The state is spending billions to guard its borders against foreign adversaries, while leaving its own citizens stranded when the earth beneath them gives way.

As fiscal strain, budget reallocations and state dominance deepen across Indonesia, students and intellectuals are stepping into the fray—reclaiming their historic duty to speak truth to power.

President Prabowo Subianto's tenure has been marked by a recurring pattern of rhetorical detours. His supporters see his direct, unscripted style as refreshingly authentic; critics see a habit that regularly produces high-profile verbal slips with real domestic and international consequences.

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

Although Indonesia’s restoration program has shown positive results, the threat of fire still looms over peatland that has already been degraded.

As unmanned systems increasingly define the battlespace, they must plug directly into a shared digital web to serve as viable combat nodes. 

Two decades after ending decades of civil war, Aceh’s fragile peace is unraveling as a disillusioned new generation turns against its own ruling ex-rebel elite and revives calls for independence.

For the first time, the key ingredients for large-scale land restoration, political will, international cooperation, implementation capacity and financing, are beginning to align.

Good intentions are never in short supply after a disaster, what Indonesia needs in Flores is the precision to strengthen local resilience rather than replace it.

As Indonesia pulls up its diplomatic anchor and leaves ASEAN drifting into irrelevance, Southeast Asia faces a brutal reality check ahead of its 60th anniversary: lead together, or prepare for the bloc's retirement ceremony.

Danantara’s plan to appoint hedge fund managers marks a potentially significant shift toward a more complex and higher-risk investment strategy. The move comes even as the state asset fund has yet to publish financial reports substantiating President Prabowo Subianto’s claims of stellar performance. It raises a fundamental question: Is Danantara’s investment strategy aligned with its long-term national mandate, or is the fund experimenting with increasingly aggressive approaches to managing state assets?

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.

The government’s bold plan to fund massive growth beyond the state budget hinges on whether its new sovereign wealth apparatus truly mobilizes fresh capital - or merely hides the risks.

Behind the state’s narrative of manufactured chaos lies an undeniable reality: an overburdened public rising up to demand economic fairness, accountability and genuine justice.

To truly stop corruption, Indonesia must look beyond prosecuting rogue individuals and install unbreakable internal controls where the revolving door starts spinning.

The legal saga surrounding former assistant attorney general for special crimes (Jampidsus) Febrie Adriansyah has entered yet another chapter. What began as one of Indonesia's highest-profile money laundering investigations has increasingly evolved into a politically charged legal battle, with the former senior prosecutor now appearing to pursue an exit strategy through the courts.

As ASEAN rewrites the rules of Southeast Asia’s digital economy with the DEFA, India must launch a dedicated two-track strategy to integrate cross-border tech and trade without compromising its regulatory sovereignty.

China is trying to export its way out of a domestic slump, unleashing what many Western governments call a second "China shock." While this strategy is triggering trade fights abroad, it's also producing a new set of potential beneficiaries at home.

Facing tumbling approval ratings and economic pushback, President Prabowo Subianto pivots to fiscal discipline in his latest budget—but delivering on his ambitious promises will be the real test.

Statistics Indonesia (BPS) announced that Indonesia’s economy expanded 5.29 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the second quarter of 2026, marking notable growth above the 5 percent threshold amid continued global uncertainty and geopolitical tensions. The figure also improved from 5.12 percent in the same quarter last year, suggesting that President Prabowo Subianto’s increasingly expansionary fiscal policies have helped sustain domestic economic activity even as global trade growth weakens. However, the stronger growth also comes as the government ramps up spending on its flagship programs, raising questions about the fiscal cost of sustaining this momentum.

Today, Aceh's main struggle is no longer about surviving a war, but about building an economy that works, maintaining honest local government, and creating real opportunities for its people.

What does the Kowani dual leadership debacle reflect about women’s rights, politics and democracy in Indonesia?

With two spare sentences on a modest Jakarta porch, Sukarno declared Indonesia’s independence and forged a revolutionary blueprint that sparked liberation movements across the globe.

As Indonesia marks 81 years of independence, a familiar pull toward state centralization risks unraveling decades of hard-won democracy and regional unity.

Eighty-one years after proclaiming its independence, Indonesia has been fortunate to enjoy relative peace and stability, both at home and across its borders. But that achievement is something we can never afford to take for granted.

After 81 years of independence, how strong are the state institutions tasked with holding this nation together?

Indonesia’s external debt has continued to rise and reached a new high of Rp 8 quadrillion ($444 billion) in May 2026. The increase was primarily driven by government and central bank debt, which accounted for 55.9 percent of total external debt, or US$248.5 billion, after growing 3.89 percent year-on-year (yoy).