Indonesians are skeptical about moving their capital.
“Nusantara”, this is how the new capital of Indonesia will be called, as revealed on Wednesday by the Minister of National Development Planning, Suharso Monoarfa. She did so after Parliament gave the green light to the plan to move her from Jakarta to Kalimantan, a jungle area east of the island of Borneo. The word, which translates to “archipelago”, perfectly encapsulates the geography of a nation made up of some 17,000 islands. In this note published in 2019 we explain the reasons why they want to move it.
Indonesia will move its capital away from Jakarta, the country’s National Development Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro announced on Monday.
Brodjonegoro said that the president, Joko Widodo, in an “important decision”, had chosen to relocate the capital.
The reason? Jakarta, home to more than 10 million people, is sinking at one of the fastest rates on the planet.
The announcement comes after Widodo declared himself the winner of the general election held this month, although the official results will not be announced until May 22.
Why the transfer?
The idea of moving the capital has been shuffled several times since the country became independent from the Netherlands in 1945.
In 2016, a survey concluded that this megacity had the worst traffic in the world. The ministers have to be escorted by the police to be able to arrive on time for their meetings.
Minister of National Development Planning said traffic jams in Jakarta are costing the economy US$6.800 millones year.
There has also been during the last two decades a great program to decentralize government in an attempt to give greater political power and financial resources to the municipalities.
Furthermore, Jakarta is the fastest sinking city in the world. The researchers say much of the megacity could be completely submerged by 2050.
North Jakarta sank 2.5 meters in 10 years and continues to do so at an average of between 1 and 15 centimeters a year.
The city is located on marshy land on the coast and 13 rivers flow through it.
Half of its territory is already below sea level. One of the main causes of this is the extraction of groundwater that is used as drinking water and for bathing.
What options are there?
In a closed-door cabinet meeting, three options were reportedly discussed and presented to the president.
One involved making a special zone for government offices within the current capital; another consisted of move her to the outskirts of Jakarta and the third, the one preferred by the president, was build a new capital on another island.
The leading candidate is Palangka Raya, hundreds of kilometers to the northeast in central Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo.
It is geographically close to the center of the archipelago and the founding father of Indonesia, Sukarno, once proposed to make it the capital.
In Palangka Raya, the idea of their sleepy town becoming the nation’s capital generates mixed feelings in its inhabitants.
One high school student told the BBC: “I hope the city will develop and the education will be as good as in Jakarta. But all the land and the forest, which are empty spaces, will now be used. Kalimantan is the lung of the world and I am worried, we are going to lose the forest that we had left”.
Brodjonegoro assured that the process it could take 10 years. He told reporters after the meeting that if other countries could pull it off, so could Indonesia.
“Brazil moved its capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia, near the Amazon, and look at Canberra, which is built between Sydney and Melbourne, and Kazakhstan moved its capital closer to the center of the country and also Myanmar moved it to Naypyidaw,” he said. .
The announcement came after Widodo pledged to distribute economic development more equitably across the country.
A powerful political message
By Rebecca Henschke, ex-editor of BBC Indonesia
Indonesians are skeptical about moving their capital. You have heard this idea before and none of the six presidents of Indonesia managed to execute it.
But President Joko Widodo has accomplished ambitious infrastructure construction in his five years in office, so he may well be the man to finally make it a reality.
Indonesia is an incredibly diverse nation made up of hundreds of ethnic groups living on thousands of islands. But economic development, national cultural identity and political power have always been dominated by the Javanese.
There has never been a non-Javanese president and most of Indonesia’s wealth is concentrated in Jakarta.
Indonesians living outside Java, especially in the east, have long complained of being forgotten and neglected by the country’s leaders, who are based in the burgeoning capital.
Taking out the capital of Java would send a powerful political message that this is changing, if it happens.
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
