INDONESIAN President Joko Widodo has a big capital plan. He is moving the administrative centre from sinking Jakarta to East Kalimantan between North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara, just 70km from the pronvince’s capital city of Samarinda.
Every president from Sukarno to Susilo had a capital-city relocation plan. Perhaps they were not ready, able or willing. Not so can-do Jokowi.
Capitals have moved before. Some have succeeded, some have failed magnificently. Naypyidaw — city of kings in Burmese — is, understandably, dubbed “Ghost City” by newspapers around the world. Not because “Ghost City” sits prettier in the five-columned page of the print than “City of Kings”. If you must know the real reason, it is this: Naypyidaw is more a monument than a model.
Naypyidaw can fit four Londons, but it isn’t as busy as one quarter of one. Naypyidaw may just be an example of how not to move a capital city.
But in the new capital of Indonesia, Jokowi has the chance to right all that was wrong with Naypyidaw. And Jakarta, too. Jakarta wasn’t an Indonesian choice of a capital city to begin with.
As the president himself put it in a speech announcing the capital move on Monday, Indonesia never chose a capital in all of its 74 years of independence. Indonesia’s time is now. And the time is Jokowi’s.
President of Malaysian Institute of Planners, Ihsan Zainal Mokhtar, says Jokowi is being presented with a rare chance to show the world he can build a sustainable capital city while at the same time solving economic and political problems of his people.
And he can do it the 5-G way at that. Not many leaders have this opportunity to start all over again in a good way, says town planner Ihsan. Sometimes time and place come together for one man to make it happen. So it has for Jokowi.
Indonesia is not the only country which is going to gain from the capital shift. Malaysia and Brunei will harvest all the good that comes from the relocation. Penajam Paser or Kutai Kartanegara is just one hour and 14 minutes from Kota Kinabalu and one hour and 25 minutes from Kuching.
Brunei is just one hour 16 minutes away by air. Singapore and Hong Kong aren’t distant destinations either: the former is two hours and 15 minutes, while the latter is three hours and 30 minutes away. Both business and pleasure may just mix well in this relocated capital.
Done right, the new capital will bring more business, jobs and quality of life, reckons Ihsan. The relocated capital will be more central to Indonesia than Jakarta is. Sharing the economic wealth is that much easier.
Will the rich businessmen be sold on the idea of relocation? Ihsan has no doubt. “In a 5-G connected people-centric smart city, where you are isn’t important anymore.”
Unlike in Las Vegas, what happens in Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara isn’t going to stay just there. Expect it to ricochet out of Borneo to the rest of the world. Geopolitics may not be the same either. After all, Indonesia isn’t a small power. Jokowi may very well be ahead of his time. Kutai Kartanegara batik, anyone?