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House passes revised IKN Law to future-proof Nusantara against regime change
The legislature has passed a new IKN Law that grants greater powers to the Nusantara administration but more crucially, future-proofs the capital city relocation and development project beyond next year's election.
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Cranes and construction crews work on Sept. 22, 2023 at the site of the Nusantara Capital City (IKN) development project in North Penajam Paser regency, East Kalimantan. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
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o:p>Lawmakers have passed the revised National Capital City (IKN) Law that not only prevents the next president from ditching the project to relocate the nation’s capital from Jakarta to Nusantara in East Kalimantan, but also expands the power of the Nusantara Capital City (IKN) Authority to manage its own budget.
Of the nine factions in the House of Representatives, only the opposition Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) voted against the bill’s passage during the plenary session on Tuesday, saying that the law revision granted the IKN Authority almost unchecked power that might potentially contradict the principles of good governance.
The Democratic Party, the only other opposition party at the House, threw its support behind the bill, albeit with a note of caution that the IKN Authority’s expanded power might be overbroad and might overlap the authority of other state institutions.
The revised law states that the IKN Authority can manage the budget for Nusantara as well as commercial land in the city. It also permits the Nusantara administration to seek funding from private investors for the city’s development.
This is because the new law places the head of the IKN Authority, which is an appointed position and not an elected one, on a level equal to that of a cabinet minister or the elected head of a provincial-level autonomous region.
National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) head Suharso Monoarfa, who represented the government at Tuesday’s plenary session, said afterward that one of the “crucial” provisions included in the revised law allowed investors to obtain a right to cultivate (HGU) permit for a total term of 190 years divided into two periods, or “cycles”.
