The Indonesian parliament has approved a bill to relocate the nation’s capital from Jakarta to a jungled area of East Kalimantan and the new capital city will be called Nusantara (meaning- archipelago) encompasses an area of 180,000 hectares between the regencies of Kutai Kartanegara and Penajam Paser Utara.
The name for the new capital for the world’s most populous Muslim country dates back to an oath by the country’s revered hero Gajah Mada in 1336.
Gajah Mada was a powerful military leader and prime minister of Majapahit, a Javanese Hindu empire as President Joko Widodo wants to highlight the country’s motto of “unity in diversity”
Gajah Mada who was a powerful military leader is widely credited with the unification of the entire archipelago and taking the empire to its peak of glory.
In April last year, the initial design for the presidential palace complex and the new capital was revealed to the public and Balinese sculptor Nyoman Nuarta, who is famous for sculpting the Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) statue was commissioned to design a structure.
In Indonesia, Garuda who is the divine bird and Vahana of the Hindu god Vishnu is the national emblem.
Nuarta design will now become the showpiece of the new Presidential Palace complex in the planned new capital city.
In August 2019, Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced had chosen two regencies in East Kalimantan as the location for Indonesia’s new capital.
Since independence in 1949, Jakarta has served as the administrative, financial and trade centre of Indonesia and the new state capital law, which stipulates funding and governance structure for the new capital, will enable President Joko Widodo to press ahead with the ambitious US$32 billion megaprojects.
“The government has conducted in-depth studies in the past three years and as a result of those studies the new capital will be built in part of North Penajam Paser regency and part of Kutai Kertanegara regency in East Kalimantan,” the President said.
“Jakarta has received overwhelming burdens as the centre of administration, business, finance, trade and services, as well as (housing) the country’s largest airport and seaport,” Joko added during the briefing.
The burden on Java island is also increasing because it is now home to 150 million people or 54 per cent of the population, he pointed.
This is not the first time a country in South East Asia has changed its capital, neighbouring Malaysia moved its administrative capital to Putrajaya in 2003, and Myanmar changed its capital to Naypyitaw in 2006.
Bhima Yudhistira, an economist with the Jakarta-based Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) said, “according to a study, the impact of the new capital project on addressing regional development issues is relatively small,”.
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