COMMENTARIES

18 Dec 2025

ASEAN Power Grid: Gleaning Best Practices from Worst Cases

Mirza Sadaqat Huda

As Southeast Asia focuses on building the ASEAN Power Grid, there will be a higher chance of success if interconnections are designed to be modular and embedded within a broader regional integration agenda.

ASEAN Energy

18 Dec 2025

Private Investment, Public Burden: Indonesia’s ‘Whoosh’ Lesson

Romora Edward Sitorus|A. Prasetyantoko

Indonesia’s first high-speed train project is historic but its government now has to prevent it going off the rails as costs spiral and boomerang onto the state and taxpayers.

Indonesia transport

17 Dec 2025

Islamic Soft Power: Malaysia Well-Positioned to Consolidate its Global Leadership on Halal Branding and Governance

Syaza Shukri

Malaysia has successfully transformed halal governance from religious compliance into a strategic tool of soft power. Through the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) and the Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC), halal became both a moral brand and an economic driver across food, finance, tourism, cosmetics, and logistics.

Halal Halal Certification Malaysia

17 Dec 2025

Indonesia’s Slow Disaster Response: President Prabowo Constrained by His Own Agenda

Made Supriatma

Poor advice and a seeming refusal to acknowledge the reality and scale of the problem have hampered the Indonesian president’s response to the disastrous floods across Sumatra.

Disaster Management Indonesia Indonesian Politics

17 Dec 2025

Sabah First? 2025 State Election Shows Voters Want Results Not Slogans

Arnold Puyok

The 17th Sabah elections evinced a mix of the predictable and the surprising. Despite the show of support for the ‘Sabah First’ slogan, the fragmented politics of the state will continue.

Malaysia Malaysian Elections Malaysian Politics Sabah

16 Dec 2025

Building BRICS? Anwar’s Worldview and Malaysia’s Foreign Policy

Isabelle Chua|Francis E. Hutchinson

Malaysia’s decision to join BRICS demonstrates its long-standing adherence to strategic equidistance. It also bears Anwar Ibrahim’s personal imprimatur.

BRICS Malaysia Malaysian Politics

16 Dec 2025

Flood Control in the Philippines: When Corruption Bedevils Climate Change Mitigation

JC Punongbayan

The fact that the Philippines requires flood control measures is beyond dispute. But the problem goes far deeper.

Climate Change Philippine Philippine Politics

15 Dec 2025

Momentum or Mirage? Anutin’s Risky Road to Re-Election

Napon Jatusripitak

Anutin Charnvirakul’s recent dissolution of the Thai Parliament is a tactical move to preserve incumbency advantages going into elections next year. Still, he might end up with an unwieldy “grand compromise” coalition that will give him little wiggle room.

Thai Elections Thai Politics Thailand

15 Dec 2025

Rebalancing Indonesia’s Trade Policy: After Prabowo’s First Year

Deasy Pane|Siwage Dharma Negara

Indonesia has its work cut out for it given tough headwinds in global trade, but the present government’s attempts to tack its sails may give the country a chance to move in the right direction.

Indonesia Indonesia Foreign Policy Indonesian Economy

12 Dec 2025

Reconstructing Indonesia’s Pesantren: Moving Beyond Concrete Matters

Irna Nurlina

Tragedies like the collapse of an Islamic boarding school in mid-September in West Java require nuanced solutions and hard soul-searching. Hope and inspiration may come from within the country, indeed, within the same province.

Education Indonesia