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.

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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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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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.

1 week ago

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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QatarEnergy's liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility continues production amid the United States-Israeli conflict with Iran, at the Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar, on March 2, 2026.

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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

Development must focus on the best ways to help the poor, who are more vulnerable to everything, not just climate change.

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An oil tanker sails Nakhodka Bay on Dec. 4, 2022, near the Russian port city of Nakhodka.

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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

Autonomy will increasingly depend on whether societies can keep essential systems functioning, respond to disruption and create new capabilities when existing ones become obsolete.

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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

Millions remain locked away in psychiatric institutions under the guise of care—it is time to replace outdated confinement with dignity, community support, and fundamental human rights.

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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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Why producing more food is no longer enough

Record harvests mean little if plates stay empty: Indonesia must stop measuring food security by the tonne and start measuring it by nutrition, access and ecological sense.

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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

The government should put an end to the various rules that stifle investment and instead focus on building a healthy, competitive business climate that ensures legal certainty.

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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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A police officer patrols the grounds of the Constitutional Court on Feb. 4, 2025, in Central Jakarta.

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Impeachment and democratic consolidation

Can impeachment strengthen a democracy, or does it only wound it?

2 weeks ago

Cars head to a tollgate in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 9, 2026, a residential building in the distance obscured by thick haze from wildfires in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

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Fires and cross-border haze: What can still be done

Southeast Asia’s latest haze crisis was entirely foreseeable. As millions choke beneath toxic skies, halting the blazes today must come before the inevitable, unsparing reckoning tomorrow.

2 weeks ago

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Gibran wiped from the 2029 contest without a crisis

The court saga surrounding Gibran's credentials has essentially spelled the end of the Widodo political dynasty, not by killing it outright but by ensuring that it fades away.

2 weeks ago

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks on Sept. 3, 2026, during the launch of the Foundry School, a national training program, at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC.

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Is Washington dropping the diplomatic ball?

Almost half of US ambassadorships remain vacant while political appointees outnumber career diplomats being put forward, creating a perceived void in Washington's global presence.

2 weeks ago

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

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Squeezed by debts and disasters, the Global South needs reparations, not more loans

As the IMF-World Bank meetings convene in Bangkok, frontline nations are calling for financial liberation from the debt traps and failed prescriptions of international financial institutions.

2 weeks ago

A woman holds a poster with caricatures criticizing government officials after 81 years of Indonesian independence on Aug. 18, 2026, during a protest on Jl. Thamrin in Central Jakarta against government policies, including state budget spending, the free nutritious meal program, the military’s expanded role in civilian affairs and corruption eradication efforts.

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Foreign proxy labeling as a pretext for silencing dissent

When foreign debt is celebrated as statesmanship but foreign grants to civic watchdogs are branded as treason, "national sovereignty" becomes a convenient weapon to silence dissent.

2 weeks ago

Migrants returning from Malaysia look out from a bus upon their arrival at the Myanmar Navy base in Thanlyin on Oct. 4, 2026. Nearly 1,500 Myanmar migrants from Malaysia arrived in their war-torn home country on Oct. 4, a Myanmar official said, returned under an opaque repatriation scheme that rights monitors say cannot assure their safety.

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Myanmar is a litmus test of what ‘ASEAN way’ amounts to

As ASEAN races to normalize ties with Myanmar's brutal military junta for geopolitical gain, its quiet betrayal of human rights and its own charter lays bare the hollow core of the "ASEAN way."

2 weeks ago

Circular endeavor: Students produce key holders from plastic waste on Oct. 8, 2026 at Pondok Pesantren Ali Maksum, an Islamic boarding school in Panggungharjo village, Bantul regency, Yogyakarta.

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Addressing sexual violence in ‘pesantren’: Is it possible?

Behind the sacred walls of Indonesia’s boarding schools, an insidious architecture of spiritual authority weaponizes devotion to silence victims of sexual abuse—and only collective resistance can tear it down.

2 weeks ago