Fiscal recentralization weakens local government capacity

,
The central government cannot manage every aspect of government from Jakarta. The closer government is to citizens, the better positioned it is to understand and respond to their everyday needs. Local governments know better than Jakarta whether a particular village needs better roads, clean water, waste management, schools, health services, or other forms of basic infrastructure.

Coerced, co-opted: are local media complicit in the rise of TNI in Indonesian villages?

, , ,
There is no question that the military, especially the army, is expanding fast, building hundreds of battalions across Indonesia and recruiting tens of thousands. What is less obvious is the major role that complicit local media have played in justifying this remilitarisation project.  

TALKING INDONESIA PODCASTSee all


Fiscal recentralization weakens local government capacity

,
The central government cannot manage every aspect of government from Jakarta. The closer government is to citizens, the better positioned it is to understand and respond to their everyday needs. Local governments know better than Jakarta whether a particular village needs better roads, clean water, waste management, schools, health services, or other forms of basic infrastructure.

Coerced, co-opted: are local media complicit in the rise of TNI in Indonesian villages?

, , ,
There is no question that the military, especially the army, is expanding fast, building hundreds of battalions across Indonesia and recruiting tens of thousands. What is less obvious is the major role that complicit local media have played in justifying this remilitarisation project.  

Talking Indonesia: changing human-tiger relations in Sumatra

In this week's episode, Tito Ambyo chats with Imam Ardhianto, Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Universitas Indonesia, about the changing human-tiger relations in Sumatra.

The smoke is back: has Indonesia unlearned the lessons of its recurring fires?

, ,
The question is not whether the government understands the importance of peat restoration as a key measure to prevent fires. It does. The question is whether it is investing enough — and maintaining what it has already built — to make restoration work.

Indonesia-China naval exercise: is Jakarta falling into Beijing’s Taiwan playbook?

,
Indonesia’s decision to conduct military exercises with China therefore shows political insensitivity that may create an unnecessary provocation in the region. It also raises even more fundamental questions about Indonesia’s foreign policy under President Prabowo Subianto.

Beyond Febrie’s scandal: the historical roots of police-prosecutor rivalry

, ,
In a true rule of law system, checks and balances ensure that no single institution exercises power without restraint. Instead, institutions are expected to monitor, limit and correct one another to prevent abuses of authority. By contrast, under Indonesia’s legal and political system, state institutions are discouraged from interfering with one another’s functions to avoid conflict, embarrassment or public controversy.

Talking Indonesia: LGBTQI+ community under attack

Last month, a series of attacks on transgender women in Bogor sent a chill through a community for whom this kind of violence is increasingly normal. The recent attacks have coincided with the release of the full text of Presidential Regulation No. 111 of 2025 concerning the 2025-2029 General Policy for National Defence, classifying the spread of LGBTQI+ culture as a ‘non-military’ threat to the state. In this week's episode, Jemma Purdey chats with Dania Joedo, a musician and human rights activist, about the renewed anti-LGBTQI+ sentiment in Indonesia.

Will Perry Warjiyo’s exit mark the end of a reformed Bank Indonesia?

,
The real question here is not merely whether the next governor possesses technical credentials. It is whether the process results in the appointment of a governor able and willing to defend the rupiah, when doing so requires higher interest rates, tighter liquidity or resistance to government financing, and whether that governor can do so without jeopardising his or her tenure.

Why are more Indonesian university graduates jostling for menial jobs?

, , ,
Indonesia now has two familiar images of graduate hardship, each with its own distinctive colour: the graduate in a green ojol (online motorcycle-taxi) jacket, and the graduate in an orange PPSU vest. They are usually told as separate stories. But both point to the same condition: graduates working in jobs that do not require the qualifications they spent years acquiring.

Fiscal recentralization weakens local government capacity

,
The central government cannot manage every aspect of government from Jakarta. The closer government is to citizens, the better positioned it is to understand and respond to their everyday needs. Local governments know better than Jakarta whether a particular village needs better roads, clean water, waste management, schools, health services, or other forms of basic infrastructure.

Coerced, co-opted: are local media complicit in the rise of TNI in Indonesian villages?

