Rising giant in our midst

Indonesia President Joko Widodo, center, speaks as his deputy Jusuf Kalla, right, and Minister of Agrarian and Spatial Planning Sofyan Djalil, left, looks on during a press conference at the palace in Jakarta, Indonesia,Indonesia's president has announced to relocate the country's capital from overcrowded, sinking and polluted Jakarta to East Kalimantan province.-AP

WHEN I was a teenager, I assumed that Sabah’s neighbour, Kalimantan, was a dark, empty swath of jungle. For me, the Indonesian part of Borneo Island – the third largest island in the world and largest in Asia – was a heart of darkness among its neighbours Malaysia (Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan) and Brunei.

As a Sabahan, I thought that Kota Kinabalu had a bigger population than Pontianak. I presumed the capital of West Kalimantan province was an ulu (underdeveloped) town on the equator.