The rise of regional leaders like Anies, Ganjar and Ridwan on the national political stage comes as fresh air amid the predominance of political elites in Jakarta.

The major stumbling block to ASEAN’s efforts to end the suffering of Myanmar's people is a lack of unity. 

Problems arose after palm oil prices reached historical highs over the last two years, hovering above US$1,000 per ton due to the combination of demand increase and supply disruption in several major producing countries.

The treaty on extradition, for instance, is not a silver bullet that will immediately lead to the repatriation of Indonesian fugitives who are hiding in the island state.

Our elections are far from perfect, with oligarchic constraints and vote-buying still depriving us of truly fair and open elections, but a peaceful and periodic election is still the backbone of our democracy. 

Jokowi insisted that the ASEAN road map “shall not be linked” with the Tatmadaw’s own five-point road map, as it could be misconstrued as a move to legitimize the junta.

The accelerated vaccine rollout, which now includes booster doses, should not leave anyone behind, particularly those who have yet to receive their first or second shot.

The fiasco could have been avoided had the Defense Ministry proposed an emergency funding to the House of Representatives to finance both the satellite lease and purchase. 

The government’s plan to establish a public service agency called the Crude Palm Oil Support Fund (BPDKS) to raise funds to subsidize the difference between the coal export price and the DMO price not only will be ineffective but is also irrelevant.

Moving the capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan may begin not only political and administrative transformations, but also cultural ones. 

Vaccination against COVID-19 is voluntary in Australia, but Victoria State, where the Australian Open is being held, has made it mandatory for all professional athletes. 

The uptick of cases should come as no surprise, given the relative laxity of travel restrictions.

Catholics, a minority in predominantly Muslim Indonesia, recall Rahmat for his bravery in resisting pressures and even physical threats from Islamic hard-line groups to defend Santa Klara Church in North Bekasi.

We hear reports of desperate refuge seekers, many who have been in Indonesia for more than 10 years, protesting and camping outside the UNHCR office demanding speedier resettlement in third countries.

President Jokowi has elected to establish the office of deputy home minister just as the principal home minister prepares to select 101 high-ranking officials to serve as acting governors, regents and mayors to replace those whose terms will end this year, followed by another batch of 171 next year.

Jokowi phoned Hun Sen to tell him the Myanmar junta had no choice but to fully implement the “five-point consensus”. 

The combination of inadequate institutional capacity, greed and corruption resulted in the issuance of thousands of overlapping mining concessions.

The House's failure to ratify the RCEP is a slap in the face of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, the chief promoter of the free trade agreement.

Transjakarta president director Mochammad Yana Aditya said the company would overhaul its system in accordance with the KNKT’s recommendations to prevent further accidents in the future. 

Indonesian companies will benefit from the RCEP through lower tariff rates for their exports, better access to cheaper or better-quality imports for making their products and a more open and more transparent business environment for trade in goods, services, investment, and movement of people. 

Now that the pandemic is under some semblance of control, we can more confidently resume in-class instruction.

In the future, all funding and cooperation must gain approval from BRIN, the formation of which has been deemed by many as the politicization of science. 

The monthlong coal export ban is a decision between producers suffering penalties from international buyers or the country incurring heavy economic losses from a massive power outage. And let's not forget the COP26 energy declaration.

Shin’s arrival two years ago has rekindled Indonesia’s dream of restoring its soccer hegemony in the region. 

For two years now, we have all lived under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now infected more than 285 million people and killed upwards of 5.4 million worldwide.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has identified East Java as the most vulnerable to floods, followed by West Java, Central Java, North Sumatra and Riau.

However rational and good-intentioned Anies’ renegade wage policy for the welfare of low-income workers might be, his defiance of the government’s wage guidance would damage the credibility of a fixed formula for determining the annual minimum wage already stipulated in Government Regulation No.36/2021 (PP36).

The government's ability to procure ready-to-use and bulk COVID-19 vaccines, mostly from China, was the key factor behind the government’s success, at least for now, to deal with the coronavirus after it devastated the country in June. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo personally approached Chinese President Xi Jinping for emergency assistance to save the lives of Indonesians.

There is no denying that the grassroots Islamic group is the most influential mass organization in the world’s third-largest democracy, which hosts the world’s largest Muslim population. For nearly a century, it has been a political and cultural force to be reckoned with. If controlling Java is key, it only makes sense that having strong clout within NU, with which the majority of Muslims in Java identify, is critical.

Can we muster the spirit of Austria’s Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver Grubber, who succeeded in transforming a disastrous Christmas mass in 1818 into the birth of one of the world’s most famous Christmas songs?