, , ,
There is no question that the military, especially the army, is expanding fast, building hundreds of battalions across Indonesia and recruiting tens of thousands. What is less obvious is the major role that complicit local media have played in justifying this remilitarisation project.  

Talking Indonesia: changing human-tiger relations in Sumatra

In this week's episode, Tito Ambyo chats with Imam Ardhianto, Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Universitas Indonesia, about the changing human-tiger relations in Sumatra.

The smoke is back: has Indonesia unlearned the lessons of its recurring fires?

, ,
The question is not whether the government understands the importance of peat restoration as a key measure to prevent fires. It does. The question is whether it is investing enough — and maintaining what it has already built — to make restoration work.

Indonesia-China naval exercise: is Jakarta falling into Beijing’s Taiwan playbook?

,
Indonesia’s decision to conduct military exercises with China therefore shows political insensitivity that may create an unnecessary provocation in the region. It also raises even more fundamental questions about Indonesia’s foreign policy under President Prabowo Subianto.

Beyond Febrie’s scandal: the historical roots of police-prosecutor rivalry

, ,
In a true rule of law system, checks and balances ensure that no single institution exercises power without restraint. Instead, institutions are expected to monitor, limit and correct one another to prevent abuses of authority. By contrast, under Indonesia’s legal and political system, state institutions are discouraged from interfering with one another’s functions to avoid conflict, embarrassment or public controversy.

Talking Indonesia: LGBTQI+ community under attack

Last month, a series of attacks on transgender women in Bogor sent a chill through a community for whom this kind of violence is increasingly normal. The recent attacks have coincided with the release of the full text of Presidential Regulation No. 111 of 2025 concerning the 2025-2029 General Policy for National Defence, classifying the spread of LGBTQI+ culture as a ‘non-military’ threat to the state. In this week's episode, Jemma Purdey chats with Dania Joedo, a musician and human rights activist, about the renewed anti-LGBTQI+ sentiment in Indonesia.

Will Perry Warjiyo’s exit mark the end of a reformed Bank Indonesia?

,
The real question here is not merely whether the next governor possesses technical credentials. It is whether the process results in the appointment of a governor able and willing to defend the rupiah, when doing so requires higher interest rates, tighter liquidity or resistance to government financing, and whether that governor can do so without jeopardising his or her tenure.

Why are more Indonesian university graduates jostling for menial jobs?

, , ,
Indonesia now has two familiar images of graduate hardship, each with its own distinctive colour: the graduate in a green ojol (online motorcycle-taxi) jacket, and the graduate in an orange PPSU vest. They are usually told as separate stories. But both point to the same condition: graduates working in jobs that do not require the qualifications they spent years acquiring.
NEWS & EVENTS

TALKING INDONESIA PODCASTSee all


EDITOR’S PICKSSee all

Military-cleric alliance may fuel new anti-LGBTQ sentiment in Indonesia

21 July 2026/by Rafiqa Qurrata Ayun, https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/author/rafiqa/

Indonesia’s economic centralisation under Prabowo

7 July 2026/by Norman Joshua, https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/author/normanjoshua/

Is Jakarta turning into Gotham? How viral crime panics become pretext for expanding military visibility

23 June 2026/by Ian Wilson, https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/author/ian/

Prabowo’s foreign stooge myth: Are Indonesians buying it?

26 May 2026/by Djayadi Hanan, https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/author/djayadi/, Yoes C Kenawas, https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/author/yoes/

Indonesia at Melbourne is supported by:

Melbourne Law School Asia Institute Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society Indonesia Forum Faculty of Arts Indonesia Democracy Hallmark Research Initiative

Indonesia at Melbourne

Room 726, Level 7, 185 Pelham St,
The University of Melbourne
Parkville 3010 VIC Australia

Phone: +61 3 83448581

Email:  indo-at-melb@unimelb.edu.au

Date created: 1 July 2015

Editor: Ary Hermawan

Editorial board: 
Professor Tim Lindsey
Dr Tim Mann
Aron Corbett

We acknowledge and pay respect to the Traditional Owners of the lands upon which our campuses are situated.

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