Speaking out: Workers take part in a rally in Jakarta on Oct. 24, 2024, as they demand higher wages and the repeal of certain provisions of the Job Creation Law

Indonesia must implement mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence

With no consequences faced by corporations for failing to comply with HRDD obligations, they are able to benefit from social washing.

3 months ago

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Digitalization key to transforming core tax system

Indonesia’s core tax system is still far from the expected standard, reflecting the government's awkwardness and inability to effectively implement government digitalization. ...

3 months ago

Academia

The “new Syria”: Should Turkey be repatriating Syrians?

Turkey’s refugee repatriation policy clashes with international law as Syria remains volatile and unsafe ...

3 months ago

The Latest

Motorists pass 2024 election campaign banners in Jakarta on Dec. 19, 2023.

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Citizens can lead change despite democratic backsliding

Deliberative democracy is not a panacea. It is a dynamic process and there can be ups and downs.

3 months ago

A customer picks a bottled beverage from a refrigerated display at a supermarket in South Tangerang, Banten, on July 5, 2024.

Academia

Getting rich without getting fat: The challenge of developing countries

As developing countries, Indonesia and Mexico face double problems since hunger and obesity exist like two sides of a coin.

3 months ago

Hasjim Djalal is pictured in this undated file photo.

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Hasjim Djalal, the consummate diplomat who tripled Indonesia’s territorial size

Leading the Indonesian delegation at UNCLOS, Hasjim fought vehemently to ensure Indonesia gain control over the maritime territory connecting all its islands.

3 months ago

A woman takes notes during an Amica Center for Immigrant Rights (formerly known as CAIR Coalition) presentation on immigration enforcement at a school in Washington, DC on Jan. 10, 2025.

Academia

Are highly skilled immigrants a problem?

While economic research makes it clear that immigrants bring sought-after skills, creative dynamism and useful knowledge that also helps domestic innovators, that doesn’t mean there is no downside to heavy reliance on H-1B visas.

3 months ago

All about money: Dozens of workers rally outside the Manpower Ministry on Jl. Gatot Subroto in South Jakarta on Feb. 18, 2022, to demand the cancellation of a ministerial regulation that postpones the retirement age.

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Indonesia’s pension age hike: Who is paying the price?

While the current pension benefits (JP) program maintains ample cash flow and a strong balance sheet, it could face a deficit as early as 2038.

3 months ago

Energy transition: Workers check on packages of battery cells at the Hyundai LG Indonesia (HLI) Green Power plant in Karawang, West Java, following its inauguration on July 3, 2024. The plant is Indonesia's first electric vehicle battery factory.

Academia

Cooperate, not compete: ASEAN's critical mineral strategy for energy transition

Each ASEAN country has its own critical mineral and downstreaming strategies, but these have intensified competition rather than fostering cooperation.

3 months ago

Oil palm belt: An oil palm plantation in Pangkalan Banteng in the Central Kalimantan regency of West Kotawaringin is seen from the air on Nov. 7, 2022. Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil.

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Palm oil dilemma: Why soil health must lead Indonesia’s ambition

From a business perspective, without a sustained focus on soil health, expansion of oil palm plantations may become more liability than opportunity.

3 months ago

Foreign Minister Sugiono speaks on Jan.10, 2025, during the Foreign Minister's Annual Press Statement (PPTM) at the Foreign Ministry building in Jakarta.

Academia

Development, free and active foreign policy will be FM Sugiono’s priorities

While reiterating Indonesia’s basic principle of free and active foreign policy, the foreign minister delivered subtle messages indicating that Indonesia would actively pursue domestic goals through foreign policy.

4 months ago

All together now: Members of the European council pose for a family picture following a meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels on Dec. 19, 2024.

Academia

Europe needs a defense production act

The war in Ukraine has underscored the urgent need to establish processes for fast-tracking infrastructure and, when relevant, defense spending.

4 months ago

A logged area in Lhoong, Aceh, on March 21, 2024.

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Energy plantations are driving social and environmental inequality

Energy transition policies risk enabling environmental destruction and deepening social inequities, particularly within the forestry sector.

4 months ago

Critical assistance: Rescue workers are seen at the site of a collapsed building after an earthquake struck Port Vila, the capital city of Vanuatu, on Dec. 18, 2024.

Academia

Earthquake aftershocks expose high cost of Vanuatu’s democracy

Vanuatu’s self-sabotaging political class has left the country struggling to deal with social and economic shocks of recent natural disasters.

4 months ago

Sitting pretty: Leaders of ASEAN and China pose for a group photo after the ASEAN-China Summit as part of the 45th ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, on Oct. 10, 2024.

Academia

Preparing the ASEAN Economic Community for increased securitization

ASEAN member countries with overlapping claims with China in the South China Sea might face greater vulnerability to China’s potential use of economic statecraft.

4 months ago

Rain water pools around the tents housing displaced Palestinians at a makeshift camp housing displaced Palestinians in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on January 1, 2025, amid the continuing war between Israel and the militant Hamas group.

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A New Year’s resolution for peace

The prospects for peace agreements remained elusive in 2024.

