A Surprising Announcement

In May 2019, Indonesia’s current President, Joko Widodo (Jokowi), paid a visit to East Kalimantan – one of the three provinces nominated by Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency as the most suitable place to build a new capital city. Three months after, during President Jokowi’s state of the nation address in front of the Parliament, he publicly announced his cabinet’s decision to move Indonesia’s capital city from Jakarta (the current capital city) to Penajam Paser Utara and Kutai Kartanegara districts of East Kalimantan [1].

The President’s unprecedented announcement came as a surprise to many Indonesians. The discourse surrounding the movement of Indonesia’s capital has existed since President Soekarno’s (Indonesia’s first president) administration in 1957. However, it was never more than just a plan until President Jokowi officially announced his bold decision to build a new capital city from scratch in an inland forest of over 200,000 hectares in East Kalimantan [2].

The movement can happen now is because the current Parliament is mostly filled with people from President Jokowi's coalition parties (81% of the parliamentarians are from Jokowi's coalition party). The coalition composition in Parliament is larger than in any tenure of Indonesia's other Presidents after the reformation in 1998. This made it easier for the proposal to get the Parliament's approval.

The construction of the new capital city is expected to cost at least USD 32 billion and take place within 20 years. The country expects to witness the completion of major government building installation in 2024, followed by the movement of at least 4,5 million civil servants to the new capital city by the end of the same year [3].

Reasons for the Movement

For the past years, Jakarta has been dealing with some serious environment problems: water scarcity, air pollution and ground subsidence.

Jakarta is currently hosting over 10 million people. The high population density put great pressure on the limited water resources. Recent research by the National Development Planning Agency showed that in 2040, Jakarta will suffer from absolute water scarcity [4].

The high population density also resulted in massive volumes of daily commuter traffic. In 2020, Jakarta was one of the top 10 cities in the world with the worst traffic jam [5]. The congestion resulted in severe air pollution. According to Mongabay, Jakarta’s residents spent at least 3,7 billion USD per year on health treatment for diseases caused by air pollution [6].

Jakarta is also currently sinking. Research from IPB University found that ground subsidence in Jakarta reach 10 centimetres per year due to massive home drilling activities by the residents to find clean water supply from the underground [7]. Jakarta’s massive environmental became one of the main drivers to move the capital city.

Concerns Related to the New Capital City

The massive environment crisis in Jakarta prompted a worry that moving the capital to East Kalimantan would just replicate Jakarta’s problems. Located on Borneo Island, East Kalimantan has one of the largest tropical forest landscapes in the world and is home to thousands of wildlife, such as orangutans and leopards. The ocean is often referred to as the “Amazon of the ocean, " home to various coral reef species [8].

Before the new capital city announcement, Borneo had lost at least 30% of its forest cover due to land clearing since 1973 [09]. Research by Teo et al. showed that the island is expected to only have 38% of its forest in 2045. The construction of the new capital city is expected to cause further deforestation, directly impacting the surrounding areas [10].

According to Alex Lechner, an ecologist from Monash University, Indonesia may experience a similar situation to what happened in Brasilia during the movement of Brazil’s capital city where massive opening of undisturbed territory, illegal logging, and land clearing occurred. If the government of Indonesia does not pay serious attention to environment protection aspect of the new capital city construction, deforestation can also take place in East Kalimantan [11].

Currently, the Indonesian government is building a highway that will connect the new capital city with various cities on Borneo Island. The construction has cut through over 200 km of forest area at the heart of Borneo. According to David Gaveau, a landscape ecologist from TheTreeMap, the construction has caused severe deforestation and has the potential to reverse the progress made in deforestation reduction due to the plantation moratorium in the past 17 years [12].

Aside from deforestation, the sudden movement of people to East Kalimantan can also potentially cause heavy air and water pollution. According to Teo et al., the transformation of Penajam Paser Utara and Kutai Kartanegara districts is expected to release at least 2326 MtCO2e of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 126% of Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2014 [13]

Another concern related to the construction of the new capital city is Borneo's pressing threat from forest fires. According to Greenpeace, from 2015-2018, at least 35,000 hectares of forest in Borneo were affected by the fire. The fire is often caused by palm oil or pulp and paper companies that seek to apply cheap and fast methods to clear the land and expand their plantations [14].

The sudden movement of millions of people to inhabit the new capital city by 2024 can trigger a bigger industrialisation process, potentially leading to a higher occurrence of forest fires if there is no strict monitoring and regulations for the palm oil and paper companies [15].

