President Prabowo Subianto (center) speaks to Coordinating Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (left), State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Regulatory Agency head Dony Oskaria (second left) and state asset fund Danantara CEO Rosan Roeslani (second right) and Aceh Governor Muzakir Manaf during an inspection on Jan. 1 to a temporary housing site for residents affected by floods and landslides in Aceh Tamiang regency, Aceh.

Paradox of protection: Why strong leaders need 'red folders'

By building a wall to keep the leader happy, they effectively block him from seeing reality.

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The case for universalism in a fragmenting world

In country after country, political leaders increasingly dehumanize migrants and refugees, casting people fleeing poverty, persecution and conflict as a mortal threat. ...

1 week ago

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When the benefit of the doubt runs out

As we look ahead to the legislative and judicial changes in 2026 with one eye toward the 2029 polls, perhaps it is time for the people to rethink what the current administration has accomplished with the sovereignty, political legitimacy and leeway we have granted it. ...

1 week ago

The Latest

A participant takes the 2025 Computer-Based Written Exam for the National Selection Based on Test (UTBK-SNBT) on April 30, 2025, at Diponegoro University (UNDIP), Tembalang, Semarang, Central Java.

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Reenergizing higher education in ASEAN

A longstanding debate on higher education is to what extent it should be academic rather than vocational.

1 week ago

Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects troops during the annual Victory Day parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Sept. 3, 2025, which marked the 80th anniversary of China’s war of resistance against Japan and the end of World War II.

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China’s rise: Power, technology and the strategic logic of display

China's power displays in September and November last year were essentially a signal of its arrival on the global stage, a show intended to make the world sit up and recognize it as a major power.

1 week ago

Cambodia’s Defense Minister Tea Seiha (left) and his counterpart Thailand Defense Minister Nattaphon Narkphanit shake hands and exchange documents during a meeting in Chanthaburi province, Thailand, in this handout photo released by Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP) on Dec 27, 2025. Cambodia and Thailand agreed to an “immediate” ceasefire on Saturday, the two countries said in a joint statement, pledging to end weeks of deadly border clashes.

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Why the Thai–Cambodian border remains volatile

Temporary peace between Thailand and Cambodia requires something Southeast Asian politics too often lacks: restraint.

1 week ago

Paycheck pursuers: Visitors look for job vacancy information on Nov. 28, 2025, at a job fair at the University of Palangka Raya in Central Kalimantan.

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Indonesia’s youth and educated unemployment: A ticking time bomb

In Indonesia, education policy continues to expand labor supply rapidly, but industrial policy, investment incentives and labor market institutions have not evolved in tandem.

1 week ago

Reconciliation mood: Nahdlatul Ulama chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf (center) speaks to reporters on Dec. 28 after a closed-door meeting with senior figures of the organization at the Miftachus-sunnah Islamic boarding school in Surabaya.

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Intellectual leadership matters for NU in its second century

The intellectual capacity of NU leadership is essential if the group is to formulate substantive responses to extremism, social inequality and the ethical challenges of technological change.

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Indonesia has yet to join the club of nations from Brazil to China and India that have issued stringent regulations on personal data protection, modeled on the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which protects citizens from privacy and data breaches regardless of where the data is processed and which recognizes citizens’ “right to be forgotten”, so users can ask for data erasure and delisting from digital platforms and search engines.

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Society relies on corporations and Gen-Z to build a privacy culture

Indifference to privacy violations is not apathy; it is habituation - the natural outcome of a society trained to comply rather than to question.

1 week ago

United States President Donald Trump (left) shares a close moment with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Oct. 30, after their talks at Gimhae Air Base in Busan, South Korea. The leaders met face-to-face for the first time in six years to seek a truce in a trade war that has unsettled the global economy.

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President Xi can define a new era of greatness through restraint

China should demonstrate strength through endurance and patience, playing the long game, otherwise, aggressive dynamics can backfire.

1 week ago

Digital workers: Ride hailing app drivers crowd along a roadside on March 20, 2024 as they wait for orders from customers on Jl. Margonda Raya in Depok, West Java.

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Who will benefit from a Grab-GoTo merger?

