Archive
Every commentary piece, grouped by month.
July 2026
June 2026
- PoliticsIndonesia's Tech Winter Arrives, Personally Served
- BusinessIndonesia’s Bond Pitch Takes a Hard Turn into Diplomacy by Threat
- BusinessNational Rice Reserve Agency Confirms Reserve Exists, Declines To Say Where
- TechnologyIndonesia decides the best food safety inspector is a server rack
- BusinessIndonesian Patriot Bond: Where Nationalism Meets Financial Obfuscation
- SocietyA Legal Strategy Banked Entirely on Judges Experiencing a Conscience
- TechnologyThe Tech Sector's Chromebook Quandary: Trillions Saved, Corruption Alleged
- BusinessWithout Additional Pay, Under No DuressWhatsoever
- TechnologyMinistry Launches Traffic App That Mostly Confirms You Are Stuck In Traffic
- BusinessParliament’s New Finance Law: Because Who Needs an Independent Central Bank Anyway?
- BusinessWhen 'Just Doing Business' Becomes a Criminal Defense
- PoliticsThe Gold Standard of Compliance: A Trial of Irony and Outages
May 2026
- TechnologyChina is Buying Singapore's AI Talent at SGD 280,000 Per Head, McKinsey Says
- BusinessVenture Capital on Trial: When Business Judgment Meets the Corruption Law Hammer
- TechnologySoutheast Asia’s Climate Air Fryer: Where Regulation Meets Crispy Human Futures
- BusinessThe Strategic Case for Institutional Delusion
- PoliticsChina Blocks Meta's $2B Manus Bid, Cites 'Laws and Regulations'
April 2026
- TechnologyWikipedia Survives State-Sponsored Digital Lobotomy, Registers Under Repressive Oversight Rule
- TechnologyWhen "AI Adoption" Just Means Forcing Everyone to Watch You Fail
- PoliticsGoogle Execs Testify in Chromebook Trial: Nadiem Was 'Quite Resistant' to the Chrome Idea
- BusinessIndonesia Demonstrates a Bold New Value Proposition for Global Capital: Even If You Do Everything Right, You Can Still Go to Trial
- SocietyMinistry’s ‘Talk Block’: When Press Freedom Meets Bureaucratic Creativity
- TechnologyAnthropic’s New Digital Deity: Too Dangerous for Mortals, Perfect for Headlines
- SocietyThe Secret Merit of Expedient Contempt
- TechnologyThis Is Fine: AI Deception Is Up, World Ends, No One Panics
March 2026
- TechnologyWhen Your AI Assistant Becomes the Getaway Driver: A Satirical Take on Unchecked Capabilities
- TechnologyAI Photorealism For Games Is Here, And It Misses The Point Entirely
- BusinessSoutheast Asia Braces for Oil Shock as Logistics Sector Prepares for the Inevitable
- PoliticsIndonesia’s Justice System Faces Another Trust Test After Andrie Yunus Attack
- PoliticsTertibkan, Apparently
- SocietyCat-Shaving Flatmate Cites'Proactivity' and an AI Therapist in Defense
- PoliticsIndonesia: The Ultimate Apocalypse Retreat (Terms and Conditions May Apply)
- PoliticsIndonesia to Become 'FirstNon-Western Nation' to Ban Under-16s From Social Media on March 28
- BusinessOsome: The Lifeline for Indonesia’s Aspiring International Dumpster Fires
- PoliticsAnthropic Got Banned, OpenAI Got the Contract, Indonesia Got the Trade Deal
- BusinessBlitz Officially Declares Itself Apolitical. Its Founder Says He Doesn't Know What Parliament Is.
- BusinessSafia on Workforce Management: 'You Don't Want to End Up Like an SOE'
February 2026
- SocietyTo Protect the Teens, Indonesia Will Need Everyone's Papers
- PoliticsIndonesia Signed the US Trade Deal a Day Before SCOTUS Voids Trump's Tariffs. Government Response: 'Continue to Process.'
- PoliticsIndonesia’s Trade Deal with America: an exercise in Timing, or How to Sign a Treaty One Day Before the Rug is Pulled
- TechnologyByteDance Tells Users to Stop Uploading Real People. The Internet, As Usual, Has Other Plans.
- TechnologyThe New Boss Is an Algorithm, and the Wage Is $69
- Public HealthWhen ‘Data Adjustments’ Mean Dialysis Gets Canceled: A National Health Insurance lesson
- TechnologyOpenClaw Asks for Your Inbox, Your Calendar, and $1 a Month
- BusinessIndonesia's Stock Market Pitch: Negative Growth, a Nephew, and a Pinky Promise
January 2026
- BusinessThe Robots Are Fine, You're Getting Fired: January's 7,600 Tech Layoffs in Context
- TechnologySilicon Valley Sells Turnkey Tyranny, Per New Satirical Infomercial
- PoliticsAmerica's Friends Start Texting Other People
- PoliticsRegional Elections by Parliament: The People’s Representation, Representing Themselves
- TechnologyIndonesia and Malaysia Block Grok. The Company Responded With a Paywall.
