Learning from the cases in Indonesia, the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the national government's clumsiness in dealing with the crisis. The local governments, on the other hand, showed quicker and likely more effective responses in navigating through the hard times. This article illustrates why we should consider giving more prominence to the local governments--particularly on city governance--and starting to prepare better environment and institutions for the cities to thrive.
Read MoreFrom 6-10 April 2019, we sent an online questionnaire to 235 random respondents living in the Greater Jakarta and Greater Bandung areas to get to know their opinions on the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway (JBHSR). Contrary to our initial hypothesis, a significant number of them actually responded positively (86.6%). However, that doesn't necessarily mean they are willing to use it.
Read MoreDiplomacity; the first time I heard about this concept was back in 2015 during a public seminar initiated by Dino Patti Djalal, Indonesia’s former ambassador to the United States (U.S.). On that occasion, Dino invited his friend Parag Khanna, who is an expert in international relations as well as a prolific author. The seminar, his presentation, was quite eye-opening in that it caught me in several bouts of reflection, especially the moment after the term diplomacity was mentioned. Parag, who authored the book titled ‘The Future is in Asia’ set to be published next year, was also the same person who coined the term.
Read MoreDoes Indonesia lack public transportation infrastructure? If yes, compared to other countries, how far left behind are we? This is one of the issues put forward by William Sabandar, the director of Jakarta MRT, in his speech during a seminar commemorating the 60th anniversary of Indonesia-Japan diplomatic relations held at Universitas Indonesia on 11th October 2018.
Read MoreThere is something unique about the millennial generation—the digitally aware society, born between the early 1980s and early 2000s—that we could actually exploit to promote a culture of walking in a city.
Read More
