Looking at the Impacts of Capital City Relocation Plan
The public is not yet fully convinced that the plans to relocate the capital city will be realized and is paying close attention to the possibility of socio-environmental impacts.
By
M Puteri Rosalina
·5 minutes read
Kompas/Wawan H Prabowo
President Joko Widodo and the Governor of East Kalimantan Isran Noor visited the location of the candidate for the nation\'s capital in the Sepaku area, Penajam Paser Utara, East Kalimantan, Tuesday (17/12/2019).
The plan to move the nation’s capital to East Kalimantan has raised hopes of economic equality. However, the public is not yet fully convinced that the plans to relocate the capital city will be realized and is paying close attention to the possibility of socio-environmental impacts.
President Joko Widodo announced in August 2019 the plan to move the capital city of the nation to East Kalimantan. The reason behind the relocation is to reduce inequality, realize equal development, and foster a new economic center, in addition to declining carrying capacity, especially in Java.
According to the explanation of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), the government is to develop new industry sectors in the new capital, namely clean technology, integrated pharmaceuticals, sustainable agriculture, ecotourism, chemicals and chemical products, and low-carbon energy. Existing sectors, such as agriculture, ecotourism, mining and plantations, will also continue to be developed.
According to Bappenas projections, the new capital city will grow the East Kalimantan regional economy to US$180 billion and create 4.3 million to 4.8 million jobs in by 2045. The public is generally optimistic about the government\'s plans and projections. In a Kompas poll at the end of March, more than three-quarters of the public believed that relocating the nation’s capital to East Kalimantan would improve the economies of Kalimantan and eastern Indonesia.
Hopes for a more advanced economy were also expressed by Heriyanto, 57, a resident of Tengin Baru village in Sepaku district, during a meeting in early March. According to him, once the capital city was relocated, Sepaku would have various physical infrastructures that would stimulate the economies of local villages.
Traditional market in Sepaku District, Penajam Paser Utara Regency, East Kalimantan, Thursday (1/3/2021). Since President Joko Widodo planned to move the country\'s capital city to the region in 2019, the economy in the sub-district city has been running fast.
Sepaku had limited physical infrastructure, which had impacted the supply and distribution of agricultural products. Smooth roads were built only after Sepaku district was designated as part of the site of the new capital. Before, the residents of Sepaku had passed several gravel and paved road sections prior to reaching kilometer marker (KM) 38 on the 42-kilometer access road to Balikpapan and Samarinda.
The capital city’s construction plan has been designed on the concept of a compact, efficient and circular city.
Nearly 70 percent of respondents involved in the Kompas poll concurred with Heriyanto\'s remarks. The future capital city will certainly be equipped with urban infrastructure, such as a clean water supply, electricity, roads, waste management and telecommunications. The capital city’s construction plan has been designed on the concept of a compact, efficient and circular city. The new capital is expected to become a sustainable pilot city.
Declining optimism
However, this dream has been slightly constrained by the Covid-19 pandemic. The government\'s plan to carry out a “soft” groundbreaking ceremony at the end of 2020 with an access road development from Balikpapan to the site of the new capital has not been realized. The plan is to be implemented in the first semester of 2021.
The level of public optimism has decreased as regards the realization of the capital city relocation plan. Following the President’s 2019 announcement of the plan, 64 percent of respondents believed the relocation plan would be realized by 2024. However, at the end of March 2021, public confidence had dropped to 60 percent.
In the year since the pandemic emerged, the development plan for the designated sites of the new capital was to elevate the main access road from the KM 38-Samboja intersection to Semoi-Sepaku-Petung. The plan also included breaking ground on the Sepaku Semoi Dam in Sepaku as one of the raw water sources of the new capital.
Kompas/Priyombodo
Aerial photo of the PT ITCI Hutani Manunggal industrial plantation forest area which was visited by President Joko Widodo in December 2019 in Pemaluan sub-district, Sepaku District, North Penajam Paser Regency, East Kalimantan, Thursday (11/3/2021). The area is a candidate for the location of the new capital city.
Another reason behind the declining public optimism is related to the completion of the Capital City Bill (RUU). Nearly 60 percent of respondents were unsure that the government and the House of Representatives (DPR) would be able to complete the regulation on the capital city relocation this year. However, at the end of March, the Capital City Bill was entered into the 2021 Priority National Legislation Program, indicating that passing the Capital City Law has been prioritized for this year.
The issue of the Rp 466 trillion development fund for the new capital city has also affected the level of public confidence. Bappenas said that the largest portion of the fund sources would be obtained through a cooperation scheme between the government and business entities. This financing scheme has divided public opinion. As many as 42 percent of respondents believed that the scheme would work, but 45.5 percent of respondents were unsure because raising new investments has been difficult during the pandemic.
On the other hand, developing the new capital has also raised concerns about the deteriorating environmental quality. Nearly three-quarters of respondents were concerned about degrading Kalimantan\'s natural environment. Kalimantan\'s forests have shrunk by almost 50 percent since 1950. The territory’s natural forests have been cleared for oil palm plantations as well as for expanding mining concessions and industrial plantations. Other issues concern river, sea and lake pollution from industrial waste or marine transportation.
Environmental degradation has led to the massive floods that hit South Kalimantan in January, as well as the threat of extinction for flora and fauna endemic to Kalimantan that are on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). According to the IUCN website, critically endangered fauna and flora in Kalimantan include proboscis monkeys, dolphins, sun bears, and orangutans, as well as meranti, bangkirai, and kruing trees.
Nearly 70 percent of respondents were uneasy about the potential social problems that could arise as a result of relocating the nation’s capital. A study by LIPI (Indonesian Institute of Sciences) titled "Inclusion of Local Communities in the Capital City Development Planning" (Yogaswara, 2020) states that the potential social problems that may arise included overlapping land ownership and land use boundaries, the disappearance of indigenous communities, limited employment and business opportunities, and unequal education between local and migrant residents. These and other socioeconomic issues must be identified in advance to minimize the potential for conflict.
Now is the time to wait for real work from the government on realizing the capital city relocation plan for the benefit of all. (KOMPAS R&D)
