Adopting aggressive state capitalism without a strong state monitoring capacity leaves the strategy vulnerable to capture by politically connected rent-seekers.

Indonesia's falling unemployment rate looks like an economic triumph, until you realize the country’s poorest villages have the lowest joblessness, masking a hollowed-out manufacturing sector and millions driven into survival farming.

A massive wiretapping scandal targeting over 6,000 people, ranging from politicians to activists, reveals that Indonesia’s surveillance apparatus isn't just guarding the state. It's systematically dismantling democracy from the shadows.

The detention of former National Police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo on allegations of illegal wiretapping has become one of the most consequential political scandals in recent Indonesian history. Yet the country has probably not seen its full fallout. If anything, the affair is only beginning to reveal how deeply police power penetrated the political system and how weak oversight and accountability have become.

Will Indonesia become a society governed by the rule of law or a country coopted by the interests of its ambitious leaders? It is high time for President Prabowo Subianto and lawmakers to decide. 

As the rupiah touches record lows and the IDX alters its core index to stem market turbulence, Currency Day is more than an anniversary. Eighty years in, the real test is whether the institutions backing the rupiah can still command market trust.

Nobody was murdered, but Indonesian Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka finds himself trapped on a speeding political train where shifting allies, bitter family legacies, and unsettled rivalries make everyone a suspect.

When the state's surveillance machine is turned against the ruling elite, state power is mobilized overnight, whereas the crises choking ordinary citizens are left to burn for months.

Indonesia’s economy has faced considerable turbulence during President Prabowo Subianto’s administration, making its latest international economic ranking a welcome headline for the government. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Indonesia remains one of the world’s largest economies when measured by gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP). The government has celebrated this position as evidence of the country’s economic strength and wealth, while acknowledging persistent inequality. Yet, while the ranking reflects Indonesia’s economic scale, interpreting it as a sign of broad-based prosperity risks obscuring deeper structural weaknesses.

Though the Mecca Pact’s visit to Tehran last week was neither a symbolic gesture nor a fundamental move, observers, media and others are keeping an eye on related developments that may herald a regional security restructuring.

From One Piece flags to Hunger Games salutes, Indonesia’s Gen Z is ditching tired tropes and rewriting the playbook of street resistance in a language entirely their own.

The real AI challenge isn’t surviving machine replacement, it’s redesigning work to unlock human potential, and Indonesia’s agile market is primed to lead the shift.

Hacking supermarket refrigerators may sound trivial. It's not. It's a warning of the economic disruption AI could wreak in an increasingly vulnerable world.

From joint naval patrols to subsea cables and digital payments, the Manila summits offer India and ASEAN a crucial opportunity to turn regional rhetoric into lasting strategic and economic muscle.

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.