A demonstrator during a protest in front of the East Java Police headquarters in Surabaya, East Java, on Aug. 30, 2025, holds a portrait of Affan Kurniawan, an online motorcycle transportation driver who was run over by a police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) armored vehicle.

Why visual evidence matters in Indonesian activism

Today in Indonesia, graphic, violent images and videos often function as political evidence.

3 months ago

Long-sought police reform stalled at the institutional gate

When a state's police force expands its institutional power faster than the civilian mechanisms designed to oversee it, what grows stronger is not the rule of law, it is simply the apparatus itself. ...

3 months ago

Academia

Nickel's recovery hopes tempered by growing stock overhang

A growing mountain of surplus metal accumulating in warehouses is a reminder that this could be a slow-fuse process. ...

3 months ago

The Latest

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin greets Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, April 13, 2026.

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Russia Day: Celebrating unity at home and abroad

On Russia Day, Moscow celebrates its rich heritage and strengthens its strategic bonds with Indonesia and ASEAN to build a fairer, multipolar world.

3 months ago

A deforested area to be converted into a sugar cane plantation by PT Murni Nusantara Abadi, encroaches upon the adjacent customary forest protected by the Kwipalo Clan on March 17, 2025, in Mandiri Jagebob, Merauke regency, South Papua.

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PSN in Papua needs more indigenous entrepreneurs

True economic acceleration in Papua won’t come from pouring trillions into mega-projects—it requires building an army of local indigenous entrepreneurs to own them.

3 months ago

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Three fault lines in Indonesia’s financial governance

The amendments reveal a broader shift toward a more coordinated and state-directed model of financial governance.

3 months ago

Police fire tear gas to disperse demonstrators during a protest against the Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) in front of the East Java gubernatorial residence in Surabaya, East Java on Aug. 29, 2025, following the death of 21-year-old motorcycle transportation driver Affan Kurniawan, who was killed after being struck by a police tactical vehicle amid a protest against lavish allowances for lawmakers in Jakarta on Aug. 28.

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Reforming the police without reforming police power

By prioritizing organizational strength over independent oversight, the new Police Law delivers mere administrative updates instead of genuine democratic reform.

3 months ago

Members of the All-Indonesia Alliance of Student Executive Boards (BEM SI) scatter flower petals during a demonstration outside the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta on Sept. 4, 2025, expressing support for the “17+8” reform demands presented by the Tuntutan Rakyat (people’s demands) movement during nationwide protests from August to September.

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The theater of democracy: Indonesia's unresolved Reformasi

As Indonesia drifts toward oligarchy and political decay, a new generation of students is ditching street protests for the courtroom, using the Constitution to finish the reform movement started in 1998.

3 months ago

A surveyor inspects a construction site in Central Jakarta on Nov. 27, 2025, part of contract package (CP) 202 in Phase 2A of the MRT Jakarta project.

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The future of development finance is not primarily about money

For middle-income countries like India, accessing knowledge and technology is now a bigger challenge than raising capital, which suggests that MDBs must rethink their operating model.

3 months ago

Free divers explore a coral reef on Dec. 28, 2025, at the Oluhuta Paradise marine tourism site in Bone Bolango regency, Gorontalo.

Academia

Indonesia’s coral reefs are heat‑tolerant, but only up to a point

While Indonesia’s reefs demonstrate a remarkable natural tolerance to heat stress, a long-term national strategy is needed to track the various impacts of warming oceans to safeguard not just coral cover but also to their capacity to heal.

3 months ago

Green energy: An electric vehicle user charges a motorcycle on April 20 at a public electric vehicle charging station operated by PLN UP3 in Surakarta, Central Java.

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No ASEAN energy security without climate leadership

From the EU's stumbles to ASEAN’s gridlock, the current energy crisis proves that green targets are useless without bold political courage.

3 months ago

Personnel from the Attorney General's Office (AGO) and the Indonesian Military (TNI) escort Dadan Hindayana (center, in pink vest), the former head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) and a suspect in the graft case pertaining to the free nutritious meal program, out of the AGO in South Jakarta on June 3, 2026.

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Reforming the free meals program: A hard choice between purpose and political specter

The crisis surrounding the government's flagship free meals program urges a fundamental rethink: restore the program's original focus as an anti-stunting intervention for vulnerable groups or maintain the current, unsustainable model of a universal feeding program that leaves it open to rent seeking.

4 months ago

Members of Greenpeace Indonesia and Papuan youths stage a protest featuring theatrical performances against the government's national strategic project for controversial sugarcane plantations Papua, outside the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs office in Jakarta on Dec. 18, 2025.

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What’s next after ‘Pesta Babi’ breaks the silence

By holding up an uncomfortable mirror to state-led exploitation and violence in Papua, Pesta Babi has shattered decades of enforced silence, forcing Jakarta to choose between repressive censorship and genuine, rights-respecting reform.

4 months ago

A trader looks at a tablet on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on June 4, 2026 in New York City, the United States.

Academia

The AI rally may have finally met its match in the Fed

Signs have been multiplying that the AI mania is getting out of hand.

4 months ago

Kindergarten students eat lunch on April 23, supplied by the government’s free nutritious meal program in Banda Aceh, Aceh.

Academia

The world is full of food, yet children go hungry

This is a crisis of systems and of choices.

4 months ago

Students of the Al Khoir Islamic Excellence School sell things on Nov. 30, 2025, during an event called Pasar Bocah in Surakarta, Central Java. Accompanied by teachers and parents, the students learned about entrepreneurship and were introduced to the use of the rupiah at the event.

