Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa was removed as finance minister after just over a year in office, marking the second time President Prabowo Subianto has replaced the country’s finance minister in less than two years. Prabowo appointed former deputy finance minister Suahasil Nazara to replace him, making Suahasil the third person to hold the position since Prabowo took office. The abrupt change followed months of contentious reforms, fiscal policies and plans that increasingly brought Purbaya into conflict with officials within the Finance Ministry and with other institutions.

Relying solely on executive orders and administrative decrees is fundamentally insufficient for a technology this consequential.

The flames may eventually die down, but for the wildlife trapped in Indonesia’s charred forests, the real crisis of hunger, trauma and displacement has only just begun.

Indonesia is entering an era of bigger defense budgets and small budgetary visibility. Yet the institutions that allow the legislature and the public to determine where money goes have not strengthened.

The public has been handed a reform that was quietly rendered toothless months before its scheduled arrival.

Indonesia faces an unfortunate fiscal paradox: Just as the government has cut disaster-mitigation funding to the bone, disasters have struck with unforgiving regularity. President Prabowo Subianto himself has acknowledged that disasters are part and parcel of life in the archipelago. Yet his administration has slashed the National Disaster Mitigation Agency’s (BNPB) budget to just Rp 491 billion (US$28 million) this year, raising a fundamental question: How much can Indonesia afford to save on preparing for disasters?

The 100-gigawatt solar ambition is no longer about hitting a target, it is about turning homegrown clean power into our next great economic engine.

Rebranding gig drivers as "entrepreneurs" might polish government employment data, but no administrative label can turn precarious, low-productivity survival into a genuine path to prosperity.

A regional administration that fixes flawed infrastructure after it goes viral isn't setting the standard for leadership. It's merely doing the bare minimum.

This obscure member of the rare earths family is going to be high on the agenda when China's President Xi Jinping meets with United States President Donald Trump later this month in Washington.

The more useful question for Indonesia is why its students fall behind, and what can be done about it.

The new finance minister may reassure nervous markets, but the real test begins when fiscal discipline inevitably collides with President Prabowo’s expansive political ambitions.

At the United Nations' 81st General Assembly, member states will be close to choosing the next secretary-general, who will immediately be confronted not only by many global crises, but also by the UN’s diminished finances.

From the poisoning of Munir to an acid attack left unpunished, Indonesia’s military justice system reveals a chilling truth: impunity isn’t a breakdown of the law, but a calculated display of power.

Closer relations present a moment to revisit whether the partnership has mutually benefited our peoples and contributed to the greater global public good amid such an unpredictable international environment. 

At the 11th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, President Prabowo Subianto announced plans by Russian aluminum producer Rusal to invest in an Indonesian processing plant, part of broader efforts to deepen bilateral economic ties. Yet the planned investment comes amid intensifying geoeconomic rivalry among major powers, raising questions over whether Indonesia can deepen ties with Russia without compromising its strategic flexibility. The test is whether Indonesia can remain both bebas (free) and aktif (active).

When soldiers target civilians and keep their badges, the military court doesn't just shield its own, it suffocates our democracy.

The Ukraine war certainly featured in conversations. Tellingly, however, Putin steered many talks with leaders towards fuel, trade and transit.

Restoring our degraded lands is no longer optional: It is a proven, high-return investment in our climate, economies and survival.

Once built, trust has to be continuously nurtured to enable the two countries to contribute fully to the maintenance of peace and security in the region.

Smoke doesn’t stop at national borders, and accountability shouldn’t stop at the person holding the match.

As youth violence shifts from organized terrorist dogma to decentralized digital subcultures, Southeast Asia must confront a new reality: how do you stop an impending attack when there is no ideology to deradicalize and no network to map?

Three finance ministers in less than two years proves Indonesia’s fiscal challenge isn’t about who manages the budget, but whether political ambition has finally outpaced economic reality.

Indonesia’s recurring wildfires have once again spiraled into a crisis that reaches far beyond its forests and peatlands. As dense haze shuts down schools, endangers public health, and chokes local economies at home, smoke from fires across Sumatra and Kalimantan has drifted across national borders, blanketing parts of Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines. What has long been treated as an unfortunate, seasonal environmental headache is morphing into a thorny test of governance, and an escalating diplomatic liability for Jakarta.

The sudden shake-up at the Finance Ministry has rattled markets, leaving Indonesia’s new fiscal chief with the precarious task of funding Prabowo’s ambitious growth targets without driving the nation into a deficit ditch.

From Central Asia to the Pacific, sovereign states are proving that global rules cannot remain the exclusive playground of great powers.

Rapid expansion of the bloc means that its 21 members have deeply divergent interests, particularly in the Middle East.