Maruarar Sirait a.k.a Ara, the son of former secretary general of the ruling party PDIP Sabam Sirait, announced his resignation from PDIP last night (Jan. 15). Ara revealed that he left PDIP because he chose to follow President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. This should not be a surprise given Ara’s close relationship with some major business families in the country. What are the implications?

Data from OECD pointed to Indonesia’s tax-to-GDP ratio in 2021 at 10.9%, way below neighbors like Vietnam (18.2%) and Thailand (16.4%) in ASEAN and average Asia Pacific (19.8%). Three president candidates have been asked about their strategies to increase the country’s tax ratio. Unfortunately, they failed to address the issue clearly.

The so-called Petition 100 is on the move trying to gain support for an impeachment attempt on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. This group has been working for months to impeach the President. What do people say about this attempt?

Puan Maharani, the daughter of PDIP matriarch Megawati Soekarnoputri, admitted that Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD’s camp has been in an intensive communication with Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar’s side. Puan, however, said that the decision on whether to work together will be determined later after the election day. The big question now is whether joining forces with Anies will be a good or a bad decision for Ganjar and PDIP.

On Thursday (Jan. 11), Anies Baswedan was campaigning in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, and after that he attended a dialogue held by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin). In Samarinda, Anies talked about corporatocracy, but in the Kadin’s event he promised all businessmen to get equal opportunity in the country. Let’s talk a bit about these rhetorics.

Former Vice President Jusuf Kalla, a political mentor and patron figure of Anies Baswedan, admits that he was the one who helped Prabowo Subianto in acquiring the huge land concessions in Kalimantan, which was questioned by Anies in the latest presidential debate. It makes people wonder whether this confession will help Anies or become a blunder instead.

Today on Jan. 10, the ruling party PDIP is holding its 51st anniversary event. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will, for the first time, not attend the event, and one can understand why. Regardless of Jokowi’s absence, PDIP’s anniversary event is, perhaps, the most interesting political event to watch today because we are waiting for what the Party’s matriarch Megawati Soekarnoputri will say in her opening speech.

The second debate between the three presidential candidates is over, but the polemic continues surrounding a huge land concession owned by Prabowo Subianto, a presidential candidate from a coalition led by Gerindra Party. Prabowo, however, is not the only one who controls huge concessions in the country. In fact, the monopoly of land by certain groups of elites and big companies has been one of Indonesia’s biggest problems for decades.