Laos is not simply facing a debt crisis. It is hitting the structural ceiling of a development model built on large-scale Chinese finance, where rapid infrastructure expansion has come at the expense of fiscal resilience, productive capacity and economic flexibility.
Category: Opinion
The World Promised Quality Education for All. By 2030, Will That Promise Collapse?
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are now approaching their 2030 deadline. Among them, SDG 4 carries one of the most powerful promises: to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Why Indonesia’s Free-Meal Program Should Learn from Islamic Community Finance
Since President Prabowo’s administration took office, the mega-project free meal programme (Makan Bergizi Gratis or MBG) has been launched with politically irresistible promise: feeding more than 80 millions of schoolchildren and vulnerable groups.
Indonesia’s School Free Meal Programme Lacks One Key Ingredient: Data
In epidemiology, effective population-level nutritional interventions begin with a step that cannot be skipped: measuring baseline nutritional status. Without this initial data, policymakers are left uncertain of who is deficient in what, how severe the condition is, and whether the intervention is reaching the right groups.
Southeast Asia’s AI Future Will Be Decided in Its Classrooms, Not Its Boardrooms
Southeast Asia is no longer short of artificial intelligence (AI) language.The region already has frameworks, principles and now a roadmap.
Why Indonesia Needs a Developmental State to Reach Vision 2045
Indonesia’s Golden Vision 2045 is one of the most consequential national projects in Indonesia. It promises stronger human capital, world-class infrastructure, wider prosperity and greater welfare for more than 280 million citizens.
May Day 2026: University Workers and Indonesia’s Academic Freedom Crisis
Freedom of thought was central to Europe’s social and political transformation. Intellectuals such as Voltaire and Spinoza established the principle that societal progress depends not on enforced conformity, but on the protection of reason, criticism and open disagreement.
Indonesia’s Economic Growth Story Has a Trust Gap
On paper, Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s “unbreakable” economy. Growth holds steady at around 5%, domestic consumption remains resilient and foreign investment continues to flow despite a tightening global environment.
From Minority Struggle to Majority Responsibility
In a well-known saying attributed to the fourth caliph in Islam, Ali ibn Abi Talib stated that when you encounter another person, there are only two possibilities; they are either your brother in faith or your brother in humanity. It is a striking reflection, not least because it came from one of the earliest converts to Islam, whose formative years were spent observing the daily example of Prophet Muhammad.
Forget WFH, Indonesia Must Act Now for Energy Independence
The Indonesian government has issued a one-day Work From Home (WFH) policy for civil servants at both the central and regional governments.