Indonesia's capital
Metro or bust - Should Indonesia move its capital city?
Sep 23rd 2010 | Jakarta Post
Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, is maddening to navigate. Traffic is so bad that car journeys of a few kilometres can take a couple of hours. People are routinely late for meetings. Business lunches are rare. Recently a highway collapsed, causing an epic snarl-up. Perhaps President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) got stuck in it. At any rate, he is proposing to abandon Jakarta as the capital and has teams working out how and where to move to.
Putting the government somewhere else is not a new idea. Politicians, including SBY, have floated it sporadically over the years. Nothing has been done because Indonesia’s bureaucratic gridlock is as bad as its traffic. But the persistent debate highlights the city’s problems.
Jakarta is the largest city in the world without a metro. With 10m people and buses the only form of public transport, it is not the kind of showcase that an aspirant to BRIC status would want as its capital (nor, it might be said, are Beijing and Delhi). Traffic moves at an average of 8mph (13kph), compared with 12mph in London. Loose consumer credit and fuel subsidies are boosting car ownership by 10-15% a year. Motorcycles can be acquired with a downpayment of as little as $30.
This is no mere nuisance. Recent reports from the Asian Development Bank and the IMF argue that poor infrastructure is a significant obstacle to Indonesia’s growth. The city estimates that it loses over $3 billion a year because of transport delays.
Moving the capital would reduce delays and hence costs—in theory. But it is unclear whether the president’s proposal is anything more than playing to the gallery. Just before he announced his intention to relocate the government, his vice-president, Boediono, unveiled a 17-point plan to cut the jams in Jakarta. SBY seems to have resurrected the issue to upstage his subordinate. The president’s approval rating has fallen by about 40 points in the past year, according to an Indo Barometer poll. He sorely needs a signature project.
So does Jakarta. But the 17-point plan is not it. In the short term, the plan proposes an electronic tax-collecting system, a fuel premium for private cars, imposing parking charges and creating more bus lanes. It sounds fine. But most second-hand cars are not registered to their new owners. The fuel premium, experts say, is not high enough to make a difference. And the bus lanes would make already narrow roads even narrower.What Jakarta really needs is a metro. And, at last, plans mooted as long ago as the 1980s may be gaining traction. Last year Indonesia secured low-interest loans from the Japan International Co-operation Agency to finance most of the project. The bigger test will be whether the money actually results in a new system, or whether it simply goes on lining the pockets of government officials. SBY’s popularity, and perhaps his legacy, may be determined by whether he pushes this project through in the existing capital, not whether he creates a new one.
It's an old story now (2010) but it remains an interesting question. Your thoughts?
It's an old story now (2010) but it remains an interesting question. Your thoughts?
Although the article is from 2010, there is still a debate on should Indonesia moves their capital city or not. I would like to give my opinion on the traffic issue, which there is a lot of public transportation now that doesn’t endure in 2010. Jakarta still has traffic issue, even until now, but there has been a lot of development on public transportations. As there are a lot of new public transportations in Jakarta such as MRT, LRT and KRT, it would really help Jakarta to solve its traffic problem. The article stated that Jakarta really needs a metro and it’s not a problem anymore because now there is an MRT which is an underground public transportation. In my opinion, I don’t think that Indonesia should move their capital city. A capital city should be the one from where the government of a country functions and I think that Jakarta is the right place for it as the city has all the supporting factors. Even though Jakarta still has its cons, it is still a compatible place to be a capital city.
ReplyDeleteThere’s once a plan that Indonesian capital will be moved to a place in Kalimantan if I’m not mistaken. Because Kalimantan are one of the provinces in Indonesia that aren’t vulnerable to the disasters that often occurred to the island that are inside of the “Ring of Fire”. While plans are all being agreed on, people and the government still consider the amount of payment that Indonesia will pay to move the capital. Indonesia already had too much debt to the World Bank, and we don’t want to increase it without any form of income or those that could be postpone. For me, rather than transporting the capital, Indonesia should try to fix the problems inside Jakarta first. Such as traffic jams, market prices, corruption in the people and even the corruption in the government itself. But the plan to move the capital are one of the good plans to try to separate the office-working part country from the entertainment part.
