The law, which has undergone speedy deliberation lasting less than four months, gives the green light to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s ambitious plan, which is expected to cost US$32 billion, and which has been met with skepticism.

Yet, the former mayor of Surakarta, Central Java, who built brick-by-brick his national-level political clout in Jakarta has remained undeterred.

With strong support from the international community—ranging from Japanese conglomerate Softbank to the United Arab Emirates—the President now can begin construction of the new capital, which may not be ready when he completes his term in 2024.

There was much doubt when Jokowi first announced his vision just after he secured his second term in 2019. The project is not like any other. It was not like when Malaysia moved its seat of government from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya, which is only about 34 kilometers away. Or other instances of capital city swapping in other countries, which mostly involve the same landmass.

Moving the capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan may bring about not only political and administrative transformations, but also cultural ones. Jakarta has been the center of government and business since even before Indonesia’s independence. It has faced wars and revolutions that have made Indonesia what it is today and the embodiment of the superiority of Java over other islands in the country.

While people blame much of the inequality in wealth and development between Java and the rest of the country on the centralized government of the Soeharto era, the development and decentralization system that was established in the ashes of the country’s longest presidential regime has not changed the fact that Indonesia is still Java-centric.

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