The regulation, if properly enforced, will help the government clamp down on undeclared offshore profits and tax evasion.            

It is safe to say they are all the President’s men, not only because they answer to him, but also because their presence in the Cabinet will help him consolidate his power in dealing with other key players.

The ARF has become the most important forum in the Asia Pacific to discuss global security issues, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s nine-dash-line claim of sovereignty over nearly the whole South China Sea and the increasing tension in the Indo-Pacific region.            

The debates that have followed Indonesia’s disgraceful exit from the World Beach Games reveal a troubling lack of commitment to ensuring their success.

Political parties and politicians want to win the hearts and minds of 70,000 village heads, whose influence can steer millions of rural voters toward certain candidates on Feb. 14 of next year. 

It is better for Jokowi and his ministers to respond to criticisms of the nickel export ban, such as those from the IMF, with eloquence.        

There should be more doctors outside of big cities to ensure better access to good health services in rural areas. 

It is worth emphasizing here that the suspects needed a certain level of political leverage to give them the confidence to commit the alleged crime.

Unlike the first two AMM outings in February and April, the current agenda opens up the 10-nation association to international criticism and puts the members’ collective resolve to the test, with a wide array of issues to be debated in back-to-back meetings.

Young voters will dominate the polls next year for the first time in Indonesia's election history, which means that aspiring politicians need to reach out and connect with the country's youths in both urban and rural settings to create campaigns that actually speak to them.

The middle-income trap, simply put, is when a country has developed so far that it struggles to compete with less developed countries on labor unit costs while not having advanced far enough to compete with more developed countries on competence.

Indonesia’s huge nickel resources and Australia’s lithium resources should become the bridge for a commercially viable and symbiotic partnership for the two neighboring countries to develop battery and electric vehicle (EV) industries.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo himself has pledged that the government would continue to seek the release of the Kiwi pilot through peaceful means, although we are not too sure if the government's approach has been effective so far.

Jokowi arrives in Australia empowered by greater political authority and a newfound confidence on the international stage, having successfully presided over the Group of 20 largest economies at a time of great geopolitical turmoil.

Education is key to Indonesia hitting the 7 percent GDP growth promised before the pandemic hit, and there’s no time to lose.

The international exposure and the rare experience of playing the world’s best will help the national talent develop its skills and mentality.             

We have seen this several times in the past, of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) collaborating with the government in clamping down on followers of Islamic sects and doctrines they considered heretic.

The government’s move to seek an out-of-court settlement of the rights abuses is surely too little, too late. But it is still much better than nothing.

If former presidents demonstrate true statesmanship, they can help preserve the integrity of the office, foster national unity and provide valuable guidance to current leaders. Once they enter practical politics, however, they undermine the respect and reverence accorded to the presidency.

The more than 10 percent increase in fuel subsidies and the continued use of a fixed fuel-pricing mechanism not only would negate all the government’s commitment to a faster transition into clean and renewable energy, but also make the fiscal management highly vulnerable to the highly volatile international oil prices.

If the Netherlands is sincere about wanting to know its past, it would do well by revising its colonial history.

The procurement of Mirage 2000-5 planes from Qatar, as well as the current efforts to acquire Mirage 2000-9 from the United Arab Emirates, can be seen as a stop-gap measure to maintain the Air Force’s combat readiness.

Jakarta ranks among 61 cities observed worldwide for premature deaths related to air pollution, with more than 1,500 deaths blamed on coal power in 2019.

Not only has Prayut's maneuvering undermined ASEAN’s suspension of the Myanmar junta from participation in the bloc, it has also revealed further disunity in ASEAN in dealing with Myanmar.

Bauxite is not as important an export commodity for Indonesia as CPO or coal, and the bauxite shipment ban will not roil global markets, because Indonesia's global market share is not that large.

The latest revelation by IndoLeaks shows that our law enforcement agencies, which are not immune to political interests or oligarchic co-optation, continue to increase their capacity to spy on citizens.

Many Jakartans were annoyed because the city looked like it was at war given the barbwire fence and moveable concrete barriers that stretched 170 meters outside the embassy compound on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan.                              

While Indonesian democracy and its cohorts can breathe again after the Constitutional Court struck down a petition to reinstate the close-list system, they should save their breath to fight another day.

The historic high-speed railway project only focused on physical construction, while the human resources development was left neglected, at least until February of this year.            

Credible audited financial reports are key to the integrity of the financial services industry, the first requisite for good corporate governance and the primary guide for investors.