I thought it was the railway that was the boondoggle.* If instead the whole plan to move the capital is the concern, then Indonesia has real problems. Jakarta is sinking. With no remedy in sight.
From Der Spiegel, February 20:
Indonesia is building a brand new capital city in the jungles of Borneo. Critics say it's a waste of money and will continue rampant environmental destruction. But might it perhaps become a model city one day?
The city that is soon to rise out of the jungle makes its presence felt several kilometers before arrival. It lies a two-hour drive from the nearest airport, through nowheresville on the island of Borneo – past oil palm plantations, over hills and through tiny villages on a narrow road. Until at some point, visibility grows a bit hazy and the surrounding foliage begins turning gray from construction dust.
The road is full of potholes from the numerous cement mixers and trucks that pass through, transporting rebar, paving stones and gravel to the building site. The first cranes come into view, along with excavations into the reddish soil – and more and more men wearing steel-toed shoes and construction helmets.
They are busy building Indonesia’s future capital city. Welcome to Nusantara.
Indonesia has been dreaming of a new start with a new capital city in a location of its choosing since it became independent in 1945. Of a city more or less in the middle of the country, emphasizing the unity of its populace. With 274 million people, Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world by population and the largest Muslim country. It incorporates 17,000 islands, encompasses hundreds of languages and ethnic groups and expands across three time zones. Thus far, though, the country’s economic and political power has been concentrated on the island of Java.
That's where the current capital city of Indonesia is located, with the metropolis and its surroundings home to 30 million residents – a city that attracts most of the attention, yet one that many feel is no longer representative. Jakarta has been fighting for years with extreme air pollution, vast traffic jams and flooding. For a long time, the ground level was sinking by up to 20 centimeters per year because the aquifer is being pumped dry and the sea level is rising. A sinking capital.
But does that mean that Indonesia really needs a brand new one?
The man who set out to fulfill the dream of a new city and turned it into a real project is named Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, the current president of Indonesia and former mayor of Jakarta. In 2019, he announced that construction on the new capital was commencing and the government would ultimately be moving. To Nusantara, which essentially means "archipelago."
The new capital will be located on the island of Borneo, he promised, 1,300 kilometers from Jakarta. It is to become home to 2 million people on an area measuring 560 square kilometers, one-and-a-half times the size of Munich.
Nusantara is to be a green city, surrounded by rainforest and powered by renewable energy – a city of which the Indonesians can be proud. No traffic jams, plenty of public transportation options and lots of paths for walking and cycling. A high-tech city with intelligent wastewater systems and perhaps, at some point, flying taxis. A place where digital nomads would be happy to settle.
Towering over everything is to be a presidential palace in the shape of the Garuda, the golden eagle that is the national emblem of Indonesia. "We want to build a new Indonesia," Jokowi said in his announcement many years ago. "Indonesia is more than just Jakarta."
A utopic city.
A city that seems a lot like a monument to an outgoing president....
