Plan for Capital City Relocation is Still Ongoing: Presidential Spokesperson

Photo caption: Screen capture of zoom meeting

Presidential Spokesperson and Special Staffer on Communication, Fadjroel Rachman, confirmed that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is still making endeavor to realize wishes from people living in East Kalimantan and all Indonesians in general to relocate the capital city.

“Although the President has not visited Penajam in a whole year due to COVID-19 pandemic, he is still working on the issue of capital city relocation,” Fadjroel said in a webinar adopting a theme “Capital City: Transformation into an Advance Indonesia”, on Monday (1/3).

He also unveiled several reasons behind capital city relocation. First, population of Capital City Jakarta has exceeded capacity of the city. It will bring serious impacts to the environment, land use for housing and other social issues, he added.

Second, Jakarta has poor urban planning (around 80 percent of the area) as mentioned by Nirwono Joga, an expert in urban planning, in 2016. Third, the city has limited green open space, only about 9.8 percent of the total area, while the minimum standards for urban green space is 30 percent of the total area.

Fourth, Jakarta has always been the symbol for centralism, be it as the center of economy, politics, or culture. As a consequence, Jakarta has a huge burden, not only to solve its complex problem but also the urban planning problem.

The Spokesperson then cited several problems in Jakarta, such as flood, social issues including criminal acts and environmental damage, which will trap the city from further development.

In addition, Jakarta, as the center and model for political dynamic nationwide, has the issue of corruption and slow performance of the governance. The centralism also created inequality in development, he added.

“For that reasons, new capital city is a fundamental transformation to working system, as well as to environmental and economic issues. It will change the system and culture, including on the economy, bureaucracy and environment,” he said, adding that capital city relocation is pivotal to change the old and poor system so we can manifest an Advance Indonesia.

The new capital city, he added, is a turning point of transformation in working system into a digital, effective, and efficient system with smart city concept. Management of the new capital city will be based on the environment by upholding green city concept that will protect the forest, flora and fauna, as well as custom and culture of the locals. The new capital city will also support economic equality in Indonesia.

Kutai Kartanegara and North Penajam Paser Regencies, East Kalimantan Province were chosen to be the site of the new capital city because the Province is strategically located in the center of Indonesia, free from risk of natural disasters such as earthquake, tsunami, flood, and land/forest fires, has sufficient water sources, close to developing cities, and complies with safety and security requirements.

For the record, the webinar is initiated by a movement called Maslahat (Modest and Dignified People of East Kalimantan). The movement is expected to serve as a platform to share knowledge, views, research, developments and information among the youth in East Kalimantan Province, in particular. (FID/UN) (RAS/MUR)