A merger between Grab and GoTo would result in significant market concentration, creating a new entity with up to 99 percent market share in Indonesia's ride-hailing and food delivery sectors

2 weeks ago

A worker inspects sacks of rice on Dec. 29, 2025, at the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) warehouse in Lambaro, Aceh.

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Beware, data credibility remains Indonesia’s weakest link

It has been proven throughout history that statistics is essential to statecraft and in the Indonesian context of today's digital era, greater openness is key to building credibility and trust.

2 weeks ago

A woman waits for clean water on Dec. 28 in Lubuk Sidup village, Aceh Tamiang, Aceh. 32 days after flash floods caused by the overflow of the Tamiang River, access to clean water and sanitation remains an urgent problem for residents and evacuees in Aceh Tamiang regency, despite ongoing efforts by the government and nonprofits to respond to needs.

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The Sumatra disaster and Indonesia’s diplomatic dilemma

Why does Indonesia appear so keen to protect its pride by refusing bilateral assistance?

2 weeks ago

President Prabowo Subianto (left) watches as Attorney General ST Burhanuddin (second left) symbolically hands over funds on Dec. 24, 2025, collected from forestry administrative fines and recovered state assets from corruption cases to Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa (second right) and Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni (right) at the Attorney General’s Office complex in Jakarta.

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The politics of cash display in nation running out of forests

This is how Indonesia is governed now: by spectacle so crude it dares the public to object, by narratives so inflated they collapse under their own weight, by numbers waved around like talismans against doubt.

2 weeks ago

A fisherman parks his fishing boat on Nov. 11 in Kupal village, on Bacan Island, South Halmahera regency, North Maluku. Fishermen in the area have a tradition of hanging their boats using a pulley after going out to sea to make them easier to use again and to protect them from waves that can damage the hull.

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A decisive year for ocean conservation

Over the next five years, we have an opportunity to pull back from the brink and ensure that the ocean continues to stabilize the climate, feed billions of people and support the livelihoods of coastal communities.

2 weeks ago

A visitor walks past ‘batu simbuang’ (menhir) on Dec. 15, 2025, among the 102 menhirs that stand at Kalimbuang Bori’, a megalithic tourist site in Sesean district, North Toraja regency, South Sulawesi.

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What Southeast Asia's hospitality industry taught us about resilience

The region's hotels are poised to enter 2026 with an ongoing momentum based on experiential resilience, and Indonesia is foundationally geared toward innovating to accommodate a new crop of discerning domestic travelers.

2 weeks ago

Collective fraud: Five suspects (from left) Central Lampung Revenue Agency acting head Anton Wibowo, Central Lampung Legislative Council member Riki Hendra Saputra, Central Lampung Regent Ardito Wijaya, PT Elkaka Mandiri director Lukman Sjamsuri and the regent’s brother Ranu Hari Prasetyo are seen on Dec. 11, during a press conference at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) building in Jakarta. The KPK has detained the five suspects in connection with a bribery case related to the procurement of goods and services in several projects across Central Lampung regency, Lampung.

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Regional autonomy does not have to redistribute corruption

As Vedi Hadiz has noted, decentralization has produced local oligarchies, new centers of power growing from old patronage networks.

2 weeks ago

Junta gamble: People look for their name on the registry at a polling station on Dec. 28, during the first phase of Myanmar’s general election in Yangon. Polling opened in Myanmar’s heavily restricted junta-run elections, beginning a month-long vote democracy watchdogs describe as a rebranding of military rule.

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ASEAN must not legitimize a sham election in Myanmar

More than 200 people have been charged for disrupting or opposing the polls in Myanmar under a new law that carries severe penalties, including the death sentence.

2 weeks ago

A health worker (right) administers a dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to a colleague at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi on March 5, 2021, under the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to combat the pandemic.

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A model to keep multilateralism alive

As countries shift away from multilateral cooperation as the world grows more multipolar, organizations that are mission-driven, involve multiple stakeholders and founded on a spirit of partnership will become ever more necessary to face contemporary challenges.

2 weeks ago

Local residents and families of people who went missing in the recent flash floods and landslides scatter flowers during a symbolic burial service on Dec. 23, 2025, in Hutanabolon, a subdistrict of Tukka district in Central Tapanuli regency, North Sumatra.

