The Jakarta Post Editorials: Board Perspectives

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Jakarta Post
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Strength begins at home

As fires rage and geopolitical tests loom, Indonesians are waiting for the President to make good on his word: that real strength begins at home.

1 day ago
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Beneath choking skies

As toxic haze blankets Southeast Asia and millions of tonnes of CO2 enter the atmosphere, the country is running out of excuses to rein in corporate polluters and honor its climate promises. ...

18 hours ago
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Safeguarding Indonesia's AI future

Relying solely on executive orders and administrative decrees is fundamentally insufficient for a technology this consequential. ...

2 days ago

The Latest

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Good governance 101

A regional administration that fixes flawed infrastructure after it goes viral isn't setting the standard for leadership. It's merely doing the bare minimum.

4 days ago
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Armed impunity

When soldiers target civilians and keep their badges, the military court doesn't just shield its own, it suffocates our democracy.

5 days ago
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Not the Ministry of Magic

The sudden shake-up at the Finance Ministry has rattled markets, leaving Indonesia’s new fiscal chief with the precarious task of funding Prabowo’s ambitious growth targets without driving the nation into a deficit ditch.

6 days ago
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Feeding, not poisoning

The food poisoning incident has left parents a lingering question: How could a program intended to nourish children end up putting their health at risk? And, perhaps more frighteningly, could their children be next?

1 week ago
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Faulty tool costs fortune

When pedicab drivers are labeled wealthy while a millionaire lawmaker qualifies for state aid, Indonesia’s high-stakes welfare registry proves that confusing data shortcuts with genuine reform costs real lives.

1 week ago
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The much-needed disaster budget

We cannot always stop disasters from occurring, but we can prevent them from becoming disastrous for millions of Indonesians by preparing better.

1 week ago
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Jakarta’s big bond bid

Jakarta’s plan to bypass "unilateral" regional budget cuts with municipal bonds isn't just an urban infrastructure fix. It is an open challenge to the government's centralist agenda.

1 week ago
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Living on the edge

When the volcano exploded on Aug. 27, 1883, it destroyed the island on which it stood, killed almost 40,000 people in the surrounding area of Java and Sumatra, sent rafts of pumice to Africa, covered the Red Sea in ash and made barometers as far away as Washington, DC go haywire.

1 week ago
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Much ado about asset forfeiture

Rushing a flawed asset forfeiture bill to meet a performative political deadline won't stop oligarchs, it will just hand the state a dangerous new weapon against its critics.

1 week ago
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Fine businesses for fires

Temporary suspensions and advanced technologies won't clear ASEAN's skies from Indonesian wildfires; only prosecuting and bankrupting corporate arsonists will.

2 weeks ago
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Keeping it free and active

As Washington pushes allies to gang up on Beijing, Indonesia must resist the pressure and stay true to its non-aligned roots, or risk becoming the mouse deer crushed between two fighting elephants.

2 weeks ago
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ASEAN unity at stake

Rather than mirroring the geo-economic fragmentation besetting the world, member states need to come together and negotiate favorable trade terms for the region as a whole.

2 weeks ago
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Pricier driving, better livability

If Jakarta wants to break free from its crippling gridlocks, choking air and other perennial issues, it must end the era of cheap parking and force drivers to pay the true cost of the road.

2 weeks ago
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The state's new muscle

When the state embraces street thugs as political muscle, the violence that follows isn't an accident - it is government policy.

2 weeks ago
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To build NU anew

As state power and political patronage close in on Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest Muslim organization faces a pivotal internal battle: preserve its independent moral voice, or become a rubber stamp for the ruling elite.

2 weeks ago
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Cost of recentralization

It seems to have become a pattern under the government of President Prabowo Subianto. When problems erupt, the state must “be present”, as the President often puts it, which translates into asserting itself more forcefully.

3 weeks ago
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Whoosh at a juncture

Shuffling Whoosh’s ballooning debt among state balance sheets won't save the region's first HSR service; only hard renegotiations and structural reform will.

3 weeks ago
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Transparency matters

These shows may suspended accounts, but the process needs transparency.

3 weeks ago
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Wildfires: All hands on deck

As Indonesia's catastrophic wildfires choke the wider region yet again, the real culprit isn't the unusually prolonged dry weather but the corporate impunity and lax governance fueling the flames.

3 weeks ago
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When 2+2 is more than 4

Indonesia and China should focus on solidarity and cooperation with an approach of strategic maturity, as their ties bear significance far beyond either bilateral or regional dimensions.

3 weeks ago
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Clarity on DSI urgent

The Prabowo administration's sudden, vague overhaul of commodity exports is the latest policy whiplash rattling investor confidence, proving once again that ad hoc governance comes at a steep economic price.

3 weeks ago
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A foreign policy president, really?

President Prabowo Subianto was marketed as a bold foreign policy visionary, but his record reveals an administration driven by reactive damage control rather than strategic global leadership.

4 weeks ago
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Growing regional discontent

Indonesians confront mounting economic hardship despite official assurances that all is well. Many are confused: the reassurances from officials do not match the reality of their daily lives.

4 weeks ago
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Clean air can’t wait

As millions choke on toxic air, the real threat to Indonesia’s lungs isn't just distant wildfires—it's the coal plants and industrial polluters running unchecked right next door.

1 month ago
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Fact-checking the President

From million-rupiah shallots to unverified nuclear claims, President Prabowo Subianto's off-script habits are turning presidential rhetoric into viral punchlines - and putting the nation’s credibility on the line.

1 month ago
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Font is never the point

What started as a presidential complaint about tiny font sizes has spiraled into an alarming, state-driven overhaul to rewrite Indonesian history.

1 month ago
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Pray for Flores

As Flores reels from a devastating earthquake on the eve of Independence Day, the government’s swift aid cannot hide the urgent need to trade performative crisis management for real, life-saving disaster governance.

1 month ago

Today's ePost

Wed, September 23, 2026

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