- PoliticsThe First Day of the Makarim Trial, Reviewed for Dramatic Content
- TechnologyThe Two-Billion-Dollar Singapore Wash
December 2025
- BusinessSix Billion Dollars And A Whole Philosophy: Southeast Asian Tech Closes Out 2025
- Business59% of Asian Consumers Admit to Piracy. The 23% Subscription Hike Probably Isn't Helping.
- PoliticsIsraeli Tech Firms Raised $12 Billion in 2025, Roughly Triple the Aid Reaching Palestinian Territories
- TechnologyAI Is Eating the World's RAM and Your Next Phone Is Paying for It
- BusinessRobinhood Enters Indonesia. Its Best Revenue Model Does Not.
- SocietyAustralia Locks Under-16s Off YouTube, Asia Takes Notes
- PoliticsSumatra's Floods Killed 604 People and Displaced 570,000. Jakarta Still Won't Call It a National Disaster.
November 2025
- PoliticsIndonesia Asks 20% of the Internet to Sign on the Dotted Line
- PoliticsIndonesia Brings Fossil-Fuel Lobbyists to COP30, Wins 'Fossil of the Day'
- BusinessDisney Asks Fans To Generate The Magic, Quietly Takes A Cut
- PoliticsDPR Fast-Tracks RUU KUHAP: When the Law Becomes the Trap
- BusinessJakarta Wants the Grab-GoTo Merger. It's Putting It in a Decree.
- PoliticsSuharto Is a National Hero Now. Naturally, Someone Nominated Netanyahu.
- PoliticsIndonesia Considers Influencer Certification, Following a Model That Worked So Well Last Time
- BusinessBank Indonesia's Bitcoin Moment, Minus the Bitcoin Part
- BusinessIndonesia’s High-Speed Rail to Nowhere: A 60-Year Installment Plan for a Ticking Time Bomb
October 2025
- SocietyThe Times Reports A Honey Trap; Reddit Engineers Read A Dating Profile
- PoliticsDirty Vote 2: A Four-Hour Documentary Review of a Year Nobody Enjoyed
- TechnologyRoblox Pledges 8.2 Million Dollars to Indonesia, Vows to Mull Over the Violence
- PoliticsBanned at Home, Sold to Bomb Gaza
- PoliticsIndonesia Wants to Turn Bali Into a Financial Hub, No Locals Required
- TechnologyOpenAI Just Made ChatGPT a Store, a Therapist, and a Partner
- TechnologyTikTok Is Back, Bjorka Is Caught, and the Timing Is Just a Coincidence
- Public HealthMakan Bergizi Gratis: When the Free Lunch Turns Out to Be the Poisoned Chalice
- SocietyIndonesia Last Week’s Host Moonlights for Tech in Asia: Satire as a Service Now in Tech Bro Flavor
- PoliticsSingapore Has the H-1B1. Indonesia Has the Wait.
September 2025
- PoliticsPresidential Press Bureau Demonstrates How to Win Friends and Influence Journalists
- PoliticsUN Backs Two-State Solution, Holdout Nations Keep Their Arms Dealer Happy
- Public HealthMakan Bergizi Gratis: Indonesia’s Newest Culinary Trend, Now With Extra Bacteria
- BusinessIndonesia’s Fuel Shell Game: When Subsidies Play Hard to Get
- PoliticsKPU’s Policy Flip-Flop: an exercise in Governance by Trial, Error, and Panic
- PoliticsPre-Feature Presentation: Democracy, Now Playing in Theaters Near You
- PoliticsMinistry of Defense vs. Tempo: an exercise in Institutional Self-Defense
- PoliticsPolri vs TNI: A Constitutional Court Ruling Turns Defamation into a Solo Sport
- PoliticsDPR’s Last-Minute Panic: When Deadlines Are the Only Motivator
- PoliticsMilitary Allegedly Joins the Group Chat: WhatsApp Infiltration and Martial Law Rumors in One Week
- PoliticsMinister Tells Teachers To Become Traders, Then Says Sorry
- BusinessNew Finance Minister Appointed: Markets Reassured by a Guy Who Says He’s a ‘Market Guy’
- PoliticsPrabowo's Cabinet Reshuffle: A New Hajj Ministry, One Fewer Domino Player
- SocietyIndonesia Last Week: Satire with a Suit and a Side of Unjournalistic Integrity
- PoliticsDPR Allocates Itself Twenty-Four Hours to Read Seventeen Demands