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The imperative for a comprehensive disaster risk reduction

Disaster risk reduction should be embedded in policymaking, especially industrial and spatial planning, to prevent economic activities from damaging the environment and thereby exacerbating the impacts of future calamities.

2 weeks ago

Students pray on Oct. 30, 2025, before eating food provided via the government's free nutritious meal program at an elementary school in Banda Aceh, Aceh.

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Strengthening the free meals program through women and communities

Nearly a year on since the launch of the free meals program, several studies point to an opportunity for policy learning: scaling the program toward its envisioned targets by placing women at its heart.

2 weeks ago

(Image courtesy of the Culture Ministry)

Academia

Indonesian history: A foundation of national identity

To coincide with National History Day on Dec. 14, the Culture Ministry held the soft launch of Sejarah Indonesia: Dinamika Kebangsaan dalam Arus Global (Indonesian history: National dynamics in global currents).

2 weeks ago

A man uses a bucket to wash off mud on Dec. 13, in Aceh Tamiang, Aceh, surrounded by the devastation wrought by flash flooding and landslides that swept through three provinces in northern Sumatra.

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Why perspective matters in humanitarian crises

The way we understand humanitarian crises determines whether we truly attempt to resolve them, or merely manage them so they remain tolerable.

2 weeks ago

United States President Donald Trump (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping reach out to shake hands during a bilateral meeting at Gimhae Air Base in Busan on Oct. 30, on the sidelines of the 2005 APEC Summit in South Korea.

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Rogue hegemons are sabotaging the global economy

The US under the Trump administration has emerged as a global hegemon alongside China, albeit with different drivers, afflicting the rest of the world with limited opportunities, especially developing countries.

2 weeks ago

An opened durian is pictured on Jan. 30, 2019, at a stall in Medan, North Sumatra.

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Soft power, hard rind: China and durian

China’s growing appetite for durian is giving this famously divisive fruit political power.

2 weeks ago

A woman steps onto a concrete slab on Dec. 9, 2025, past the flooded yard of a house damaged by flooding in Bundar village, Karang Baru, the capital of Aceh Tamiang regency in Aceh.

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A look at Asia’s 2025 winners and losers

From cybercrime and disasters to an elfin plush toy trend, here are some of the worst and best to happen in the Indo-Pacific throughout the year.

2 weeks ago

Pope Francis gestures in greeting on the main balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica on Dec. 25, 2024, following his Urbi et Orbi message as part of the Christmas Day celebrations in the Vatican.

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Christmas 2025 message: Saving the nation, starting from the dinner table

The Christmas 2025 theme as declared by the PGI and the KWI urges reflection on the state of Indonesian families and how "saving" them is inherently linked to the republic's future.

3 weeks ago

Visitors look at Christmas decorations for sale on Dec. 18 at a shop in Manokwari, West Papua. Sales of Christmas ornaments, priced from about 15,000 rupiah to 12 million rupiah, have begun to pick up a week ahead of Christmas.

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Celebrating Christmas amid ecological disaster

In celebrating Christmas, Christians are invited to demonstrate concern for the Earth rather than adding to its burdens through environmentally unfriendly celebrations.

3 weeks ago

Green energy: A technician checks methane gas produced by a biomass reactor on March 4, 2022, in Gondosari village, Kudus regency, Central Java. The bioreactor installation converts agriculture and animal husbandry waste into energy, fertilizer and pesticide.

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Turning Indonesia’s mounting waste into watts

Through the waste to energy initiative, Danantara will provide the investment, while the state utility company, PLN, will handle the electricity generated.

3 weeks ago

A healthcare worker prepares a device to help a patient with an early cervical cancer screening on July 17, 2017,.at a community health center (Puskesmas) in Palembang, South Sumatra

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Are our labs equipped to achieve cervical cancer screening targets?

Out of the 386 regencies and mayoralties targeted by the Health Ministry, fewer than half are estimated to have public health laboratories currently capable of processing PCR-based HPV DNA tests to detect cervical cancer.

3 weeks ago

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