Jakarta is increasingly under strain from intense activities and the effects of climate change
Zakir Hussain and Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja Straits Times 27 Jan 13;
Beijing has Shanghai, New Delhi has Mumbai, and Washington DC has New York.
Jakarta, though, has just Jakarta, and it hits home harder when a disaster - like the recent severe flooding - strikes, paralysing businesses and ordinary life for several days.
But the floods, which may recur in coming weeks, have reignited debate on whether Indonesia ought to relocate its capital.
The world's fourth most populous country after China, India and the United States is also the only one its size to have an administrative centre and crucial financial hub rolled into one location.
Brazil, Pakistan and Nigeria, which trail in the population rankings, all relocated their seats of government decades ago.
Senior Indonesian officials and commentators now say the city of 10 million packed into 661 sq km - twice the density of Singapore - is no longer able to sustain the intense activity and lack of planning associated with it.
This has also rekindled interest in alternative sites for the capital. It is not a new discussion.
Founding president Sukarno, in fact, designed and built Palangkaraya in central Kalimantan for this purpose 55 years ago. The city on the island of Borneo has wide boulevards and is one of the country's best planned areas - but the move was shelved amid an economic crisis in the early 1960s.
Former president Suharto proposed Jonggol in West Java as an alternative, but this too never materialised.
As Jakarta comes increasingly under strain and attack from climate change and the elements, a change seems inevitable.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's special staff member for regional development and autonomy, Dr Velix Wanggai, told reporters last week that Dr Yudhoyono had, at a meeting with media editors two years earlier, already discussed various scenarios for moving the capital.
"According to the President, Jakarta can no longer accommodate the interaction between man and the environment," he said.
At risk of being erased
Last year, Jakarta celebrated its 485th anniversary.
A trading port had existed on its northern parts since the 4th century, and changed hands several times. In 1527, after troops from the kingdoms of Demak and Cirebon defeated the Portuguese there, the city was renamed Jayakarta or "city of victory". The city of Jakarta has grown from that area.
Planners now wonder whether Jakarta will triumph against rising sea waters or cease to exist as it is by the time it turns 500 in 2027.
A study by the World Bank and Dutch consultancy Delft Hydraulics several years ago projected that without better defences, the sea will reach the presidential palace, some 5km inland, in 2025, inundating the land between the centre of town and Kota Tua, Jakarta's historic old Dutch city.
For the first time since 2007, floodwaters reached the palace two weeks ago, and Dr Yudhoyono and Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa gamely rolled up their trouser legs and stood in the calf-deep flood.
Last year, former governor Fauzi Bowo elaborated on plans for a dyke to avert such a calamity and revitalise the northern coastline, a project that successor Joko Widodo says should now be hastened.
The wall is estimated to cost some 50 trillion rupiah (S$6.5 billion), and the figure could soar to 200 trillion rupiah if land is reclaimed to create developments around a dam, according to media reports.
By comparison, a group of academics estimates it would cost 100 trillion rupiah to move the capital.
But as Republika columnist Nasihin Masha noted recently, the cost of traffic congestion in Jakarta already adds up to some 46 trillion rupiah a year in wasted fuel and time.
And even if a move happens, Jakarta would still need the wall to stave off erosion.
University of Indonesia urban ecologist Rudy Tambunan hopes discussions about moving the capital do not divert public attention from decades-old problems - Jakarta, after all, must be liveable to those who stay on.
"There have been good plans in the past, but implementation has not been consistent. We tried to spread business activity out from Jakarta - for example, the steel industry to Cilegon, the automotive industry to Karawang and Cikampek, textiles to Bandung. But this did not continue," he said.
Some, like Parliament Speaker Marzuki Alie, say if the city is to have any hope of resolving its most pressing woes, a new capital has to come about.
"Otherwise, its condition will remain like this until the end of time. The capital must first be shifted; only then can Jakarta's problems be resolved in stages," he said.
The mechanics of moving
So if the capital relocates, what exactly would be moved and where to?
Dr Wanggai says there are three options which should be debated openly and thoroughly.
One, the status quo remains, but a total overhaul of flood-prevention, transport and urban planning is needed.
Two, a new capital is built from scratch.
Three, the capital remains in Jakarta, but the seat of government moves.
Option No.3 is likely to be the most feasible. Malaysia made such a move when ministries moved from Kuala Lumpur to the new administrative centre Putrajaya in 1999 to ease the impact of congestion and overcrowding on government.
Regional Representative Council head Irman Gusman feels it would be most effective to move Indonesia's administrative capital and keep Jakarta as a business city.
He is open to moving the government to a suitable site in Banten or West Java, or even Palangkaraya, now the capital of central Kalimantan province with just 220,000 residents and 2,400 sq km of space.
People's Consultative Assembly chief Taufik Kiemas, meanwhile, has suggested Yogyakarta, which was Indonesia's capital from 1946 to 1948 after the Dutch attacked Jakarta.
Dr Marzuki prefers a more greenfield location, telling reporters: "All government offices could be housed in one location, with supporting housing, public and social facilities... It need not be far from Jakarta."
However, public policy academic Andrinof Chaniago argues that a new capital should be sited in Kalimantan, which has 30 per cent of Indonesia's land mass but only 7 per cent of its population.
Conversely, crowded Java has 60 per cent of the country's population on just 7 per cent of its land area.
Prof Chaniago and three other researchers prepared a paper on moving the capital to Kalimantan several years ago.
They have seized on the momentum from the current debate to argue that such a move will help re-orientate development and investments away from Java - a step Indonesia needs to make to ensure growth and wealth are more evenly spread and sustainable. As it is, some 60 per cent of the country's money circulates in the Jakarta area.
"Shifting the seat of administration to Kalimantan will better re-orientate Indonesia, make it easier to bring order to Jakarta and save the future of Java," he said over Twitter on Wednesday.
Dr Wanggai said distributing growth more equitably ought to be a consideration in selecting a capital. He added that President Yudhoyono hopes a strategy for moving will be finalised by the end of his term in October next year.
"This is not just a decision for the President, but a national one," he said.
But nobody expects anything to happen any time soon. With plans still in the preliminary stages, officials expect an actual move could take anything from six to 12 years after the go-ahead is given.
Rising sea waters, inland flooding
A study by the World Bank and Dutch consultancy Delft Hydraulics several years ago projected that without better defences, the sea will reach the presidential palace, some 5km inland, in 2025, inundating the land between the centre of town and Kota Tua, Jakarta's historic old Dutch city.
Five possibilities
Where should Indonesia's new capital be? These five places keep turning up in the debate.
Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan
Former strongman Sukarno proposed this 2,400 sq km city on the island of Borneo for a future capital, and its wide roads were designed with this in mind. Situated smack in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago, in an area relatively free from natural disasters, it now has only 220,000 residents.
Jonggol, West Java
Former president Suharto mooted a move to Jonggol, in Bogor Regency, West Java. Hundreds of hectares were cleared by developers, including one linked to a son of the former strongman. Its close location, just 50km east of Jakarta, was expected to make for a smooth relocation, but the land is now largely disused.
Purwokerto, Central Java
This town in the middle of Java with 300,000 residents has good infrastructure and road connections and was mooted by officials several years ago.
Yogyakarta
Indonesia's capital from 1946 to 1948 after the Dutch attacked Jakarta. With 400,000 residents, it is fairly accessible and widely regarded as an emerging cultural centre.
Palembang, South Sumatra
One of the oldest cities in Indonesia, Palembang, with 1.6 million residents, is in an area relatively free from natural disasters, has developed infrastructure and played host to the 2011 SEA Games.
