It’s time to move, says Jokowi

Towards a better future: Jokowi dressed in traditional garb announcing the move to shift the capital during his state-of-the-nation address to Parliament in Jakarta. — AFP

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s president has proposed to move the capital from Jakarta, a crowded, polluted city of 10 million people, to the island of Borneo, though he left Indonesians guessing as to the exact location.

President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, suggested a new capital in Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of the island shared with Malaysia and Brunei, in a speech to parliament, a day before the country’s independence day holiday.

“I hereby request your permission to move our national capital to Kalimantan, ” said Widodo, who will be sworn in for a second term in October after winning an election in April.

“A capital city is not just a symbol of national identity, but also a representation of the progress of the nation.

“This is for the realisation of economic equality and justice, ” he added.

He did not give the exact site of the new city in a region known for rain forests, coal mines, orangutans and home to just over 16 million people.

Widodo toured Kalimantan in May to survey potential sites and last month tweeted a shortlist of three provinces: Central, East and South Kalimantan.

The new capital should tick several boxes, officials say.

It must be in the centre of Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17, 000 islands that stretches some 5, 000km (3, 000 miles) from its western to eastern tips.

The risk of natural disasters should also be lower than any other parts of Indonesia, a country often hit by earthquakes, floods and volcanoes.

Jakarta is one of the world’s most densely populated cities, home to more than 10 million people and three times that number when counting those who live in surrounding towns.

The city is prone to floods and sinking due to subsidence, caused by millions of residents using up groundwater and leaving rock and sediment to pancake on top of each other.

Moving the capital to a safer, less congested location would cost up to US$33bil (RM138bil), according to planning minister Bambang Brodjonegoro.

The price tag includes new government offices and homes for about 1.5 million civil servants expected to pack up and start moving in 2024.

Indonesia is not the first South-East Asian country to move its capital.

In 2005, Myanmar’s ruling generals moved abruptly to Naypyidaw, a town in remote hills some 320km away from the colonial era capital, Yangon, and the occasional mass protests that erupted there.

In the 1990s, Malaysian leader Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad built an administrative capital in Putrajaya, about 33km from Kuala Lumpur, one of the mega-projects that helped to define his first stint in power.

Widodo had been expected to announce the location of Indonesia’s new capital today, but authorities have been cautious about revealing too much, fearing the news would send land prices soaring.

That did not stop Indonesians from guessing.

Twitter users predicted Widodo favoured Bukit Soeharto, a forested area in East Kalimantan and home of a member of parliament who read a prayer after the president’s speech.

“The man reading the prayer is from East Kalimantan. Clue, ” Twitter user Bawal Samudro wrote. — Reuters