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Jakarta Post
Academia

Checkpoints for Kim-Trump summit

An "IMPACT Plus" analysis of speculation about another Kim-Trump summit indicates three gaps compared to 2018 that Seoul could move to bridge, creating the conditions for another meeting regardless of pessimistic prospects at present.

8 hours ago
Academia premium

The collapse of trust in facts: Making sense of verification on the internet

As AI and crowdsourced systems take on the job of fact checking, they promise speed but struggle to deliver trust and explainability. Until they can do all three, human verification still has a vital role to play. ...

9 hours ago
Academia premium

From rivals to allies: Prabowo’s othello strategy

Prabowo’s political architecture strategy is to embrace former political adversaries within a single, inclusive framework, a “big tent” coalition.  ...

10 hours ago

The Latest

Academia premium

Are the walls closing in on Bessent?

Far from suggesting financial Armageddon, the US treasury secretary’s futile efforts to keep a lid on Treasury yields suggest that once again, the dollar is America’s currency but everyone else’s problem.

11 hours ago
Academia premium

Fight the fires, flour power and 40 centimeters

While Indonesia dreams up airborne flour bombs to fight forest fires, its peatlands are quietly sinking out of existence—governed by an ignored 40-centimeter water rule that no aerial stunt can fix.

12 hours ago
Interview premium

ASEAN should aim for South China Sea of peace, Timor-Leste president says

Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta speaks to The Jakarta Post about the future of ASEAN and the challenges ahead for the regional bloc.

13 hours ago
Opinion premium

Analysis: When a disaster-prone nation cuts its safety net budget

A major earthquake in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) has once again put Indonesia’s disaster preparedness under scrutiny, raising tough questions about political will and shrinking mitigation budgets. Sitting squarely on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia faces inherent geological risks. Yet policymakers too often treat this geography as an excuse for poor outcomes rather than an urgent mandate for better preparation.

13 hours ago
Editorial premium

Cost of recentralization

It seems to have become a pattern under the government of President Prabowo Subianto. When problems erupt, the state must “be present”, as the President often puts it, which translates into asserting itself more forcefully.

14 hours ago
Academia

Vietnam’s hantavirus warning for Southeast Asia

Taking action to prevent zoonotic disease spillover is better than reacting to an outbreak, especially in countries where people live and work closely with wildlife, such as Vietnam and Indonesia.

1 day ago
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Sparring and engaging, Asia's new normal

As traditional US alliances shift and Beijing flexes its muscle, regional powers must master the delicate art of sparring with China without triggering an outright conflict.

1 day ago
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The Himalayan warning and the blind spots in climate risk

A glacier in Tibet fell exactly as the science said it would, and no agency or institution was waiting for it: Indonesia is writing a climate change law with the same blind spot.

1 day ago
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AI boom: Can Indonesia move from market to maker?

Indonesia has the scale to drive AI demand, but without an urgent policy pivot into tech manufacturing and infrastructure, it risks becoming just a lucrative consumer market while its neighbors capture the real value.

1 day ago
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The anti-fascist playbook: How we can reclaim our democracy

From weaponized algorithms to creeping militarism, an urgent blueprint for exposing authoritarian power and defending civic freedom before it is too late.

1 day ago
Opinion premium

Analysis: KKI expands credit access amid rising household risks

Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Indonesian Payment System Association (ASPI) launched Kartu Kredit Indonesia (KKI) on Aug. 17, enabling deferred QRIS payments to be processed domestically. While easier access to credit could support consumption and strengthen Indonesia’s payment ecosystem, it also carries risks. Without prudent lending standards, greater convenience could lead to higher household debt and deteriorating credit quality.

1 day ago
Editorial premium

Whoosh at a juncture

Shuffling Whoosh’s ballooning debt among state balance sheets won't save the region's first HSR service; only hard renegotiations and structural reform will.

