Why KPK’s new gratification rules matter

Jan 29, 2026 | Law

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...

What Ahok’s Testimony Reveals

Jan 29, 2026 | Law, Market

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...

Biometrics, SIM cards, and the limits of regulation

Jan 26, 2026 | Law

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...

Who really has the power to revoke corporate permits?

Jan 23, 2026 | Law, Market

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...

Land seizures and the quiet dismantling of legal certainty

Jan 8, 2026 | Law, Market

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...

Was Jokowi Merely Mentioned—or Implicated?

Jan 7, 2026 | Law

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...

KUHP and KUHAP

Jan 6, 2026 | Law

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 While intended to modernize long-outdated legal frameworks, the reforms have evidently provoked public backlash, particularly due to concerns over...

A Year of Silence

Dec 29, 2025 | Law

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...

When Rhetoric Replaces Evidence

Dec 24, 2025 | Law

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...

Bekasi Regent’s Graft Scandal

Dec 23, 2025 | Law

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,...