On Sunday, three days after he swore in the head of the new capital city authority, Jokowi flew to East Kalimantan where he is expected to visit the construction site for the country's new administrative center.

With monumental achievements in infrastructure and industrial development already behind him, Jokowi's determination to forge ahead with his pandemic-delayed Rp 466 trillion (US$32.7 billion) capital relocation plan has underlined the value he attaches to making the project his crowning legacy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the country’s biggest nation-building project since its independence into disarray. But after a year of delays, the project was set in motion when the House of Representatives passed legislation in January that lays down the legal framework for the new administrative center.

Doubts that Jokowi can get the new capital city to a point of no return before his last term ends, however, persist amid political maneuverings at play over the past few weeks. Some party leaders within the ruling coalition have floated ideas about delaying the 2024 general elections, which would effectively extend Jokowi’s final term in the nation’s highest office.

Another step forward

On Thursday, Jokowi named Bambang Susantono, a 58-year-old civil engineer-turned-economist specializing in transport and infrastructure, as the head of the new capital city authority. Accompanying him is Dhony Rahajoe – the managing director president office of Sinar Mas Land, a private developer best known for building Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) City in Tangerang, Banten – as his deputy.

The appointments are a step forward in the President’s ambitious plan to relocate the capital from the sinking Jakarta to East Kalimantan. Both Bambang and Dhony will face tough challenges as Jokowi seeks to complete the first stage of the plan in 2024, the same year when the country will hold presidential, legislative and regional elections. They will be responsible for planning, securing funds and executing the development plan for Nusantara.

Read also: Jokowi taps professionals to lead capital relocation

Bambang has said that he aimed to build “a city for all”, emphasizing that the authority would not only focus on developing the physical infrastructure in Nusantara but also the city’s soul.

Political analyst Adi Prayitno said their appointments were a way to secure the project from unwanted political interest because Jokowi would want to imprint his legacy in a manner that no other Indonesian presidents have achieved before.

Dreams come true

Moving the capital away from Jakarta is not a new idea. Sukarno, the founding father of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, proposed moving the capital to Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan in 1957.

The plan also reemerged during Soeharto’s reign, when the strongman named Jonggol in Bogor, West Java, as a potential site for a new capital. Jokowi's predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, also spoke of relocating the capital in October 2010.

During Jokowi’s term in office, the idea was refloated again in 2017, but it never came to fruition until Jokowi decided to move the capital to an undecided location outside Java in 2019.

The project is meant to alleviate the excessive burden borne by Jakarta by shifting the headquarters of various government ministries and institutions, as well as diplomatic missions, to Nusantara.

Read also: Indonesia passes law to relocate capital to remote Kalimantan

Jokowi plans to have the State Palace and four ministries – foreign affairs, defense, home affairs and finance – working out of the new capital by 2024, as he wants to celebrate Indonesia’s 79^th independence anniversary at his new office there.

“Having an independence day celebration there would at least serve as a symbol of a continuation of Jokowi's success stories; that he had initiated the new capital,” economist Didin S. Damanhuri of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB University) said on Saturday.

‘Not the right time’

However, another hurdle to the progress could be a judicial review of the New Capital Law at the Constitutional Court. The petitioners say the law-making process was carried out without sufficient public consultation.

Didin is among a group of academics and public figures — including Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University former rector Azyumardi Azra and Din Syamsuddin, a former chairman of Muhammadiyah, the second-largest Islamic organization that has backed Jokowi in 2019 election – who are challenging the law.

Didin does not think this is the right time to relocate the capital as Indonesia has a sizable level of debt and is yet to return its deficit to the non-emergency setting of less than 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

“Relocating the capital from Jakarta is inevitable. We are not against it; but this is about priority. This is not the time to build a new capital. We already have a level of debt that has grown into a worrying level,” Didin said.

Another petitioner, Achmad Nur Hidayat, who is the founder of the public policy think tank Narasi Institute, said the President should not waste state funds from taxes to construct a new capital.

“We as taxpayers do not think it is the right time for the government to use the state budget collected from taxes to fund a project that is not a priority to economic and health recovery amid the pandemic,” Achmad said.

Read also: 2024 polls hang in balance, again

Political analyst Ahmad Khoirul Umam, who is not among the petitioners, said business calculations could possibly be one of the motives behind maneuvers to delay the presidential election and extend Jokowi’s term.

"Delaying the elections could serve as a way to secure the business calculations of benefits and loss of the capital project,” Umam said.

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