1 day ago
Academia premium

Peaceful border talks require secure ground first

As Thailand prepares to engage constructively with the UNCLOS conciliation proceedings to resolve the border dispute with Cambodia, both sides must first ensure that the conditions on the ground are actually safe for our teams to work.

2 days ago
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Meeting Indonesia’s growth, and deficit, targets

In parallel with growth, the government must have a dedicated focus on the revenue side of reducing the deficit, particularly in drawing businesses out of the shadow economy and into the real economy.

2 days ago
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New BI leadership brings experience and stability

As Destry Damayanti makes history as the central bank's first female governor, a battle-tested leadership team is stepping up to anchor monetary stability and drive equitable growth through turbulent global markets.

2 days ago
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Technocracy cannot fix Europe

A new private initiative bringing together the crème de la crème of European business, financial, economic and tech elites could well prove useful in kick-starting European growth and innovation. But first, it must recognize that the problem it hopes to solve is fundamentally political.

2 days ago
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OECD is no magic lamp

Chasing elite clubs like the OECD won’t magically transform Indonesia’s economy, especially in a fractured global order where diplomatic prestige is no substitute for domestic reform.

2 days ago
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‘Desil-desilan’: Indonesia’s welfare ranking needs more than a data refresh

The deeper issue is that a probabilistic statistical estimate is being wielded as an indisputable administrative fact; one deemed sharp enough to decide who gets subsidized fuel and who walks away empty-handed.

2 days ago
Opinion premium

Analysis: Pay it back, walk free Prabowo's corruption dilemma

Imagine a corrupt official who has stolen billions of rupiah from state coffers. Under a proposal floated by President Prabowo Subianto, that official could walk free, no conviction, no prison, simply by handing the money back. It sounds like restitution; critics say it looks a lot like a pardon with a price tag. The proposal, outlined in Prabowo's Aug. 14 State of the Nation Address, would offer amnesty to corruptors who return stolen state funds. It has reignited a debate that cuts to the heart of his presidency: Is Indonesia's war on corruption for real, or is it starting to look negotiable?

2 days ago
Editorial premium

Transparency matters

These shows may suspended accounts, but the process needs transparency.

2 days ago
Academia premium

How state budget fuels more land and ecological conflicts

As toxic haze blankets the region, Indonesia's 2027 draft budget reveals a dangerous paradox: chasing state revenue by doubling down on the very extractive projects fueling the fires and displacing its people.

4 days ago
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The Aug. 27 demonstrations: From the streets to the MPR?

While the crowds take to the streets, the real political battle is being waged behind closed doors - where public anger may simply be the opening move in an elite power reshuffle.

4 days ago
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Watching the 35th NU congress from the diaspora

As Nahdlatul Ulama gathers for its 35th Muktamar, a former diaspora leader argues that safeguarding the organization’s future demands uncompromising independence from power, global literacy at the helm and a real voice for cadres abroad.

4 days ago
Opinion premium

Analysis: PPHN Prabowo's green light for Soeharto's ghost

It is almost a done deal. After a decade of false starts under President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, the push to revive a binding state roadmap, the Pokok-Pokok Haluan Negara (Principles of State Policy, or PPHN), finally has what it lacked: political consensus and a president willing to back it.

4 days ago
Academia premium

We cannot intern our way to productive employment

Subsidizing six-month internships won't fix graduate unemployment if Indonesia's shrinking industrial base lacks the factories, machinery and capacity to hire them afterward.

4 days ago
Editorial premium

Wildfires: All hands on deck

As Indonesia's catastrophic wildfires choke the wider region yet again, the real culprit isn't the unusually prolonged dry weather but the corporate impunity and lax governance fueling the flames.

4 days ago
Academia

The deadliest Ebola outbreak can be stopped

Stopping the world’s fastest-moving Ebola outbreak demands more than international aid—it requires empowering the local communities and frontline workers holding the front line.

5 days ago

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