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 While intended to modernize long-outdated legal frameworks, the reforms have evidently provoked public backlash, particularly due to concerns over...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

A PP to Fix a Perpol?

Dec 22, 2025 | Law

The government’s decision to regulate the placement of active police officers in civilian posts through a forthcoming Government Regulation (PP) may look like a neat administrative adjustment. In reality, it is a political and legal corrective move forced by the...

Corruption at INALUM & Downfall of Prima Alloy

Dec 18, 2025 | Law

Two executives of state aluminium producer INALUM, member of MIND ID (holding company for state mining firms, Freeport Indonesia and Vale Indonesia), have been named suspects in corruption case related to sales of aluminium in the period of 2018-2024. Too little too...

Hefty fines without legal challenge?

Dec 17, 2025 | Law

Some nickel associations have reportedly written a letter to President Prabowo Subianto complaining about hefty administrative fines charged to those using forest area without proper permits.  They complained about Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Decree No....

When Penal Reform Becomes a Gift to the Powerful

Dec 9, 2025 | Law

The House of Representatives’ recent passage of the Penal Adjustment Law — a sweeping harmonization effort ahead of the full implementation of the new Criminal Code (KUHP) in January 2026 — has been framed as a historic step toward a more modern, coherent, and humane...