ReplyDeleteTraffic jam is a really heavy problem for Indonesia, Especially in Jakarta. Traffic is inevitable right now, and as years goes by, it does not get better, it gets worse. Some might say that it is because of the government, while actually that is not 100% true. People should also consider the population of our country, and the low prices of vehicles here, to be specific for motorcycles. In Jakarta, by just paying the down payment, you can already get access for your vehicle. Motorcycles here is quite cheap and the down payment is affordable for the majority. When there is a saying "Indonesia will move its capital city", I personally think it is impossible to do it for the meantime. Why? Because it will need a huge money to build an area fulfilling the needs of a capital city. There was once a rumor that our capital city will be moved to Palangkaraya. Palangkaraya is not as modern as Jakarta, and it will take a long time to move and build everything there. Considering that there are many more urgent problems that Indonesia should solve; Poverty, education, and Health, I think that there is no urgency for moving the capital city.
ReplyDeleteAs a citizen of Jakarta and having experience of living there for a few years one of the difficulties that I commonly found was navigating around with very heavy traffic. This problem certainly needs to be addressed and emphasized upon, because of the multiple negative effects that it has on the city and country. In my opinion it is a very good idea to move Jakarta to another location but not in the time being. This is because of the whole economic and social situation that is not yet stable, for the movement of a capital city. It is good in my opinion to move the city so that the business and government sector is separated. With the implementation of an idea like this, the distribution of the population is much more even which can then lessen traffic in Jakarta. While the realization of a plan like this cannot happen, in the meantime planning should happen.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that changing the capital city will fix any problems. Jakarta is a nice city. What I like the most about Jakarta is that so many clothing brands and foods can be found in Jakarta. It is very different with Yogyakarta where the brand of a certain product is very limited. Even though it is supported by those reasons, whenever my parents invite me to go to Jakarta with them, I mostly decline because of the traffic. Instead of moving the capital city, they should just make a city the center of attention. Like in the United States, Los Angeles is the main focus of people but their capital city is Washington. In Indonesia we already have Bali but I think it is better if we add more city that people will focus on. We can do this first by putting big brands in the city so that more people go to this city instead of Jakarta.
ReplyDeleteI suppose in if you plan for the long run, I would say moving Indonesia’s capital would be a good decision to make; yet, as we all know moving capital cities would be moving governmental everything in the old capital, Jakarta, to wherever we move the capital to. Everything does includes the central police and military facilities, governmental facilities, and all its operators. Moving the centre of everything would be inefficient and costly. Yet, I suppose if you want to move the capital, you have to do a proper planning: building a new capital would be a good way of doing it, just like how Kazakhstan build their current capital, Astana. There are numerous of factors to consider though, for instance the strategic value of a location, the security of the capital depends on a strategic protection. So in the end within the long run it would be beneficial in the long run.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s good to move.
ReplyDeleteJakarta is hopelessly overcrowded and chocked with traffic. Plus it is sinking, and it has poor urban planning. By moving to Palangka Raya which has a population of just 250,000, it can ease the overcrowding and problems, and basically, start planning a capital from scratch. Moreover, Palangka Raya already has roads, and buildings, so making Palangka Raya be a capital city would cost less. Only the streets would have to be widened, to “capitalised” the city.
Government buildings, the Presidential palace, and several companies should move to Palangka Raya, while Jakarta remains a business - tourism city. By doing that, a segment of the population will go down, hence reducing Jakarta’s population. P.R has a lot of empty spaces to build government buildings, malls, houses, apartments and so on. Jakarta does not have these.
Making Palangka Raya, the capital would kick-start the economy of Kalimantan. Development tends to be Java-centric, making other regions left out. By doing so, growth in Palangka Raya will increase.
Lastly, it is safe to make P.R the capital. Why? Kalimantan is earthquake-free, while Java is prone to earthquakes. There are fears that a massive earthquake would strike Jakarta, damaging the money and costing billions in damage. It is also likely to floods due to poor urban planning. By moving to P.R, they can learn the mistakes from poor urban planning and reduce the chances of floods.
