TheJakartaPost
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Challenges of Jakarta's replacement
As a whole, the city’s master plan is likely planned and designed by those who never learned much about the misery and the socially alienated populations of modern cities because of the automobile-oriented design and poorly diverse public realms.
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (third left), along with other officials, looks at a map as he visits Bukit Soeharto in Kutai Kartanegara regency, East Kalimantan on May 7. Bukit Soeharto, was one of several areas that had been nominated for the site of a new capital city. (Courtesy of Presidential Press Bureau/-)
W
hy should we build a new capital city for Indonesia? No one is better to answer the question than President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Frankly speaking, it is neither a bad nor a good idea. It is a matter of perspective. However, common sense says the relocation is about to better serve the diverse populations, provinces and resources of the country with a strategic geographic location.
Jakarta is no longer economically and environmentally appropriate and supportive for the capital city. Indeed Jakarta’s infrastructure and public facilities are not conducive to an efficient and reliable city in terms of environmentally friendly urbanism.
So to what extent can planning and design ensure that the new capital city is effective for transforming and improving Indonesia? We have valuable lessons from Brasilia in Brazil and Putrajaya in Malaysia. The core idea of moving the capitals of the two countries was not something apart from the relocation of government quarters.
In the cases of Brasilia and Putrajaya, both cities serve as government quarters in the day but are dead at night. Putrajaya is not a self-sufficient monad but an integrated part of a regional network of Kuala Lumpur, Cyberjaya, Bandar Teknologi Kajang, Sepang, Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Port Klang.
The proposed capital of Indonesia is seated between the regency of North Penajam Paser and the regency of Kutai Kartanegara in East Kalimantan. This location geographically faces the water in the east and the rainforest in the west. It is between the two sociopolitically and economically established centers: Balikpapan and Samarinda.
Economically speaking, the location was a site for mining coal. The geological condition is dominated by a layer of medium sandstone and black claystone with overlapping quartz sandstone sediments. Some areas with steep slopes are prone to landslides during heavy monsoons.
