Music, from Bruno Mars or others, is one of the greatest sources of joy for humanity. No authority should prevent us from enjoying such art to the fullest.

Thousands of cancer patients are in urgent need of an explanation: Should they stop their therapy as they have been told their medication will no longer be covered by the national health insurance (JKN) scheme? How will they cover the costs?

Looking at the big picture of Indonesian soccer, we see that the national team has often excelled at a young age but has run out of steam ironically when it reached what should be its peak form. 

Jokowi visited Natuna in 2017 and vowed to ensure that no outside powers would disrupt Indonesia’s rights over the territory and its surrounding waters.

Only when the Central Java Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) declared Governor Ganjar Pranowo and the 34 mayors and regents under his purview guilty of violating the 2014 Regional Administration Law, after they displayed support for incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, did we realize that the regulations do not strictly set a red line between the political preference and constitutional responsibilities of public officials.

With the presidential election fast approaching, candidates are wooing support from groups that comprise a large portion of the country’s population and electorate, with women and Muslims obviously their primary targets.

Hosting an Olympics also means spending big.

Why do other countries get multibillion-dollar investments from Saudi Arabia while we only get a relatively smaller amount from the royal family?

Waiting to import rice only after a major shortage arises would be calamitous because what starts as an isolated shortage can quickly escalate into a crisis during the time lag between ordering the imports and the arrival of the shipments.

In the last five years the number of cement producers in Indonesia has doubled to 14. Most of the new players come from China, such as Conch Cement, Jui Shin, Panasia, Haohan Cement and Cement Hippo. Thanks to their arrival in the market, the country’s cement production capacity has surged to 108 million tons a year, making Indonesia the largest producer in SEAsia.

No matter how convincingly each presidential candidate’s camp claimed victory in the debate, we doubt their performance will affect undecided voters, let alone swing voters. 

Elections used to be a once in five years affair. But thanks to social media and the 24-hour news cycle, it has become a part of our daily lives. 

After two months of operation, the electric bicycle rental app Migo must soon pull its yellow fleet off the roads across Jakarta, to the dismay of hundreds of its customers who had found a new trick to beat the capital city’s unforgiving traffic.

A national program to boost agricultural productivity should also be supported by improved logistics and market access, not least because most farm products are highly perishable.

When news broke about floodwater that damaged thousands of ballot boxes in the West Java town of Cirebon on Tuesday, critics feared that their doubts over the General Elections Commission’s (KPU) decision to use cardboard polling equipment were proven right.

Indonesia should revive its manufacturing sector to generate growth above the 5 percent level, where the economy has stagnated in the past four years.

The 2.05 million Indonesian voters who live in at least 41 countries on five continents should make thorough preparations for the April 17 presidential and legislative elections. 

The number of commercial banks remains large at 115, compared to 138 in 2004 when the national Banking Architecture plan was launched by Bank Indonesia (BI) to develop a leaner banking landscape. 

As we celebrate National Press Day on Saturday, the challenges we face do not only involve the convergence of media that offer limitless choices to the public, but also maintaining a high level of accuracy amid the omnipresent fake news.

Nationwide, the Health Ministry has recorded almost 16,700 cases, with a death toll of 176 as of Tuesday. 

The first — and perhaps the biggest — challenge for the government is for the mutual legal assistance agreement (MLA) to be ratified by the House of Representatives, which is perceived as one of the most corrupt institutions in the country. 

The current account deficit, the main cause of the vicious macroeconomic cycle and the main source of downward pressure on the rupiah to as low as 15,000 to the dollar last October, was among the main issues discussed at two separate conferences here last week.  

The amendment, if passed, would open Pandora’s Box, practically resurrecting the ghost of dwifungsi.

As the Feb. 10 deadline for the Water Governance Evaluation Team to submit its assessment approaches, all eyes are on Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, who will have to turn around the money-losing city-owned water enterprise PT PAM Jaya.   

April 17 could serve as a test for whether the nation still tolerates, or at least remains silent about, acts of corruption.

The government has never been truly serious about removing the biggest hurdle to exports: the acute lack of interministerial coordination in managing regulations and bureaucracy.   

As a net oil importer that imports almost 60 percent of its daily need of 1.6 million barrels, Indonesia badly needs to attract more investment in highly risky oil exploration. 

People fear what they don’t understand and in Indonesia this fear has long been institutionalized. 

Industries — from food suppliers and convenience stores to plastic makers — must act to reduce the use of plastic. 

If a politician as popular as Ahok, whom many think did a good job as governor, failed to win an election and was instead imprisoned, what hopes have other Chinese-Indonesians, especially non-Muslim ones?