Indonesia needs not only better welfare data, but also greater public understanding and trust in how that data is produced.

When the state freezes an activist’s bank accounts mid-protest, it isn't routine law enforcement. It is an urgent test of whether the rule of law controls the police or punishes dissent.

President Prabowo Subianto has unveiled the government’s proposed state budget for the 2027 fiscal year, outlining another substantial expansion in government spending ahead of Indonesia’s 81st Independence Day. Government expenditure is set to rise to Rp 4,097.2 trillion (US$230.4 billion), from Rp 3,842.7 trillion in this year’s state budget, while state revenue is targeted at Rp 3,426 trillion, compared with Rp 3,153.6 trillion this year. The government is also targeting 6 percent economic growth in 2027, reinforcing Prabowo’s longstanding commitment to using government-led initiatives to accelerate growth.

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.

Washington has a multitrillion-dollar fiscal problem. United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's answer, so far, is to look for loose change down the back of the sofa.

For South Korea, the best approach to dealing with Trump is what it has always been: Wait him out.

The 35th Muktamar (congress) should be more than a leadership contest. It should mark a new commitment to integrity, independence and service in the life of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization.  

For all the horror of the Tiananmen crackdown, this period also brought extraordinary democratic breakthroughs elsewhere in Asia, as entrenched autocratic systems finally began to yield to democratic rule.

The 2026 forest and land fires reveal a paradox: Indonesia can mobilize after ignition, but climate justice depends on institutions that govern risk before smoke appears.

Indonesia’s 81st Independence Day arrived with all the familiar trappings of patriotism, from polished state ceremonies to spirited neighborhood fun games. Yet beneath the celebratory veneer lay an uneasy reality. Punctuated by sharp political satire, street protests, a devastating earthquake in Flores, and ongoing violence in Papua, the occasion prompted a nagging question: Who is actually experiencing the promise of independence?

From raging wildfires to simmering revolts in the regions, a hyper-centralized Jakarta is driving the country toward a dangerous breaking point that harks back to past policy failures.

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.

Kalimantan’s land fires aren’t just down to El Niño; they are caused by the soil losing its ability to hold water. Prevention must start by restoring the soil’s natural balance.

India and its biggest neighbor in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, have launched a unique initiative to expand collaboration in start-ups, deep-tech innovation, artificial intelligence and talent development that could lead to joint projects and creative initiatives by youth in the two large democracies of the Global South.  

Beyond the resorts and glossy brochures, the PKP Community Center offers vulnerable Balinese women a lifeline of empowerment, community and hope.

Other financial systems have only so much capacity to receive a large and rapid reallocation without destabilizing themselves.

Factories were supposed to build Indonesia’s modern workforce. But as industrial job growth stalls, village spending, not factory floors, is keeping the economy afloat.

Despite years of constitutional reform and judicial intervention, the state's reflexive tendency to criminalize criticism of those in power remains alive and well.

The government is pursuing a two-pronged strategy to strengthen energy security: reducing dependence on fuel imports through the mandatory B50 biodiesel policy while reforming fuel subsidies to make them more targeted toward lower-income households. Both policies, however, come with challenges. The B50 program, which combines 50 percent palm oil-based biofuel with 50 percent fossil-fuel diesel, could increase domestic demand for crude palm oil (CPO), potentially affecting exports and cooking oil prices. Meanwhile, the government’s planned restrictions on subsidized fuel purchases have raised questions about the accuracy of household welfare assessments used to determine eligibility.

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.

Indonesia’s labor market resembles a polished façade concealing deeper cracks. Official figures show headline unemployment falling, yet the recovery has not created enough quality jobs for the country’s growing educated workforce. Education has long been seen as the first step up the social ladder, opening the way to secure employment and a better life. Today, however, more than 1 million university graduates are unemployed, exposing a troubling reality: A degree no longer reliably opens the doors it once promised.

What started with the death of young woman in a traffic accident has escalated into a general protest about a lack of accountability for the powerful.

A thirty-year silence from nuclear testing was not an accident of history—it was a fragile choice that the world must urgently choose to keep.

A capable state must do more than deliver programs, it must ensure that all citizens can hold power accountable and participate as equals.

The puzzle of why the Trump administration is so concerned with a falling yen has historical parallels not to the 1930s or the 1980s, but to the 1960s, when US officials feared that a crisis elsewhere could spread to America. With US bond yields spiking, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is getting desperate.

The current global order will not reborn from the bottom-up, top-down or from the Global South, but it will come down to middle powers that have the most to lose from a decline of global governance and have the most power to actually change it, according to Munich Security Conference (MSC) CEO Benedikt Franke.

To turn a historic paper pact into real Indo-Pacific deterrence, Washington and Jakarta must move beyond symbolic drills to build a high-tech, gray-zone defense partnership that respects Indonesia’s strategic nonalignment.