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What happened to Indonesia’s entrepreneurial class?

Indonesia’s missing entrepreneurs didn’t vanish by choice—they were systematically crowded out by a centuries-old governing instinct that still prefers centralized control over local economic freedom.

4 months ago

A teller holds rupiah bank notes on April 9, 2025, at a money changer in Jakarta.

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Indonesia's confidence crisis is bigger than the rupiah

Once trust begins to weaken simultaneously across multiple sectors, economic stress can accelerate much faster than many policymakers expect.

4 months ago

(From left to right) Defendants First Lt. Budhi Harytanto Cahyono, First Lt. Sami Lakka, Second Sgt. Edi Sudarko and Capt. Nandala Dwi Prasetya attend a hearing against them on June 2, 2026, regarding the acid attack on Commission of Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) activist Andrie Yunus, at the Jakarta Military Court in Jakarta.

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A test of legal certainty: Prabowo's impasse over the Andrie case

As President Prabowo finds himself in an international spotlight over a brutal chemical attack on a human rights defender, a landmark pretrial ruling has exposed a deep systemic clash between civilian accountability and entrenched military impunity.

4 months ago

An online motorcycle taxi rider passes through the Casablanca area in South Jakarta, on May 10, 2026.

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8 percent for drivers, zero transparency for Danantara

A state asset fund that will not account for itself is not managing public assets.

4 months ago

An automated lithium-ion battery production line operates on Nov. 11, 2025, at a workshop of Zhejiang Shineway Technology Co Ltd in Yongkang, Zhejiang province, China.

Academia

Lithium bust is over but will battery metal boom again?

Underlying demand growth remains strong but disappointing global EV sales in the first quarter have tempered expectations for this year.

4 months ago

Farmers plant rice in a paddy field on June 28, 2025, in Lambaro, Aceh.

Academia

Rice role in fueling climate change is growing

The same flooded soils that help rice thrive also create ideal conditions for microbes that release climate-warming gases.

4 months ago

Vessels set anchor on May 17, 2026, in the Strait of Hormuz, seen off the port city of Khasab on Oman’s northern Musandam Peninsula.

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The Iran War is fueling a global debt shock

The energy shock triggered by the Iran war has further increased borrowing costs, particularly for energy-importing countries, and this trend may persist if current geopolitical tensions continue.

4 months ago

A woman walks pasts a digital screen displaying the movement of Indonesia Stock Exchange composite index on June 25, 2025.

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Indonesia’s market fever needs a credibility cure

Investors need one of two things: better returns to compensate for risk, or lower risk to justify staying. Indonesia is giving them neither.

4 months ago

A man walks past a digital display on June 3, 2026, showing the movement of the Indonesia Composite Stock Price Index (IHSG) at the Indonesia Stock Exchange in South Jakarta.

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The key forces now shaping markets and geopolitics

The world is in turmoil, yet financial markets are riding high. Are investors wrong, or is the picture more complex than this seeming contradiction suggests?

4 months ago

A boy reaches for a toy on March 23, 2026, at Gembrong Market in Jatinegara, East Jakarta.

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Chess, blunders and the art of getting back in the game

In economics as in chess, a bad move changes the game, but the real blunder is refusing to adapt when the board shifts.

4 months ago

Strong together: Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin (left) and Japan’s Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi inspect the honor guard on May 4 during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry office in Jakarta.

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How Japan is boosting defense cooperation with Southeast Asia

As Tokyo modernizes its Indo-Pacific strategy, a wave of new defense pacts and potential submarine exports marks a bold shift in Japan's military partnerships across Southeast Asia.

4 months ago

A group of people take a walk on May 20, 2022, in the Katingan Mentaya peatland, Southeast Asia’s largest, situated between two rivers of the same names and spanning over 150,000 hectares across the districts of Katingan and East Kotawaringin in Central Kalimantan.

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Trading our future: The financialization of nature

As governments turn forests into tradable carbon assets, local residents and indigenous communities are paying the price for a corporate climate shortcut that trades genuine emission cuts for green labels.

4 months ago

Farmers loosen soil using water flow from an irrigation canal in Batang regency, Central Java, in an aerial photo released on May 19, 2026. Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman has said the government is allocating around Rp 5 trillion (US$282.28 million) for irrigation programs and the distribution of superior seeds to address potential drought caused by the upcoming El Niño weather system.

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Why water could help restore trust in global cooperation

Water can become an example of how multilateralism can still deliver tangible results in people’s daily lives.

4 months ago

Environmental activists march on Sept. 27, 2024, against 10 years of Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo's presidency's administration, criticizing the worsening climate crisis and democratic backsliding, during the Global Climate Strike 2024 action in Jakarta.

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SLAPPs: How ASEAN can shield its environmental defenders

While Southeast Asian nations promote green growth, their legal systems are being weaponized against the very people fighting to protect the region's climate-vulnerable landscapes.

4 months ago

Litmus test: Students take the Academic Competency Test (TKA) on Nov. 3, 2025, at State Senior High School 1 in Enrekang Regency, South Sulawesi.

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TKA 2026: An early warning for Golden Indonesia vision

TKA 2026 proves Indonesia can measure learning at a massive scale, but if the government cannot fix the stark literacy and numeracy deficits revealed by the data, the promise of "Golden Indonesia 2045" will give way to a staggering demographic burden.

4 months ago

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