields privilege and power.

1 month ago

United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference after a Federal Open Market Committee meeting on July 31, 2024, at the Federal Reserve in Washington, DC.

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Puncturing the myth of central bank independence

Central bankers are the high priests of high finance. That is because they control high-powered money, commonly known as the monetary base, or the sum of currency in circulation plus commercial bank deposits with them.

1 month ago

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Tianjin, China, on Aug. 31, 2025.

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Tianjin talks: Turning conflict into cautious cooperation

The Tianjin summit suggests that Modi and Xi did not seek reconciliation, but stabilization, learning from the US-Soviet detente during the Cold War.

1 month ago

A demonstrator shouts slogans during a protest demanding police reform and the dissolution of the West Java Regional Council, in Bandung, on Sept. 1, 2025.

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The cost of erosion of public trust in government

Indonesians have long tolerated hardship with patience. But there is a limit when public trust erodes.

1 month ago

Head-to-head: Students brave security cordons during a rally near the House of Representatives in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Aug. 28, 2025.

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Social media must be utilized as a tool of democracy

Governments must understand that TikTok, Instagram reels, memes and livestreams are not distractions, they are the pulse of modern civic life.

1 month ago

President Prabowo Subianto reacts as he speaks about a recent wave of nationwide protests during a press conference alongside political party leaders at the State Palace in Jakarta on Aug. 31, 2025.

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Change of narratives and the state’s return

Prabowo’s government and its loyalists seek to redefine the protests not as genuine expressions of public frustration, but as politically orchestrated chaos.

1 month ago

Protesters gather near the burning Makassar City Council building in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Aug. 30, 2025 during a protest after a motorcycle taxi driver died after being struck and run over by a police tactical vehicle during another protest against lavish allowances for House of Representatives lawmakers.

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After mass protests will our democracy survive?

If mass protests intensify beyond control, the President can declare a state of emergency, if not martial law.

1 month ago

United States President Donald Trump attends a cabinet meeting on Aug. 26, 2025, in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC.

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American capitalism is being remade by state power

Washington's recent move to take a 10 percent share in chipmaker Intel signals the Trump administration could be experimenting with recalibrating US capitalism, possibly by incorporating elements of state-directed capitalism.

1 month ago

A clerk counts rupiah banknotes on May 2, 2024, at a money changer in Jakarta.

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Financial inclusion or digital illusion: Rethinking Indonesia's online lending

Amid a collective movement of debtors reusing to repay illegal online lenders is emerging a new model called ecosystem lending that blends digital flexibility with banking discipline, offering a way to get back on track toward realizing the aspirational goal of financial inclusion.

1 month ago

A man uses his phone on March 6 while waiting for customers at a clothing shop in Tanah Abang Market in Central Jakarta.

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Markets work only if the state works

Markets can only function fairly and effectively if strong institutions, impartial regulation and a capable state underpin them

1 month ago

A group of repatriated Indonesians, including 71 migrant workers, wait in line for the next leg of their journey on Aug. 9, 2025, after arriving at Batam Center International Ferry Port in the Riau Islands from Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

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Tariff wars reshape migration, raise risk of abuses

A phenomenon known as "replacement migration" that moves upward across the economic hierarchy is growing in transnational migrant recruitment against the backdrop of Trump's tariff war, leading to the rise of global human supply chains and creating more complex labor issues in terms of hiring practices as well as workers' welfare.

1 month ago

Protesters tear down the gate of the North Sumatra Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) building during a demonstration on Aug. 26 in Medan, North Sumatra. The rally called for the removal of excessive salaries for members of the House of Representatives.

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Boiling point of rage: Mr. President, act now!

Every mass upheaval is the result of an accumulation of long-held dissatisfaction.

1 month ago

A crowd of protesters surround the burnt frame of a car outside the Central Jakarta headquarters of the Jakarta Metropolitan Police’s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) on Aug. 29, 2025, the day after a Brimob tactical vehicle ran over and killed on-demand motorcycle driver Affan Kurniawan, 21, as he was trying to flee the area of a labor protest that had turned violent.

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From tragedy to reform: Rethinking democracy and public ethics in Indonesia

The tragic death of gig driver Affan Kurniawan on Aug. 28 is more than a procedural failure, but a wake-up call that should be wielded as a lightning rod for reforms that embrace moral integrity in the pursuit of ethical leadership, citizen engagement and public dialogue toward a just democracy.

1 month ago

A health worker administers an oral vaccine to a student on Jan. 16, 2024, during a municipal polio immunization campaign at elementary schools in Malang, East Java.

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The high cost of cutting vaccine funding

Rather than cutting vaccine funding, governments should be looking at increasing funds to provide vaccines to the world's most vulnerable children, saving half a million lives and delivering millions in additional social benefits each year.

1 month ago

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Danantara devoid of good governance and transparency

Instead of standing as an economic fortress for the nation, Danantara increasingly resembles a sovereign weak fund: fragile, unfocused and potentially a fiscal burden in the years ahead.

1 month ago

A aerial view of the nickel smelter of PT Vale Indonesia on Aug. 2, 2024, in Sorowako, South Sulawesi.

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Global securitization of rare earths: A descent into geopolitical turmoil

The global race for critical minerals like rare earth elements has descended into a geopolitical struggle, where these once-obscure resources now loom as existential threats to national survival.

1 month ago

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Is the House still relevant, or should it be abolished?

Without the legislative body, the executive branch would lack a crucial check on its power, which would jeopardize the democratic framework.

1 month ago

The causeway linking Malaysia's southern state of Johor (top) and Singapore (botom) is seen from Singapore on April 1, 2020.

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Building ASEAN’s future through shared SEZs

The Johor–Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ), launched in 2024, offers a preview of what deeper cooperation could look like.

1 month ago

Faith in green energy: A technician walks on March 26, 2024 between solar panels that partially provide electrical power to Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta.

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How Islamic finance can drive energy transition

Green and sustainable sukuk can drive significant capital into large-scale carbon reduction projects and other crucial sustainability efforts.

1 month ago

The Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (back), is seen from Ukedo fishing port in Namie, Fukushima prefecture on Aug. 24, 2023. Japan began releasing wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 24 despite angry opposition from China and local fishermen.

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Nuclear power: Secure it with proven technology

Until thorium shows it can produce reliable electricity at scale, Indonesia’s sovereignty requires us to treat it as research, not as our energy backbone.

1 month ago

Residents pass by the headquarters of state asset fund Danantara on July 1 in South Jakarta.

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Government taps into the patriotism of business groups

Patriot bonds are not conventional securities. They are designed less to maximize investor return than to rally support for the national agenda

1 month ago

A man tries on artificial intelligence glasses on July 29 during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) at the Shanghai World Expo and Convention Center in Shanghai, China.

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The tradeoffs of AI regulation

American firms could cause global harm before European regulators catch up

1 month ago

Pigeons fly during the flag-hoisting ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Independence Day on Aug. 17 at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta.

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Why the Dutch have to recognize Indonesian independence from Aug. 17, 1945

The Dutch army had not just incidentally, but structurally applied extreme violence against Indonesians during the Indonesian war of independence between 1945 and 1950.

1 month ago

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