Javanese symbolism still pervades Indonesia's politics

President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo on March 15, 2022, looks on at sunrise after spending the night at a campsite in Penajam Paser Utara, East Kalimantan, where the government will build its new capital city replacing Jakarta. - AFP

JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): When President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced his ambitious plan to relocate the capital from Java to Kalimantan two years ago, it was clear from the get-go that the President, an ethnic Javanese, wished to make Indonesia less Java-centric.

The new capital, he argued, should be in the middle of the country — between the north and south, the west and east of the Archipelago.