Talking about history, Indonesia already moved its capital three times in the past. The most notable one, is when Indonesia moved its capital city from Jakarta to Yogyakarta from 1946 untill 1949, the reason for the change is because the capital city, Jakarta, was not safe from the dutch, so it was decided to move the Capital temporarily for three years. Based on the fact that Indonesia in the past moved its capital, it does not close any chance for the capital to be moved now. But, I think Jakarta as the capital city, right now, is getting better, in terms of transportation. Regulations such as the “odd and even license plate” and the “three in one” in some areas, are making Jakarta’s traffic much better. Also, the fact that Jakarta have its brand new MRT system, will make life easier in Jakarta. So, I think now it is not necessary to move the Indonesian capital, because I think it will require a lot of effort to move the capital.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, no matter where the capital city is, as long as we still experience unequal distribution and development of infrastructure, we would be experiencing the similar issue anywhere the capital city is, what needs to be done by the government instead of changing the capital city of Indonesia which’s quite complicated in my opinion but then all they need to focus is the equal distribution and development of infrastructure which leads to the decreasing amount of urbanisation since if the wealth and distribution of income is equal from every provinces in Indonesia, it will reduce the tendency of people to migrate to Jakarta which will reduce overpopulation and also will then improve the quality of human resources since people around Indonesia will have similar behaviour in which results from the equal distribution of wealth and it is a better solution than changing the capital city from Jakarta to somewhere else throughout Indonesia.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who was born and raised in Jakarta, I am so familiar with the traffic in Jakarta. 18 years living in the capital city of Indonesia has made me use to the “extraordinary” traffic that it has. Traffic has long been a problem for Jakarta and it is something that always become a puzzle for every newly elected governor to solve. But if I am asked whether Indonesia should move its capital city, I would definitely support this idea. First, Jakarta is already so packed right now people from other cities moved to Jakarta as the income that people could get at Jakarta is relatively higher compared to in other areas. Second, most major economic activities happened in this city; if you’ve ever been to Jakarta, you would know what I’m talking about. Trucks are transferring commodities day and night; while private cars and motorbikes filled the roads during day time. These are the things that made traffic in Jakarta that horrible. Hopefully the movement of capital city would really happen, even though I’m in doubt that this will really happen.
ReplyDeleteIt is still a debate able topic rather the capital city of Indonesia should move or not. I personally think that the capital city should move to other city in Indonesia and make Jakarta as its city of economy where money flows from and where business deals are done. I think that the capital city of a country would be more interesting if it could tell lots of stories about the country. Jakarta is famous for its terrific traffic. Whenever it’s the hour of people leaving for work or leaving from work, traffic would be insane. Even though I do not live in Jakarta, but, whenever people ask me to go to Jakarta, the first problem that came to my mind was its traffic. The government did a great move of improving its public transport, by providing other options for people who want to live for work. Unfortunately, the mindsets of some Indonesians should be improved, just after couple of days after the train being delivered, the government found it being spray painted by some random teenagers. I think we should learn to care about our environment and others if we want to have a better country.
ReplyDeleteYes. It should be moved to a new city. Jakarta has already been Indonesia’s capital since a long time ago, from the dutch colony, until now. Overpopulation in Jakarta also has been a problem since a long time ago. A lot of people coming to Jakarta from around Indonesia, to seek a job, to seek a better future. Why was that happened? Because Jakarta was not only Indonesia’s capital city, but also the center of Indonesian economy. Jakarta’s infrastructure also were having a rapid development back then, compared to other cities in Indonesia. Right now, Jakarta in my opinion is not suitable anymore to be called as Indonesia’s capital. A lot of problems are occuring right now. Moving the capital to other city is a good thing, as the new fresh environment and clearer environment will provide a good surroundings. The new capital in my opinion should be outside Java, so the other region or island can have the improvement on their infrastructure around their area and island.
