As Vedi Hadiz has noted, decentralization has produced local oligarchies, new centers of power growing from old patronage networks. 

It has been proven throughout history that statistics is essential to statecraft and in the Indonesian context of today's digital era, greater openness is key to building credibility and trust.

Meaningful reform in the Prabowo administration would require not only a reshuffle but a reduction in size, a step that would signal seriousness about governance over optics.

This is how Indonesia is governed now: by spectacle so crude it dares the public to object, by narratives so inflated they collapse under their own weight, by numbers waved around like talismans against doubt.

Why does Indonesia appear so keen to protect its pride by refusing bilateral assistance?

Nearly a year on since the launch of the free meals program, several studies point to an opportunity for policy learning: scaling the program toward its envisioned targets by placing women at its heart.

As countries shift away from multilateral cooperation as the world grows more multipolar, organizations that are mission-driven, involve multiple stakeholders and founded on a spirit of partnership will become ever more necessary to face contemporary challenges.

More than 200 people have been charged for disrupting or opposing the polls in Myanmar under a new law that carries severe penalties, including the death sentence.

Disaster risk reduction should be embedded in policymaking, especially industrial and spatial planning, to prevent economic activities from damaging the environment and thereby exacerbating the impacts of future calamities.

Indonesia may face a tax revenue shortfall this year, as recent data show the country had realized only 74.62 percent of its annual tax target as of November, underscoring mounting difficulties in sustaining revenue growth amid global and domestic economic headwinds. The World Bank Group (WBG) has projected Indonesia's tax ratio, the share of tax revenue in gross domestic product (GDP), to fall to 9.4 percent in 2025, down from 10.1 percent in 2024. The downward trend is a worrying signal for future state spending, particularly as the government rolls out costly flagship programs that risk widening the fiscal deficit.

The police chief's signing a regulation that counters a court ruling prohibiting active-duty officers from holding a civilian post is a blatant act of disrespect toward the rule of law.

China’s growing appetite for durian is giving this famously divisive fruit political power.

From cybercrime and disasters to an elfin plush toy trend, here are some of the worst and best to happen in the Indo-Pacific throughout the year.

The US under the Trump administration has emerged as a global hegemon alongside China, albeit with different drivers, afflicting the rest of the world with limited opportunities, especially developing countries.

A merger between Grab and GoTo would result in significant market concentration, creating a new entity with up to 99 percent market share in Indonesia's ride-hailing and food delivery sectors 

The way we understand humanitarian crises determines whether we truly attempt to resolve them, or merely manage them so they remain tolerable.

The direct election mechanism as a way of choosing political leaders could become a thing of the past in Indonesia, starting with the election of the heads of regional administrations, but it could go all the way up to the election of the head of state.

To coincide with National History Day on Dec. 14, the Culture Ministry held the soft launch of Sejarah Indonesia: Dinamika Kebangsaan dalam Arus Global (Indonesian history: National dynamics in global currents).

We won’t know until January, but we are probably looking at the highest fiscal deficit in decades.

Indonesia's ambition to strengthen its domestic steel industry is being quietly undermined from within. While policymakers continue to champion downstream industry development, industrial resilience and import substitution, recent findings by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) reveal troubling weaknesses in steel import governance. The problem extends beyond illegal imports, pointing instead to regulatory gaps, weak inter-ministerial coordination and administrative failures that continue to erode the credibility of Indonesia's industrial policy.

Rather than the national polls, the outcome of the ongoing dynamics in Upper Myanmar between the KIA and the junta is a better political barometer for the country's course next year.

The Christmas 2025 theme as declared by the PGI and the KWI urges reflection on the state of Indonesian families and how "saving" them is inherently linked to the republic's future.

In celebrating Christmas, Christians are invited to demonstrate concern for the Earth rather than adding to its burdens through environmentally unfriendly celebrations.

Through the waste to energy initiative, Danantara will provide the investment, while the state utility company, PLN, will handle the electricity generated. 

Out of the 386 regencies and mayoralties targeted by the Health Ministry, fewer than half are estimated to have public health laboratories currently capable of processing PCR-based HPV DNA tests to detect cervical cancer.

In a surprising turn of events to cap off the year, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, has been shaken by turmoil that many observers are calling an internal coup. At the center of the storm is the sudden political ousting of Yahya Cholil Staquf as chairman of NU’s executive body Tanfidziyah.

The Indonesian term "mandiri" embodies the type of strategic governance necessary to unify a state's resources under a single command during a natural catastrophe.