The Government’s Promises

The government of Indonesia repeatedly stated that the construction of the new capital city will rehabilitate the destroyed forest.

“At the time of building the capital city, we must do reforestation so that the concept of the city will be a green city. If there is a possibility of abuse by investors, we as regulators must be strict to ensure that it becomes an inclusive and open city”

        Bambang Brodjonegoro, Head of Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency in 2019 [16].

Besides the reforestation promise, the government also promised that the new capital city will have various green recreational spaces and all government buildings will use 100% eco-friendly construction designs that are energy efficient [17].

The public, however, remain sceptic of this plan considering the poor urban design and management they have previously witnessed in Jakarta. Unregulated urbanisation, narrow rainwater harvesting space, poor public transport facilities and low emission standard for private vehicles - all have resulted in Jakarta’s current environment crisis. This created a worry that without a serious commitment to conserve the environment, the same (if not worse) problems can happen in the new capital city [18].

Unless strict environment protection regulations are implemented and careful green city design are used in the construction process, it will be difficult for the movement of Indonesia’s capital city to achieve its ultimate goal of reducing the ecological burden in Jakarta and bring better prosperity for the people of Indonesia.

References

[1] Salim, W., & Negara, S. D. (2019, No. 79). Shifting the Capital from Jakarta: Reasons and Challenges. ISEAS Yushof Ishak Institute Perspective, 2.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Normile, D. (2022). Science. Retrieved from Indonesia’s utopian new capital may not be as green as it looks: https://www.science.org/content/article/indonesia-s-utopian-new-capital-may-not-be-green-it-looks

[4] Lyons, K. (2019). The Guardian. Retrieved from Why is Indonesia moving its capital city? Everything you need to know: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/why-is-indonesia-moving-its-capital-city-everything-you-need-to-know

[5] Tomtom. (2021). Tomtom Index. Retrieved from Jakarta traffic: https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/traffic-index/jakarta-traffic/

6] Syahni, D. (2019). Mongabay Situs Berita Lingkungan. Warga Gugat Pemerintah soal Polusi Udara Jakarta, Gubernur Keluarkan Instruksi: https://www.mongabay.co.id/2019/08/06/warga-gugat-pemerintah-soal-polusi-udara-jakarta-gubernur-keluarkan-instruksi/

[7]  Normile, D. (2022). Science. Retrieved from Indonesia’s utopian new capital may not be as green as it looks: https://www.science.org/content/article/indonesia-s-utopian-new-capital-may-not-be-green-it-looks

[8] Lechner, Alex; Permanasari, Eka; Widita, Alyas; Lovering, Diego Ramirez; Sofian, Sibarani. (2022). Monash University. Retrieved from Indonesia’s sinking city, and the blueprint for its new capital in Borneo: https://lens.monash.edu/@design-architecture/2022/04/04/1384554/indonesias-sinking-city-and-the-blueprint-for-its-new-capital-in-borneo

[9] Normile, D. (2022). Science. Retrieved from Indonesia’s utopian new capital may not be as green as it looks: https://www.science.org/content/article/indonesia-s-utopian-new-capital-may-not-be-green-it-looks

[10] Teo, H. C., Lechner, A. M., Sagala, S., & Arceiz, C. A. (2020, 9(11)). Environmental Impacts of Planned Capitals and Lessons for Indonesia’s New Capital. Land, 15.

[11] Normile, D. (2022). Science. Retrieved from Indonesia’s utopian new capital may not be as green as it looks: https://www.science.org/content/article/indonesia-s-utopian-new-capital-may-not-be-green-it-looks

[12] Ibid.

[13] Teo, H. C., Lechner, A. M., Sagala, S., & Arceiz, C. A. (2020, 9(11)). Environmental Impacts of Planned Capitals and Lessons for Indonesia’s New Capital. Land, 15

[14] Greenpeace Southeast Asia. (2019). Greenpeace. Retrieved from GreenpeaceIndonesia’s response to the planned move of the Indonesian capital to East Kalimantan: https://www.greenpeace.org/southeastasia/press/2933/2933/

[15] Ibid.

[16] Indonesia's National Development Agency. (2019). Indonesia Learns from Brazil's Experience in Relocating Its Capital City. Jakarta: Indonesia's National Development Agency.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Ibid.

This is one of a series of blogs supported by the IDS alumni office and written by current IDS students and PhD Researchers from academic year 2021-2022 Spring Term.