Greatness is not declared from a podium, and as state control replaces market discipline, Indonesia’s vital signs are heading the wrong way.

Two years in, the President's flagship free meals program is cannibalizing regional budgets, stoking food inflation and risking systemic economic fallout for the sake of political ambition.

Indonesia isn't undergoing an economic boom under Prabowo, it is running a state-funded illusion on an off-budget credit card that is about to max out.

The controversy surrounding Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka has entered a new phase. Criticism of how he reached office is increasingly channeled into talk of impeachment. Paradoxically, the more it is discussed, the less likely it seems to happen. The mechanism exists, but the politics suggest its impact will be symbolic rather than institutional.

Everywhere you look, the country seems to be teetering on the brink, and whether he likes it or not President Prabowo has been seen by most people as being slow to respond to the problems, if not causing the problems themselves.  

The LME will start trading a new hot-rolled-coil (HRC) Steel Shanghai contract widely regarded as the global benchmark for the flat steel sector.

For too long, it has been more profitable to destroy tropical forests than to conserve them, even though they provide services essential for the survival of many countries and for the welfare of us all.

Sustainable-finance instruments may be available, but their availability does not automatically translate into new energy-transition projects.

Bailouts and premium hikes buy time. Only evidence-based decisions, standardized care and smarter purchasing can keep national health insurance solvent.

Indonesia’s reforms have improved transparency and regulation, but their impact remains constrained by structural problems that stricter rules alone cannot resolve.

As rising global debt and geopolitical shocks squeeze developing nations, Indonesia’s push for ambitious expansion hinges on disciplined spending, targeted tax reform and private-sector competitiveness.

With three months left in the year, Indonesia has collected barely two-thirds of its annual tax target. The government now faces an uncomfortable choice over how aggressively to pursue the remainder and where to restrain spending. Every effort to balance the books carries consequences for businesses and people who depend on public services. Who will bear the cost if the government's revenue ambitions exceed its capacity to collect?

While the recent change at the helm of the state electricity company seems to signal continuity at first glance, given the President's urging a “comprehensive transformation”, Suroso might actually have a chance to spread his wings as PLN's former renewables director.

To end recurring food poisoning outbreaks linked to the flagship free meals program, we must rethink the kitchen: Blending freshly cooked meals with safely processed local foods is the key to scaling without sickening our children.

Indonesia cannot stop climate disasters from arriving, but its schools must stop waiting for the smoke to clear before they start preparing.

Vocational schools may train obedient workers, but without critical thinking, they risk producing a generation of citizens who can only follow orders.

As Indonesian faces functional extinction in Australian classrooms by 2031, both nations stand on the brink of a costly strategic blind spot.

India maintains that a global multipolar order must start with a multipolar Asia, rejecting both a US-dominated unipolar structure and a China-centric "Asia for Asians" model.

President Prabowo Subianto wants to revive Indonesia's struggling textile industry by establishing a new state-owned enterprise (SOE), potentially drawing on assets left behind by bankrupt textile giant Sritex. The plan comes amid factory closures, mass layoffs and mounting competition from cheaper imports. But with much of the industry's production capacity already underutilized, the government faces a difficult question: Will another state-owned company restore the industry's competitiveness or merely add to its problems?

Extreme El Niños are coming. Reaching net zero sooner means facing fewer of them.

While Andrea Bocelli faces boycotts and Kanye West gets a pass in Jakarta, Indonesia reveals an uncomfortable truth: Separating the art from the artist isn't dead, it's just selectively enforced by local politics.

Ending global hunger isn’t held back by a lack of innovation, but by our failure to get proven solutions into the hands of the farmers who need them most.

The main challenge to food security for all is not innovation but adoption, which involves localizing proven solutions and ensuring that they are affordable to use, maintain and grow.

Indonesia’s push to lure capital through Danantara’s special bonds risks turning investor protection into a legal shield for financial crime and tax evasion.

Indonesia’s journey, and PT SMI’s contribution to it, is but one part of a broader regional narrative. What I carried home from Colombo was a profound sense of optimism that our development finance institutions are becoming more than financiers of growth; we are becoming a community of practice, united by a shared purpose and enriched by the exchange of ideas and experience.

The global economy is entrenched in a cycle of sluggish economic growth, with rates in many countries, particularly the major developed economies, stalling well below 3 percent.

The controversy over Gibran’s credentials is no longer just about a diploma: It is a defining test of whether the national legislature still checks executive power or merely bows to it.