Even if the people acknowledge his achievements by entrusting him with leading the country for five more years, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo should refrain from celebrating. He could end his current term in October on a low note, particularly regarding corruption eradication, now that three of his ministers have come on the radar of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

We wonder why the Finance Ministry, the management board of the Indonesia Stock Exchange and the Financial Services Authority have not acted quickly and firmly to clarify the dissenting opinions of two major institutional shareholders on the 2018 consolidated financial statement of the US$4.37 billion publicly listed Garuda Indonesia airline.

The closure will simultaneously affect the livelihood of travel agencies, tour guides and the West Manggarai community, who have been relying tourism.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo surprised us this week when he revealed the plan to move the capital city. The idea is not new, but the fact that Jokowi, who is on course for a second term, discussed it at a Cabinet meeting as the administration prepares next year’s budget suggests that he might be serious this time around.

Honda happened to control about 78 percent of the motorcycle market in the country and Yamaha almost 20 percent.

From the outset, the second Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forum held last week was designed to prove the critics wrong.

Farmer and civil society organizations and even Indonesia’s antitrust body, the Business Competition Supervisory Commission, have been strengthening their demand for the government to enforce laws that require plantation companies to help develop smallholder estates through commercially viable partnerships.

It is as if nothing has happened since the 2014 legislative election. Despite a series of graft cases implicating various political parties and a meager performance in lawmaking, the new composition of the House of Representatives, according to quick-count results, has not changed much.

The election has split the nation into two camps that have been trading punches since the campaign season began last September, without giving any sign when their standoff will end.

More government spending will generate a virtuous circle within the economy.

Today we thank all our stakeholders — including our readers and business partners — who have stayed with us through thick and thin, enabling us to continue to serve you.

The death toll of poll workers caused by ill-health or exhaustion has exceeded 90 people, according to the General Elections Commission (KPU). However, this is not the only reason that we need to shift to an electronic system to replace the manual voting that has been in place since Indonesia held its first general election in 1955.

The barbaric Sunday terrorist acts in predominantly Buddhist Sri Lanka could have been prevented, or at least the devastating impacts could have been minimized, if only the government officials followed up the warning of a senior police officer over possible suicide bomb attacks during Easter celebrations.

The dust seems not to have settled after the bitterly contested elections last week. Acrimony between supporters of the two presidential candidate pairs is far from subsiding, at least in cyberspace, with each one claiming victory over the other.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s apparent reelection fulfills almost all the basic needs of investors and businesspeople in general: political and macroeconomic stability, legal certainty and policy consistency.

The political elite should emulate the sense of sportsmanship and trust we are seeing at the grass roots, where families, friends and communities are trying to get along after months of passionately expressing their support for their respective candidates.

In the end, there were no surprises and no one pulled off an upset win. The whole thing ended the way most people expected: Incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo won a second term and Gerindra chairman Prabowo Subianto was defeated in his bid for the presidency, again. And as expected, voters behaved in an admirable way by casting their decisive votes and moving on with their holiday plans.

Today, if you decide to go to polling stations and cast your vote, you will help solve the collective problem of apathy that has plagued democracies everywhere.

On the bright side, several incidents that marked early voting in a number of polling stations overseas demonstrated the enthusiasm of Indonesians in exercising their right to elect their representatives and leader. The hiccups, however, also teach their compatriots at home a lesson not to take their voting rights for granted.

What transpired in the past week, especially in what has been widely suspected to be vote-rigging in Malaysia and the fact that hundreds of Indonesians in Sydney, Australia, were disenfranchised could be a cause for concern for those closely watching the 2019 general election.

This week 114 KPK investigators signed a petition to the commission’s leaders, in which they complained about bureaucratic hassles that have allowed big fish to get off the KPK’s hook. 

The European Union would be well advised to review its energy policy that classifies biofuels from palm oil as unsustainable, as this could be counterproductive to the global fight against climate change and endanger Indonesia-EU relations.

We call on ASEAN leaders to form a united front as a regional grouping to demonstrate full support to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who have signed and sent a joint letter to officially protest the European Union’s plan to remove palm oil from its market.

The Philippines agreed last week to join the local currency settlement (LCS) framework — which Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia have operated over the past two years — in a bid to expand intra-ASEAN trade and investment as well as to strengthen the region’s economic integration.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. As the presidential election campaign enters its final stage this week, both candidates have redoubled their efforts to move the needle in their favor.

This year’s simultaneous presidential and legislative elections are challenging for this nation in many ways. Campaigning has been largely marked by hatred, fake news and backbiting, which may leave nagging wounds long after the dust has settled.

Another village in Yogyakarta, once seen as a beacon of tolerance and diversity, has grabbed national headlines yet again for the wrong reasons.

On April 3, Brunei sparked global controversy with the confirmation of reports that it had adopted a much stricter sharia code, including the punishing of gay sex, adultery and blasphemy by stoning to death and the amputation of hands or feet for theft.

Even though weakening global growth and world trade continues to pull down Indonesian exports and consequently its economic growth, Southeast Asia’s largest economy is projected by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to achieve a 5.2 percent rate of expansion this year, slightly higher than the 5.17 percent last year and the 5.07 percent in 2017.

Our newsroom is delighted when we receive lots of clicks. Ahead of Wednesday’s holiday, the “most viewed” item on our website was a report on a movement called “Indonesia Without Feminists” — and we were not so delighted.