4 months ago

Pearly whites: A dentist (left) provides free dental services at the Gadjah Mada University dentistry school in Yogyakarta on Dec. 12, 2024, during National Dental Health Month.

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Recruiting more doctors: A solution, or creating new problems?

Before rushing to create policies based on the "doctor emergency" narrative, the government should verify and streamline data on physician numbers and other relevant factors as well as involve medical organizations to identify the actual issues for effective solutions.

4 months ago

Support from afar: Members of the Muslim community protest in front of the Arjuna Wijaya Statue in Central Jakarta on Sept. 20, 2023, against a government plan to develop Rempang Island near Batam into a Chinese-funded economic zone that would displace around 7,500 people.

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Intelligentsia alienation under Prabowo’s presidency (part 2)

Ordinary people are more acquainted with news spread by the “influencers” than by professional journalists.

4 months ago

Devastated heritage: Kedonganan Beach in Badung, Bali, is covered with trash on March 20, 2024. Comprised of mostly plastic materials, the waste has disrupted the activities of tourists and fishermen alike.

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Sustainable tourism: Between revenues and national heritage preservation

Countries are counting the costs of overtourism, such as environmental degradation, garbage crises, water shortages and irresponsible behaviors of tourists whose numbers have overwhelmed authorities and infrastructure.

4 months ago

Constitutional Court Chief Justice Suhartoyo (center) sits between justices Daniel Yusmic Foekh (left) and Guntur Hamzah (right) during a hearing of an election dispute in the 2024 regional polls at the court's building in Jakarta on Jan. 8, 2025. The court will hear 310 petitions challenging the results of last year's regional head elections and is slated to deliver all rulings by March 11, 2024.

Academia

Threshold removal: A game-changer for Indonesian democracy?

The removal of the threshold should enable political parties to nominate qualified, capable and integrity-driven members as presidential and vice presidential candidates.

4 months ago

Prabowo Subianto (left) and Gibran Rakabuming Raka walk past a portrait of President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo, Gibran's father, on April 24, 2024, during the plenary meeting of the General Elections Commission (KPU) to announce the 2024 presidential election winner in Jakarta.

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Alienation of the intelligentsia under Prabowo’s presidency (part 1)

In the past three years, the intelligentsia has been the most alienated group on Indonesia’s public stage.

4 months ago

United States president-elect Donald Trump speaks at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Dec. 16, 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida.

Academia

A retrospective on Trump's first year back

No one can know what US president-elect Donald Trump will do, but one can speculate.

4 months ago

Women activists from various organizations stage a long march in the Thamrin area, Jakarta, on March 8, 2020.

Academia

Gender board diversity across Europe through four decades

A newly released unique data source sheds light on the prevalent absence of women in corporate boardrooms across Europe.

4 months ago

Professors and students of Yogyakarta Muhammadiyah University (UMY) deliver a speech at the university's campus in Bantul, Yogyakarta, on Feb. 3, 2024.

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Advancing Muhammadiyah's global diplomacy agenda

Given Muhammadiyah's substantial contribution to the religious, educational and healthcare development of Indonesia, it has real potential to make a contribution to global welfare.

4 months ago

An illustration of Indonesian and European Union flags on a table

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EU and Indonesia need to listen to each other first

The EU and Indonesia must unite to uphold the rules-based order amid Russian aggression and looming US-China tensions while providing an alternative.

4 months ago

A tractor operates on March 5, 2021, on a tract of land cleared for a government project in a forested area in Gunung Mas regency, Central Kalimantan.

Academia

Papua land is never empty, it is a source of livelihood for many

The food estate in Merauke seems set to join the long list of such projects that have failed since the concept was first proposed in 2010, only to leave behind broad damage to the rights of indigenous peoples and the environment, including customary land, in South Papua.

4 months ago

Foreign Minister Sugiono (rear, second left) poses for a group photo with (front, from left to right) Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other participants in the outreach/BRICS Plus format meeting during the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, on Oct. 24, 2024.

Academia

Indonesia’s entry into BRICS: Reshaping the global legal order

BRICS promotes adherence to international rule of law and contests the strategic use of international law to serve particular political preferences and power interests.

4 months ago

Maritime nation: Shipping activities are pictured at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok seaport on May 20, 2024.

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Superholding for maritime SOEs: Risks and opportunities

Financial, operational, regulatory and reputational challenges will inevitably emerge as major risks in the merger.

4 months ago

Activists hold up posters bearing a photo of Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam during a candlelight vigil outside the Singaporean embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 8, 2021, to protest the death sentence handed down to the Malaysian national over a decade earlier for trafficking heroin into Singapore. Dharmalingam was executed at Changi Prison on April 27, 2022, aged 33.

Academia

Ending capital punishment is not a false hope

Hope could very well be the defining force behind the drive to abolish capital punishment: hope for redemption, hope for personal improvement, hope for national betterment, and above all, hope for humanity.

4 months ago

Misguided solutions?: People walk near the venue of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), in Baku, on Nov. 14, 2024.

Academia

Finance no panacea for world’s climate woes

The ‘failure’ of the biggest climate event of 2024, the COP29, may be a blessing in disguise as nature cannot simply be replaced by throwing money at it.

4 months ago

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