Yudhoyono Reopens Possibility of Capital Other Than Jakarta

Yudhoyono Reopens Possibility of Capital Other Than Jakarta

By Arientha Primanita on 5:02 pm September 8, 2013.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said his administration has continued to consider the possibility of moving Indonesia’s center of government to a city less densely populated and problem-prone than Jakarta. “We had made a small team to think about the moving of our capital city,” he said at a press conference in St. Petersburg, Russia on Saturday, according to his official website. “In this case, the center of economy, trade and others would stay in Jakarta, but we would move the government center to another place.”Yudhoyono spoke while on a week-long trip to Russia, Poland and Kazakhstan, during which he conducted official state visits and attend G20 meetings. He and First Lady Any Yudhoyono returned to Jakarta on Sunday.

He first considered the possibility of moving the capital five years ago, he said, but decided he wasn’t ready for the harsh debate that such a proposal would inevitably cause.

“I chose to stay quiet because the habit in this country is that if there is a new idea, people directly debate and blame [the government],” he said. “On the contrary, if I said it was not necessary, I would still be blamed.”

After visiting Astana, which replaced Almatty as the capital of Kazakhstan in 1997, Yudhoyono began reconsidering the idea in earnest. He was impressed by the new capital’s architecture and urban planning, he said, although the two nations face different challenges: While both countries occupy around two million square kilometers of land, Kazakhstan’s has a population of 19 million, as opposed to Indonesia’s 240 million.

Yudhoyono said that he was thinking about Indonesia’s best interests 30 years from now. “This is a task for the presidents after my tenure,” he said. “If we are economically strong with robust growth, GDP and income per capita, and if there is no better solution to manage Jakarta’s woes and there is an urgency, it is not wrong for us to think of a place that we can build into a new government center.”

He cited the examples of Turkey, Australia and Malaysia — countries that successfully relocated their capitals.

“What we have learned is it would take a hefty cost: economically, politically as well as socially,” he said.

Jakarta faces gridlock, water shortages, flooding and pollution. Ideally, he said, a move would reduce these problems in Jakarta while improving a new area.

Indonesia’s founding father Sukarno once proposed making Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, the capital because it was the geographic center of Indonesia.

More recently, officials have floated the idea of moving the capital to Jonggol, West Java; Palembang, South Sumatra; or Yogyakarta.

Yayat Supriatna, an urban planning expert at Trisakti University in Jakarta, said if that Yudhoyono wanted to push the idea, the government should offer a concrete plan.

“The team that he formed should have given him a recommendation, if the plan is feasible or not,” he told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday. “If  it is feasible, he can propose it to the House of Representatives to get political backing.”

Yudhoyono would have to appoint a specialized team to conduct feasibility studies, infrastructure planning, cost analysis studies and social impacts studies, according to Yayat.

“Moving the administration does not necessarily mean Jakarta’s issues would end,” Yayat said. “If Jakarta itself is not being managed properly, then the city’s problems will accumulate and it will always be stuck in problems.”