Many realize reformasi is a long journey; taking to the streets apart from social media is the only means of expression that ordinary people have.

Only a higher pace of bold structural reforms would make the monetary easing more effective in stimulating investment to consequently propel higher economic growth. Unfortunately, this seems to be the weakest point of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration.

Parents may insist they have not been toiling so hard to pay for tuitions for the sake of their offspring’s future, only to see students skipping classes for street rallies. But as other teenagers have expressed, there won't be much of a future as long as they do not see meaningful measures to save the planet.

Optimism that we can contain the fires ourselves does not help while children suffer even more from the effect of toxic pollutants compared with adults. Rushing the children to the nearest health facilities involves slow, careful navigation when parents cannot even see anything 10 meters ahead. We need all the help we can get. Now.

Tens of millions of Lion Air Group customers affected by a leak of passport details that hit headlines this week is just one of many breaches of user data — one too many.

After four years of not having an up-to-date water law, the House of Representatives passed on Tuesday a law on water resources that is meant to prioritize public access to Indonesia’s fresh water as mandated by the famous Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution, which reads, “the land, the waters and the natural resources within shall be under the powers of the state and shall be used to the greatest benefit of the people”.

There is no doubt that the new law is unnecessary — it practically cripples the antigraft body, which in the past has taken on major graft cases involving political big wigs, from a House speaker to a senior Cabinet minister.

The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) has revealed that as only 5 percent of child marriages were granted court exemptions, the remaining 95 percent may have been carried out with falsified documents.

With Indonesia’s smoking culture and large exposure to cigarettes, price increases might do little to reduce cigarette consumption and smoking prevalence in the short term.

The public’s fear of a weakened KPK remains unaddressed, despite the President’s assertion on Friday that he desired a stronger antigraft body.

But with more than 5,000 hot spots detected across Indonesia just in the past week, more and more people are beginning to wonder: Is Indonesia doing enough this time around?

A man of solution. That’s how people close to him describe Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, Indonesia’s third president, who passed away at 83 years of age just after dusk on Wednesday.

What came out of the meeting, be it construction of more infrastructure or more jobs for native Papuans, is definitely important, but what matters most is the dialogue itself.

The bill on the amendment of the KPK Law currently tabled by the House of Representatives is just part of a long-running, systematic and structured effort to paralyze the antigraft body, hence depriving the country of a chance of winning its war on corruption.

However hard Jokowi has been pushing forward his reform measures, the reform programs in other countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and India have run much faster, thereby making them the main destinations for manufacturing plants relocated from China and Japan.

One reason people burn their trash is that there is no reliable waste collection service in place. However, the ultimate reason is: Why not?

As Indonesia supplies more than 20 percent of the global nickel market, the country will certainly benefit greatly from the compulsory domestic refining of raw nickel. But policy flip-flopping does not bode well for the credibility of government policy.

With President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo unlikely to make changes to the list of 10 candidates for the Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) top posts, the burden of selecting the right people to lead the country’s fight against graft for the next four years has shifted to the House of Representatives.

The statements of lawmakers and Law and Human Rights Ministry officials suggest that finally passing the amended Criminal Code after five decades of deliberation would be their signature legacy. But what kind of legacy will it be if they pass a bill perceived to be more draconian than the current century-old Criminal Code?

Consistently, low oil prices have forced oil companies to be extremely selective regarding the sites for exploration. An efficient bureaucracy is crucial especially in the oil industry, because the time lag between discovery and production is often 15 years.

Indonesia’s universal healthcare scheme is one of the most generous and biggest in many ways. While the scheme has successfully provided more people with healthcare services, the facilities and funding to support it are deteriorating.

Jakarta will remain the land of dreamers, with a divide between the richest and the poorest.

Despite all the horrors that occurred during Indonesia’s 24-year occupation, it is undeniable and unavoidable that Indonesia and Timor Leste will remain neighbors. 

The government took a step forward in realizing its commitment to replacing internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles with cleaner electric vehicles (EV) by enacting on Aug. 12 a regulation on a basic policy for EV development.

Throughout Indonesia’s modern history, Jakarta and Java have been synonymous with centralized policies that have disregarded the country’s diversity and pluralism.

The government-sanctioned committee announced last week a list of the remaining 20 candidates in contention for the five KPK leadership seats up for grabs, who unfortunately include certain candidates whose commitment to fighting corruption remains questionable.

BI projects that stronger consumer spending and stable investment will strengthen domestic demand, which underpins national economic growth. 

As the relocation master plan is still being tweaked, officials are failing to come up with answers to questions from members of the diplomatic community.

The wildfires that are now raging in Brazil’s Amazon at a record rate serve as a fresh warning, if not a lesson, for Indonesia, which along with Brazil possesses the largest rainforests in the world.

Laws and regulations are needed to provide workers with strong bargaining power, and the government guarantees the freedom of workers to set up organizations or trade unions. However, overly protective labor legislation could kill the goose that lays the golden egg.