TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
House passes bill to relocate nation’s capital
Major milestone in achieving Jokowi’s long-held dream.
Change Size
L
awmakers passed a new capital city bill on Tuesday, which will provide the necessary legal framework to move forward the government’s plan to relocate the capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan.
The move was a major milestone for the government after President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced the relocation to East Kalimantan in 2019, citing the need to spread economic development to outside Java, the country’s most populous island, and the need to reduce the environmental burden on congested Jakarta.
The bill’s passage was formalized in a plenary session on Tuesday, with eight out of nine factions at the House of Representatives throwing their support behind the bill.
The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) was the only political faction at the House that opposed the bill, where PKS politician Hamid Noor Yasin said the plan would put more of a burden on the already stretched state budget and feared it would take away the government’s focus on handling the pandemic.
The newly passed bill stipulates that the new capital city will be called Nusantara, a Javanese name for the Indonesian archipelago that was chosen by Jokowi.
Ahmad Doli Kurnia, who chaired a special House committee on the new capital city, said the passage of the new capital city bill was the “initial step” toward relocating the capital.
“The new capital city bill is only the beginning [for the relocation plan]. It represents our consensus that we want to relocate our capital city,” Ahmad, who is a member of the Golkar Party, said on Tuesday, adding that the bill would provide a strong legal framework that would ensure the project would be continued into the next administrations.
National Development Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa said the government would make sure that the construction of the new capital, as well as its financing, would be done "following detailed planning,”.
Suharso, who also heads the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), added that the government would look for financing options that would not burden its budget to finance the relocation project.
New bill
The newly passed bill stipulates the establishment of a ministerial-level authority that will be in charge of the preparation, construction and relocation process from Jakarta to Nusantara. The authority will also be responsible for governing the new capital.
The President will directly appoint the head of the authority after consultation with the House. The bill also gave mandate to the President to appoint the head of the authority at least two months after it was signed into law.
Nusantara is to be situated on 256,000 hectares of land straddling North Penajam Paser regency and Kutai Kartanegara regency. The government expects to start the relocation from Jakarta by 2024.
Suharso previously said in September that it would take 15 to 20 years for the government to fully relocate to Nusantara, according to Bappenas projections, adding that the agency would divide the development period of almost two decades into several stages.
According to the relocation project’s official website, the central government is expected to gradually relocate its civil servants, moving at least 25,500 people per year between 2023 and 2027.
The project is forecast to cost Rp 466 trillion (US$32 billion). The government is expected to finance 19 percent of the project, or Rp 89.4 trillion, using the state budget, while the remainder is expected to be financed through public-private partnerships (PPPs) and private investors.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has assured that the project would not take away the government’s focus on pandemic handling and economic recovery, although adding that the government was of the view that the relocation project could also serve as part of its economic recovery agenda.
“As we know in 2022, the stimulus package for economic recovery stands at Rp 450 trillion, the disbursement of which is yet to be specified [by the government]. We could put [the construction of Nusantara] as part of the economic recovery program,” she said.
Bumps in the road
While the House has passed the new capital city bill, significant challenges remain on the execution of the relocation project as the project has met some bumps in the road.
The government recently faced backlash from the Indonesian Institute of Architects (IAI) for its decision to choose a design for the new capital’s state palace by renowned sculptor Nyoman Nuarta.
IAI chairman Georgius Budi Yulianto questioned the legal standing of Nyoman’s design for the new state palace, particularly because Nyoman is not a registered architect under the IAI. This, Georgius said, invited questions over the safety and security of the design.
“At the end of the day, no matter how great the design, it must be able to meet the criteria of security, safety, comfort, convenience, health, [as mandated] by law and it should be a licensed architect that is responsible,” Georgius added.
The site for Nusantara is also not immune to natural disasters, contrary to Jokowi’s push to relocate the capital to ease the environmental burden on Jakarta. On Dec. 18, 2021, some 100 houses were flooded in Penajam Paser following heavy rains in the area, while some 455 houses were also flooded in Kutai Kartanegara in August.
This has led to mounting concerns that the capital relocation plan will further exacerbate the environmental problems in Kalimantan, with a report from the World Resources Institute (WRI) Indonesia, published in 2019, suggesting that vast amounts of intact forest and peatland needed to be cleared to build the new capital city.
