The majority of disadvantaged villages in Indonesia, which number around 39,000 or 52 percent of the total, are located in these territories. Therefore, eastern Indonesia has so far only been able to contribute 20 percent to national economic growth.

This is why, since the beginning of his term in office in 2014, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo promised to build 225 priority infrastructures, especially in eastern Indonesia, such as 1,000 kilometers of roads, 24 piers, 35,000 megawatts of power plant capacity, 33 dams, 29.8 km of bridges, airports and internet networks.

In addition, since 2015, Jokowi has rolled out village funds, largely used for infrastructure development in rural areas, especially in eastern Indonesia.

Village funds under Jokowi’s leadership increased every year, from Rp 20.67 trillion (US$1.44 million) in 2015 to Rp 46.98 trillion in 2016), Rp 60 trillion in 2017 and 2018 and Rp 70 trillion in 2019.

However, the infrastructure projects have produced an ambiguous impact. On the one hand, Jokowi’s infrastructure development has improved welfare in eastern Indonesia.

In East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and Papua, for example, highways have increased rural and urban connectivity. Rural communities can sell their agricultural products to cities and buy industrial products from the cities.

The construction of the Rakanamo and Rotiklot reservoirs on the island of Timor, NTT, has brought a positive impact on the welfare of farmers. The construction of retention basin and small-scale irrigated rice fields has also had a positive impact on farmers in several villages in Flores.

The village funds in Wea Au village, Boawae district, Flores, which have been used to build village infrastructure projects and agricultural land clearing since 2015, has contributed to an increase in local employment and the use of less productive land in rural areas, significantly reducing poverty.

On the other hand, as I found in several places on Flores, for example in the farming communities in Ngada and Nagekeo regencies, Jokowi’s infrastructure projects have had little impact.

This is caused by “elite capture”, a situation where infrastructure projects, such as the provision of agricultural machinery, are co-opted by village leaders and elites who are landlords and can control the lives of farmers cultivating their land.

If the tenant farmers want to use the hand tractors provided by the government, for example, in Manggarai, Flores, farmer group leaders make various excuses, such as deliberately complaining of this and that damage.

In addition, it is not uncommon for these joint agricultural assets to be lost in the hands of farmer group leaders without compensation for other members.

Another problem with Jokowi’s infrastructure projects in eastern Indonesia is its Makassar-centric character.

In recent years, for example, Jokowi has allocated many national strategic infrastructure development projects in Sulawesi, especially South Sulawesi.

In its national strategic development plan for projects like dams, ports, roads and power plants in eastern Indonesia Jokowi allocated 27 projects to Sulawesi, 24 to Kalimantan and 13 to Papua and Maluku.

One of Jokowi’s national strategic projects in eastern Indonesia is the construction of Makassar New Port in South Sulawesi as the largest port in eastern Indonesia, which will be built until 2025 at a cost of around Rp 89.57 trillion.

Therefore, all commodities from eastern Indonesia can later be exported through Makassar New Port, which has started operations.

The government spent Rp 178 trillion from the 2014 state budget on infrastructure development, another Rp 256.3 trillion in 2015 and Rp 1 quadrillion in 2016. In short, budget spending for infrastructure development from 2015-2019 reaches about Rp 4.19 quadrillion.

Infrastructure improvement is expected to further increase exports from eastern Indonesia. In 2018, South Sulawesi contributed 2.43 percent (about $4.38 billion) to national exports of $180.04 billion, the second-highest in eastern Indonesia after Central Sulawesi (2.84 percent), Papua (2.19 percent), West Papua (1.57 percent), North Maluku (0.38 percent), Bali (0.33 percent), NTB (0.26 percent), Maluku (0.04 percent) and NTT (0.03 percent).

South Sulawesi enjoys one of the highest rates of economic growth in eastern Indonesia, never falling below 7 percent in the last five years (2014-2018) and thus far exceeding the national average (4.7-5.3 percent). Conversely, in September 2018, there were three provinces in eastern Indonesia with poverty rates of more than 20 percent, namely NTT (21.03 percent), West Papua (22.6 percent) and Papua (27.43 percent). Poverty in Maluku is also quite high with a rate of 17.85 percent.

By contrast, the poverty rate in South Sulawesi with its capital city of Makassar is lower than the national level (9.66 percent), namely 8.87 percent. In addition, looking at islands, the poverty rate in Sulawesi is much lower (10.37 percent) than in Bali and Nusa Tenggara (13.84 percent) or Maluku and Papua (20.94 percent).

Even though the general decline in poverty was not so significant in eastern Indonesia, Jokowi’s achievements in developing the vast area during his four years of leadership far outshine those of any president in Indonesian history.

That said, one must note that infrastructure development anywhere does not necessarily have a sudden positive impact on development and economic growth.

It is assumed that Jokowi’s infrastructure development in Indonesia, including in eastern regions, will have a positive impact in years to come on economic growth, which is projected to reach 7.2 percent in 2023 and 9.3 percent in 2030.

However, this economic growth can only be enjoyed by many people in eastern Indonesia if issues of the political economy — such as disparities in land ownership and inequality in development between Sulawesi and other regions can be overcome by the Jokowi government in the future.

_______________________

The writer is a New Mandala Indonesia fellow at Australia National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific, Canberra, Australia.

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