Why KPK’s new gratification rules matter
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has revised one of its most technical yet politically sensitive instruments: the regulation governing gratification reporting by public officials. At first glance, the change looks procedural, even mundane. Thresholds are adjusted, deadlines refined, and administrative mechanisms simplified. Yet the urgency behind this revision tells a more consequential story about how Indonesia is trying to keep its anti-corruption framework functional amid shifting economic realities and institutional constraints.
What Ahok’s Testimony Reveals
The ongoing corruption trial over Pertamina’s crude oil and fuel trading governance gained renewed public attention this week with the testimony of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, widely known as Ahok. As the former chief commissioner of Indonesia’s state-owned energy company, his appearance was widely expected to be politically charged. Yet beyond the headlines, his statements warrant a sober assessment of what they actually add to the case.
Biometrics, SIM cards, and the limits of regulation
New regulation on SIM card registration marks a turning point in how the state defines identity, access, and control in the digital age. Under the newly issued ministerial regulation, registering a mobile phone number will now require biometric facial data. What was once a matter of providing a national identification number has become a question of surrendering one’s face.
Who really has the power to revoke corporate permits?
The government’s decision to revoke the permits of 28 companies allegedly linked to environmental destruction in Sumatra has been widely applauded as a long-awaited show of state authority. After years of regulatory paralysis, the move appears decisive, even cathartic. Yet beneath the political symbolism lies a more uncomfortable question: was the revocation legally airtight, or does it risk collapsing under procedural scrutiny?
Land seizures and the quiet dismantling of legal certainty
President Prabowo Subianto’s plan to seize another four to five million hectares of oil palm plantations in 2026 is being sold as a triumph of law enforcement. In reality, it risks becoming something far more troubling: a state-sanctioned admission that Indonesia has failed to govern its land regime, and is now compensating for that failure by ruling through coercion rather than law.
Was Jokowi Merely Mentioned—or Implicated?
When former education minister Nadiem Makarim stood before the corruption court and invoked former president Joko Widodo, the statement was more than a personal defense. It was a political signal. By asserting that the controversial Chromebook procurement stemmed from a presidential mandate to accelerate digital education, Nadiem effectively shifted the spotlight from ministerial discretion to the highest office in the country.
KUHP and KUHAP
As of January 2, 2026, Indonesia officially enacted the new Criminal Code (KUHP) and the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP). While intended to modernize long-outdated legal frameworks, the reforms have evidently provoked public backlash, particularly due to concerns over civil rights and procedural safeguards.
A Year of Silence
It should have been a straightforward principle: when the nation’s premier anti-corruption institution halts the investigation of a Rp 2.7 trillion mining scandal, the public deserves to know—promptly, transparently, and with full legal justification. Instead, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chose silence. For one full year, the agency kept quiet about the fact that it had already issued a Surat Perintah Penghentian Penyidikan (SP3) in December 2024. Only now, a year later, does Indonesia learn that the case has been buried.
When Rhetoric Replaces Evidence
Indonesia deserves seriousness when corruption is prosecuted. Serious facts. Serious data. Serious accountability. Yet in the high-profile Chromebook corruption trial involving former education minister Nadiem Makarim, the nation has been fed something else: a dramatic, emotionally charged, but scientifically hollow claim that Indonesian children allegedly have an average IQ of 78, and that the failed Chromebook program reflects — or even contributes to — such intellectual decline.
Bekasi Regent’s Graft Scandal
The corruption scandal engulfing Bekasi Regent Ade Kuswara Kunang and his father is not simply another depressing entry in Indonesia’s catalogue of graft. It is a brutal reminder that regional democracy has been hijacked by family power networks, patronage politics, and the normalization of corruption as a governing method. What makes this worse than ordinary abuse of power is not only the scale of alleged theft — but the moral collapse it exposes.