Facing a hostile Congress, the US president is likely to focus on foreign policy to secure his legacy.

A new police chief may wield power differently, but Indonesia’s true test of reform is deciding how much unchecked authority any one official should ever inherit.

Indonesia built an untouchable police monster that now spies on the President himself—and the only way to save democracy is to break it up.

Indonesia is facing mounting economic and diplomatic costs from forest and peatland fires this year as a prolonged dry season coincides with a strong El Niño and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). The fires have caused widespread damage, placed a substantial burden on public health and economic activity and sent haze across national borders. The combined economic and health costs are estimated to have reached as much as Rp 123.1 trillion (US$6.79 billion), while the resulting pollution has strained relations with neighboring countries.

When rogue police operators can secretly tap the President’s phone and wipe the logs, state surveillance isn't protecting democracy—it's quietly dismantling it.

Nur Rakhman Setyoko, deputy permanent representative to the World Trade Organization, spoke to The Jakarta Post about Indonesia’s trade interests, WTO reform and the importance of preserving multilateralism in the current economic reality.

When the police can wiretap the president without a warrant, the fall of a few generals reveals not just a rogue plot, but a deep-state surveillance apparatus that will outlast any prosecution unless the system itself is dismantled.

Indonesia needs a trusted capital market not just to reassure foreign investors, but to finance businesses, safeguard long-term savings, and help households build wealth.

Foreign policy must come with a strategic vision of states to maximize the benefits of the AI’s use and mitigate its risks. 

As the EUDR exposes the structural limits of private voluntary certification, the RSPO’s decades-long monopoly is giving way to a new era of sovereign regulation and legal parity.

Indonesia's capital market is once again under pressure following MSCI's warning of a potential downgrade from emerging market to standalone market status. The warning prompted an immediate regulatory response, including measures to address high shareholding concentration and suspected market manipulation. However, the sudden response raises a broader question: Why have longstanding market governance weaknesses and investor protection concerns only received serious attention after repeated threats of a market downgrade?

The real lesson of the Nepal disaster is that economic development and early warning systems protect human lives—not empty summit pledges.

Indonesia has sunk to a decade low on the Rule of Law Index—a damning confirmation that from police impunity to ad hoc task forces, the law no longer restrains state power, but serves as its weapon.

Myanmar's head of mission in Jakarta responds to an opinion article by James H. Shwe on the FATF and Indonesia's role as a task force member, particularly with regard to transnational scam compounds.

COP pledges are won or lost far from conference halls. If climate finance cannot bridge the gap to local communities in provinces, global targets will remain out of reach.

From the Black Sea to your bowl of noodles, war in Ukraine directly shakes Indonesia’s food prices—and reveals why Europe and Indonesia must partner to secure what’s on our tables.

Driven by the allure of novel tech and flashy inaugurations, Indonesian institutions risk chasing performative modernization at the cost of deep operational competence and lasting institutional memory.

Blaming the palm oil industry for Indonesian fires fueling Southeast Asia’s transboundary haze is an easy narrative, but rigorous evidence and reality tell a far more complex story.

Fighting the fires and finding new, sustainable engines of growth are not separate battles.

From movie screens to Southeast Asia's streets, the three-finger salute has evolved from a silent cinematic gesture into Indonesia's potent rallying cry against oligarchy, poverty and ecological collapse.

As toxic haze from seasonal forest and peatland fires blanketed swaths of Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua, a second crisis unfolded online: Content creators, civil society organizations, environmental activists and regional officials reported a sudden wave of digital suppression.

Rewriting the anticorruption law could modernize enforcement to global standards, but without strict safeguards, it risks giving corrupt elites an easy exit under the guise of business judgment.

The West Java governor's political star is rising parallel to the President's falling approval, showing how voter behavior adapts to favor popular regional leaders in an opposition vacuum.

Attacking Iran against the explicit warnings of Turkey and Saudi Arabia risks a catastrophic regional war where military superiority delivers neither stability nor a viable political endgame.

From migratory seabirds to family dinner tables, stopping the next pandemic demands that we treat animal, human, and ecological health as one shared frontline.

A century after the First Youth Congress imagined Indonesia into existence, a new generation must break constitutional taboos to ensure that our union is sustained by genuine justice rather than centralized decree.

The haze has returned, along with an old political habit: Blaming outsiders rather than confronting failures at home.