Indonesia's Rp 508 trillion social protection budget can only achieve its true value when the government stops focusing on how much it spends and starts fixing the fragmented digital architecture that is holding it back.

Though the political and cultural backlash against “sustainability” is real, so is the global economic transition toward cleaner energy technologies and electrification.

A presidential regulation that depends on voluntary negotiation ultimately asks platforms to act against their own commercial interest out of goodwill.

The case signals that Southeast Asia’s long-standing reliance on sovereignty and non-interference is increasingly colliding with growing demands for accountability.

The Bantar Gebang landfill in Bekasi, West Java, has once again come under scrutiny following a fatal landslide in March, in a new report that ranked it among the world’s largest methane-emitting landfills in 2025, highlighting the country’s mounting waste crisis. The government has since enacted Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 109/2025 to accelerate investment in waste-to-energy (WtE) projects, while state asset fund Danantara has stepped in to coordinate investment and operations nationwide. However, major hurdles remain, including regulatory uncertainty, high investment costs and environmental as well as public concerns.

Almost 30 years later, there are still echoes of the past that stir a sense of déjà vu, along with anxiety that everything might once again collapse like a string of dominoes.

"China is back" is a common refrain among investors. However, stock-picking in China remains as hard as ever.

Indonesia keeps building shiny technoparks to celebrate innovation, but until its institutions actually reward risk and accept failure, it is merely building the container while ignoring the broken system inside.

The Netherlands and Indonesia can exchange knowledge on operations in the sea, straits and exclusive economic zones, says Royal Netherlands Navy commander Vice Adm. Harold Liebergs.

Indonesia’s workplace safety system is highly certified on paper, but a skyrocketing accident rate reveals a tragic reality: we are regulating compliance while completely failing to control real-time risks.

The Iran war has revealed how deeply material interests are embedded in strategic calculations, concentrating rewards among powerful insiders while leaving society to absorb the costs. As long as chaos remains politically and economically rewarding, such conflicts will remain difficult to contain.

The Police Reform Acceleration Committee’s 3,000-page report exposes deep systemic ailments within the National Police, yet by keeping the force directly under presidential control, it risks preserving the political status quo under the guise of reform.

Rather than attempt to downplay the rupiah's slide through well-meaning but ultimately misleading political statements that inevitably dismiss the plight of rural communities, realpolitik based on honesty backed by data is the best policy approach.

There is renewed hope for police reform following President Prabowo Subianto’s approval of the police reform committee’s recommendations. Although several points merely preserve the status quo, the recommendations also call for more substantive action, particularly a revision of the 2002 National Police Law.

As its population graying at an unprecedented rate, Indonesia must pivot from viewing its elderly as a cultural burden to designing proactive policies that transform them into a national asset.

Tensions are escalating again between the neighbors, this time over their maritime border.

Every country in our region is struggling with the question of how education systems can keep up with the pace of change. 

To escape the middle-income trap, Indonesia must transition from a passive market into a global producer of breakthrough medical innovations.

The world is losing sight of the overwhelming evidence that vaccines save lives.

As US foreign policy shifts into a cutthroat, transactional game under Trump, Europe is fighting back by forging its own strategic autonomy rooted in value-based realism.

The rupiah’s march toward 18,000 per dollar is not merely a currency story; it is a warning signal of something deeper, the erosion of confidence in Indonesia’s economic direction.

The rupiah recently plunged to an all-time low of Rp 17,514 per United States dollar, and pressure on the currency may intensify in the second quarter as Indonesia faces a convergence of external and domestic challenges. Maturing government debt, dividend repatriation by foreign investors and soaring oil prices are tightening dollar liquidity, while the latest MSCI Indonesia rebalancing threatens further capital outflows.

Any impression that rules are enforced selectively or that crackdowns are politically motivated would be extremely detrimental to the country’s investment climate.

When waste is not measured, it does not appear in performance metrics; when it does not appear in metrics, it is rarely prioritized.

Using the repatriation of Java Man as a springboard, it is time for Indonesia to develop a strong museum culture, not only to celebrate its vast historical and archaeological wealth but also to wield it as a soft power to elevate its economic, educational and geopolitical value and narrative influence.

As the long-standing rules-based order fragments under global uncertainties due to geopolitics, economics and technology, the world urgently needs a coherent, credible and collective framework for stability.

Empires rise and fall, but to my knowledge no state has ever deliberately, and systematically, killed its own power — much less with such speed.