Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, chairman of Indonesia’s National Economic Council and one of the most influential figures in the country’s economic policymaking establishment, recently revealed that he had been encouraging BlackRock to invest in Indonesia. Speaking at Indonesia Summit 2026, Luhut described how executives from the world’s largest asset manager questioned Indonesia’s economic prospects and even raised concerns about the possibility of another crisis similar to 1998. His response was not to ask whether BlackRock was the right partner for Indonesia. Instead, he reassured them that Indonesia’s future remained bright and that now was precisely the right time to invest.

Those remarks should alarm anyone who believes Indonesia’s solidarity with Palestine is more than a diplomatic slogan.

This was not merely a conversation about investment. Nor was it an isolated encounter. BlackRock has repeatedly appeared in Indonesia’s investment diplomacy, from sovereign wealth initiatives and infrastructure financing discussions to broader efforts aimed at attracting global capital.

What Luhut’s comments reveal is an increasingly troubling willingness among Indonesia’s political and economic elite to normalise and legitimise relationships with financial actors whose wealth is deeply connected to the genocide.

What Luhut’s comments reveal is an increasingly troubling willingness among Indonesia’s political and economic elite to normalise and legitimise relationships with financial actors whose wealth is deeply connected to the genocide.

That willingness........

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