The pandemic has brought to light systemic issues in our social welfare, not least of which is a shortage in social workers.

Leaving behind the troubled capital city is not a new development in Indonesia’s history.

Troubled-ridden flag carrier Garuda Indonesia completed its massive debt restructuring, allowing the company to turn around to profit last year, after massive losses in the past few years, and its stock resumes trading in the Indonesian Stock Exchange beginning this week after being suspended for the past six months.

The private sector can play a massive role in driving and catalyzing the changes that are needed to rebuild and regenerate an ailing ocean.

Government spending in agriculture for instance has been sufficient but not effective. Most of the spending in 2022 went on subsidies for fertilizer and other inputs, less on research and development, irrigation and extension.

The PDI-P, under Megawati's leadership, won the last two elections, and a number of opinion surveys predict it will score a hat trick with the 2024 polls.

The regulation focuses on equipping authorities in the financial sector with sufficient access to regulate and supervise crypto-asset activities to ensure that these do not have a negative impact or affect the integrity and stability of the financial system.

For a growing number of applications that demand near-instantaneous response times even a slight connectivity hiccup of milliseconds can mean the difference between success and failure – or life and death, in both the virtual and physical worlds.

On the economic and recovery front, Indonesia’s G20 presidency reached consensus with the G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration, despite strong divisions within the group. 

With the digital rupiah, the public will gain access to risk-free digital currency denominated in rupiah. 

Bribery is publicly perceived as one of the most effective methods to win a legal case in this country. 

The positive trend is unlikely to last long, given the relaxed implementation of restrictions and the reopening of regional borders.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo presented a new year gift in the form of a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) on job creation. Signed on Dec. 30, 2022, Perppu No. 2/2022 replaced the Job Creation Law that in late 2021 was declared conditionally unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court (MK) and therefore had to be revised within two years in a process that must include meaningful public participation. 

ASEAN should be prepared to suspend Myanmar’s membership if the mechanism for expelling members is not provided for in the association’s bylaws. 

ASEAN resilience needs to bridge the ASEAN pillar and sector-centric silos, which may otherwise deter from a coherent and strategic vision that spans the regional community.

Companies can now calculate the amount of carbon they can trade and its value using a number of internationally acknowledged carbon value indexes.

He is making his Indonesian trip as a winner, having gone through over two decades of political persecution at home.

In addressing the intermittency while keeping the supply-demand stable, the member states should improve their grid flexibility and resiliency. 

Instead of questioning why the plastics were even there in the ocean in the first place, the public was “driven” to believe that as a notorious ocean polluter, plastic products were “branded” as the common enemy.

China is not the first or the only country to face entry restrictions during the pandemic. Indonesia endured such measures much earlier but deemed them acceptable, as governments were responsible for protecting their citizens from danger, even though tourist arrivals could help their economies survive the storm.

Existing platform businesses, such as e-commerce, may need to face the hard truth of the need to continuously maintain cost efficiency in their current activities.

Malaysia’s fifteenth general election, held in late November, is arguably the most historic in the country’s history. For the first time, no coalition managed to secure a parliamentary majority, resulting in a hung federal parliament.

Religious politics offers a recipe that centers on emotive fears and sentiments, which effectively dismantles the government to fail in some key areas such as inequality and law enforcement.

As the country aims to sell products with high added value, it should consider better, more polished and well thought out policies that encourage more cooperation instead of collisions at home and overseas.

The House’s functioning oversight will give the executive no room to practice dictatorship within the constitutional democracy.

With 60 million people living within a kilometer of state forests who rely on the land for their livelihoods, harnessing biomass technologies can be a solution to Indonesia’s energy trilemma: security, affordability and sustainability.

Consultation cannot be simply ignored as it is the very foundation that needs to be preserved should Indonesia wants to keep its democracy.