President Prabowo Subianto wants Indonesians to enjoy free education from kindergarten through university. Few would dispute the objective of making education more accessible. The harder question is how the government will pay for it. The state has yet to fully fund a Constitutional Court order to extend free compulsory basic education to private schools, even as Prabowo adds free university tuition to a budget already carrying increasingly expensive signature programs.

Indonesia dodged a constitutional crisis on Tuesday, but only because the Constitutional Court looked the other way.

A lot more crude is getting through the Strait of Hormuz. So why is Brent still trading above $100 per barrel?

A bilateral AI hotline between Washington and Beijing will manage the superpower crises, but it won’t save Southeast Asia from the collateral damage of frontier tech.

Beyond the theatrical spotlight of global superpowers, Indonesia faces the vital diplomatic challenge of ensuring that its voice delivers lasting substance on the world stage.

Marine conservation is a fundamental component of national development among many WIO countries, but international cooperation and common financing instruments are essential because the ocean, as well as the species in it, knows no man-made bounds.

Indonesia fuels the global economy with its coal, palm oil, and nickel, yet loses billions every year by paying foreign fleets to carry its own wealth away.  

Indonesia is ready to claim a fifth seat on the UN Security Council, but unless President Prabowo can convince ordinary citizens why it matters, the bid risks looking like little more than expensive diplomatic tourism.

The government has formally changed how it manages its budget surplus funds (SAL), ending a nearly year-long debate over how the roughly Rp 400 trillion (US$22.4 billion) in surplus funds should be managed and put to use. Under Finance Ministry Regulation (PMK) No. 67/2026, excess government cash can now be placed with commercial banks or invested in government securities (SBN), giving the Finance Ministry greater flexibility in managing its cash.

International sporting glory isn’t an accident of luck or raw grit. It is the inevitable dividend of a nation that invests in the health, education and human development of its people.

India is working to emerge from China’s shadow while improving diplomatic relations, but the more the world’s most populous country pushes, the more apparent its dependence on its wealthier neighbor becomes.

Natural hazards are inevitable, but disaster risk is manufactured, and Indonesia cannot engineer true resilience until it stops spending like a firefighter and starts budgeting like an architect.

Removing prison wardens will never fix Indonesia’s broken justice system as long as luxury remains a commodity the corrupt can buy behind bars.

Nations escape the middle-income trap by building factories, not funding handouts - and Prabowonomics risks mistaking consumption for a cure.

Estimates of funding needs and proposed investment pipelines overlook a critical piece of infrastructure: an ecosystem of climate-adapted care services that helps families prepare for, cope with and recover from climate-induced hazards.

As Myanmar’s people bleed under a brutal junta and regional indifference, Jakarta’s complacency serves as a chilling warning: ignoring the normalization of tyranny abroad only paves the way for creeping militarism at home.

By reducing corruption to mere bribery, Indonesia risks letting modern abuses of power escape justice, a blind spot laid bare by the controversial trial of Nadiem Makarim.

The decision by PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) to recall several electric trains produced by PT Industri Kereta Api (INKA) for its Commuter Line service adds to the challenges facing the state-owned rolling stock manufacturer, which is struggling with high debt and production constraints amid a planned merger with KAI. Meanwhile, government approval to import secondhand rolling stock from Japan provides a short-term solution to KAI’s train shortage. Such reliance on imports could persist unless INKA’s production capacity and the domestic rolling stock supply chain are strengthened.

When groundwater reservoirs are replenished, the ground above rises, but the uplift is patchy because earthquake faults act like underground dams, channeling water. 

From the sun-starved alleys of Tambora to the sinking shores of Java, Indonesia’s urban future hinges on a vital shift: treating housing not just as four walls, but as a resilient, community-led ecosystem where dignity comes first.

The government pours billions into shaping adult conduct and schooling, but human character and critical reasoning are overwhelmingly forged between the womb and age seven, where state policy rarely looks.

Indonesia may have secured a place at the BRICS table. But a seat at the table is not the same thing as having something distinctive to say at it.

Clear legal limits, accountability and safeguards are needed to ensure exceptional assistance does not become an administrative norm.

Many see and expect that the new Foreign Minister could inject a new energy into the performance of Indonesia’s foreign policy in the years to come. 

Indonesia has once again been forced to confront an uncomfortable question: What happens to the principle of equality before the law once the courtroom doors close?

Under the stewardship of then defense minister Prabowo Subianto, now Indonesia’s eighth President, the military embarked on a serious military hardware modernization effort. 

With Indonesian youth recording the world’s lowest faith in social mobility, misallocated public funds and crumbling classrooms threaten to turn the constitutional promise of education into an inescapable poverty trap.