City of Nusantara: legacy or folly?

Some critics are asking if it is really necessary to have a new capital in Indonesia.

IT IS either a brilliant move or a foolish one by President Joko Widodo or Jokowi. Naming the new capital of Indonesia, Nusantara, surprised almost everyone. Nusantara is a concept accepted by many as a geographical entity that belongs to the Malay diaspora in South-East Asia. In Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, Nusantara as defined by Kamus Dewan is “Kepulauan Melayu” or “gugusan pulau-pulau Melayu” (literally the isles of the Malays).

While the Indonesians claimed that Nusantara refers to the “archipelago nation” known as Indonesia, others in the region believed that Nusantara is a notion of the “Malay people” bound by the same culture and tradition. It is supposed to be part of the region’s indigenous identity contestation, that of “the Malays of Nusantara.”