{"id":47465,"date":"2022-01-20T09:25:54","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T09:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47465"},"modified":"2022-01-20T09:25:54","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T09:25:54","slug":"progress-or-folly-jokowis-vision-for-indonesias-new-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47465","title":{"rendered":"Progress or folly? Jokowi\u2019s vision for Indonesia\u2019s new capital"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Medan, Indonesia \u2013<\/strong> When Indonesian President Joko \u201cJokowi\u201d Widodo announced a surprise plan to move the country\u2019s capital during his annual address to the nation on 16 August 2019, he outlined a grandiose vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cA capital city is not just a symbol of national identity, but also a representation of the progress of the nation,\u201d he said, just one day before Indonesia\u2019s 74th anniversary of Independence. \u201cThis is for the realisation of economic equality and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Jokowi\u2019s grand plan moved a step closer to reality when parliament approved legislation setting out the legalities of relocating the capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan, the eastern portion of Borneo<\/a>,\u00a0including such issues as funding and governance.<\/p>\n

Jakarta, a vast metropolis that has never captured the international imagination like Bangkok or Hanoi, is sinking under the weight of unregulated groundwater extraction, clogged with traffic, clouded by smog and overcrowded.<\/p>\n

Under the relocation plan, 1.5 million of the city\u2019s 11 million residents would move to the jungles of Indonesian Borneo at an eye-watering cost of $32bn.<\/p>\n

Jokowi has described the scheme as a bid to \u201cmake our country like America,\u201d likening the dynamic between Jarkarta and the new capital to the relationship between New York and Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

\u201cJava has also long been overburdened by the fact that it is home for almost 60 percent of Indonesians and the centre of the country\u2019s economy, contributing more than half of Indonesia\u2019s gross domestic product,\u201d Deasy Simandjuntak, an associate fellow at ISEAS \u2013 Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelocating the capital to Kalimantan is aimed at spreading economic activities outside of Java as well as helping ensure more equitable economic development, especially for the Eastern Indonesia region.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DOIndonesian President Joko \u201cJokowi\u201d Widodo has said the country\u2019s new capital should be a \u201crepresentation of the progress of the nation\u201d [File: Beawiharta\/Reuters]<\/figure>\n

The government has claimed the location of the capital \u2013 close to the city of Balikpapan and provincial capital of Samarinda \u2013 will put it out of reach of natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and tsunamis, even though Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is prone to such disasters country-wide.<\/p>\n

Aaron Opdyke, a humanitarian engineer from the University of Sydney\u2019s School of Civil Engineering,\u00a0expressed scepticism that relocating the capital would stop the country from ranking\u00a0among the top 10 countries in deaths per capita from disasters.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo often though, governments jump to relocate settlements expecting that they can cut disaster losses by just reducing exposure to hazards,\u201d Opdyke said. \u201cWe see repeatedly that disasters are often distorted by policy makers for political gain, without truly understanding the drivers of disaster risk. Vulnerabilities of our infrastructure, economies, and social systems often have a much larger role to play in disaster risk creation \u2013 factors that are rarely solved by starting anew.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, Indonesia\u2019s planning minister, Suharso Monoarfa, announced the new capital would be named \u201cNusantara,\u201d<\/a> meaning \u201carchipelago,\u201d following a review by Jokowi of about 80 proposed names.<\/p>\n

Jokowi is not the first Indonesian president to attempt\u00a0 to move the capital.<\/p>\n

Plans to do so date back to the 1950s under Indonesia\u2019s first president, Sukarno. Since then, other leaders including Soeharto and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia\u2019s second and sixth presidents, have mooted plans only to abandon them in the face of seemingly insurmountable logistical problems.<\/p>\n

The latest plan proposes procuring 40,000 hectares (98,842 acres) of land to relocate government officials, civil servants and security forces such as police and members of the military.<\/p>\n

About one-fifth of the $32bn price tag is to be covered by the government budget, with state-owned enterprises and other private sector financiers contributing the rest.<\/p>\n

Despite the Herculean feat before him, Jokowi, often referred to as the \u201cInfrastructure President\u201d, thanks to a fondness for toll roads and dams, has stuck to his vision, even amid controversy over the swift passage of the law when compared with legislation addressing issues such as sexual violence and workers\u2019 rights that has languished for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrior to the bill\u2019s issuance some observers noticed the similarity between its hasty deliberation process and that of the controversial Job Creation Law which was passed in October 2020, which many deemed substantially lacking public participation and transparency,\u201d Simandjuntak said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Legal irregularities\u2019<\/h2>\n

In an open letter to the lower house of parliament ahead of the legislation\u2019s passage, legal experts at Mulawarman University in Samarinda raised concerns the bill had received inadequate community input and contained \u201clegal irregularities\u201d.<\/p>\n

The letter, signed by Dean of Law Mahendra Putra Kurnia, noted Nusantara would be governed by a person elected directly by the president every five years, a model that was \u201cpotentially unconstitutional and centralist.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the contenders for the role is the former governor of Jakarta, Basuki \u201cAhok\u201d Tjahaja Purnama, who was Jokowi\u2019s running mate when the pair ran for office in 2012, with Jokowi winning the governorship of Jakarta and Ahok becoming his deputy.<\/p>\n

Ahok was jailed for two years in 2017 for blasphemy after he was found guilty of insulting a passage in the Quran.<\/p>\n

Another criticism of the relocation plan is the potential forced removal of the Indigenous Paser-Balik people from their lands, forest clearance and threats to local flora and fauna including endangered orangutans.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnvironmentalists have warned against the potential damage to the region\u2019s ecosystems and rainforests already encroached by oil palm and mining industries\u2019 activities,\u201d Simandjuntak said. \u201cAll these potential problems would have to be dealt with carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite pandemic-related delays, construction on the new city could begin as soon as 2024, the last year of Jokowi\u2019s second and final term in office.<\/p>\n

If international experience is any guide, the project is likely to take decades to complete.<\/p>\n

Brasilia, which opened in 1960, was inaugurated more than 60 years after Brazil decided to relocate its capital from Rio de Janeiro. Australia\u2019s Parliament House opened in Canberra in 1927, but it was not until the 1950s that most government departments relocated to the city. Both cities have faced criticism over the years for being badly designed and unpleasant to live in.<\/p>\n

Critics also argue that Jakarta\u2019s problems cannot simply be run away from.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether the capital moves or not, Jakarta still needs repair,\u201d Elisa Sutanudjaja, the director of the Rujak Center for Urban Studies in Jakarta, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Sutanudjaja said Jakarta still needed to deal with an array of issues including air pollution, land subsidence, inadequate access to clean water and problems with waste removal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in the midst of a climate crisis like this, building something new and something so massive, actually adds a huge amount of carbon to the atmosphere,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like moving to a new house when you can just sell the old one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Medan, Indonesia \u2013 When Indonesian President Joko \u201cJokowi\u201d Widodo announced a surprise plan to move the country\u2019s capital during his annual address to the nation on 16 August 2019, he outlined a grandiose vision. \u201cA capital city is not just a symbol of national identity, but also a representation of the progress of the nation,\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}