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New capital Nusantara has long way to go
Bar the centrepiece presidential palace -- winged like the national emblem, the mythical Garuda bird -- Nusantara is a series of unfinished buildings and bumpy access tracks, shrouded by clouds of dust kicked up by trucks and excavators.
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This handout picture taken and released on July 29, 2024 by the Presidential Palace shows President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo (right) speaking to the media as he visits the new Presidential Palace in the future capital city of Nusantara (IKN) in Penajam Paser Utara, East Kalimantan. (AFP/Handout)
I
t was supposed to be the jewel in the crown of the 10-year presidency of Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, but Indonesia's capital-to-be, carved out of dense jungle in Kalimantan, is a vast building site just weeks before being due to open.
Bar the centrepiece presidential palace -- winged like the national emblem, the mythical Garuda bird -- Nusantara is a series of unfinished buildings and bumpy access tracks, shrouded by clouds of dust kicked up by trucks and excavators.
The new capital was expected to be inaugurated on August 17, the country's Independence Day, but building delays, funding woes -- and even the unwillingness of those expected to relocate there -- have cast doubt on its opening.
"Everything is still in progress," Jokowi conceded during a visit to the site this week.
"This is a job of 10, 15 or 20 years. Not just one, two or three years."
The city-in-progress will still figure large in independence celebrations, but an official decree moving the capital from Jakarta could be delayed until long after Jokowi's successor, Prabowo Subianto, takes charge on October 20.
Jokowi resurrected a long-shelved plan to relocate the capital soon after taking office in 2019 after experts warned Jakarta -- the megacity of 12 million people -- was sinking.