ReplyDeleteIndonesia should not move it’s capital as plenty of our countries main infrastructure and organizations have the main offices in Jakarta. It is possible to move and create new infrastructures, but what will we do with the previous ones? Not to mention the cost of moving everything will be huge. Furthermore if we move the capital into a different island such as Sumatra, Kalimantan, Selawesi or even Papua, it will be quite difficult as a lot of these islands are not as modern and developed as Java. Also with the problem being Jakarta is overpopulated, it would make a problem to have a new capital in an non-populated city as the cities that are not overly populated are in very remote and under developed areas and if we move the capital into another developed city, it will just make that city become over populated again and the cycle continues.
ReplyDeleteFounding president Sukarno, who had built the city in 1957 on Indonesia's side of Borneo island, had planned to base the central government there during the early years of independence but it never happened. Some lawmakers have come out in support of the latest plan, saying Indonesia could emulate Malaysia, which moved its administrative centre to Putra Jaya; or the United States, which separates its political capital in Washington D. C., from its business centre in New York. President Joko Widodo, however, seems serious about making the move and had hinted earlier this year during a visit to Palangkaraya that the provincial capital of Central Kalimantan could be the new political and administrative hub. Palangkaraya is four times the size of Jakarta, with a population of just over 236,000. But infrastructure development there as well as in most of Kalimantan has been slow. Palangkaraya is only suitable because of the availability of space, but in my oppinion it is not feasible.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I know, there had already been plans to reduce the traffic jams in Jakarta since years ago, an apparently even since 2010 too, but I don’t really see any progress whatsoever from the “plans” that have been devised by the government. Jakarta seems to have gotten even worse then before because of the increase in percentage of traffic, pollution and also population, making it too crowded and uncomfortable for me personally. Even if I have lived my life for seventeen years near Jakarta, with nine years in Depok and eight years in South Tangerang, I have gone to Jakarta countless times and until this very moment, I don’t really like the city as much as I love suburbs such as South Tangerang and Yogyakarta as my new home. I also heard from a friend that Jakarta will drown by 2025 due to the rise in water levels by five hundred meters per year but don’t really know whether this is legit news or not. Nevertheless, my expectations for Jakarta has not increased nor decreased more or less.
ReplyDeleteI think we can all agree that moving Indonesia's capital city is a good idea, but the execution of it is not as easy as it sounds. There are a couple of things that needs to be considered and prepared before moving a nation's capital city from one place to another. Like first is the history of Jakarta as the capital city of Indonesia. Jakarta has been Indonesia's capital city for almost a century and it had been moved three times due to several reasons but that only maintain for a couple of weeks before it took place back again in Jakarta. We know how important the history of our country is, it's even a main subject in school so changing the capital city will make a big difference in history and. Another thing that we need to worry about is the development of the new capital city. The government planned to move Indonesia's capital city from Jakarta to Palangkaraya in Center of Kalimantan, which is the widest island in Indonesia and right now it has many empty lands that we could fill and build as the new capital city of Indonesia. But of course, that couldn't be done on an instant time, it could take several years to develop the new city until it can be considered as the new capital city of Indonesia.
ReplyDeleteThe capital's rumors will be moved again. The discourse that has emerged for a long time, is present again with Kalimantan as its destination. The construction of a capital city in Kalimantan will have a big impact on Indonesia and become a better step towards Eastern Indonesia. Many reasons can also be factors for decisions like this, such as facilitating the arrangement of Jakarta and the Jabodetabek mega-urban area, stopping economic wastage due to congestion that absorbs tens of trillions of rupiah annually, saving agricultural arable land in Java and maintaining consistency in commitment to resilience policies national food, making Indonesia have a world-class public city to approach parallels with other countries, and others. Moving the capital city to Kalimantan can also maximize the useless use of the potential of water and other natural resources in Kalimantan, with the concept of sustainable use, as well as building stairs to streamline the program for accelerating the development of Eastern Indonesia, underdeveloped regions, outer islands and regions the border.
ReplyDeleteThe government through the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) is currently reviewing the movement of the country's capital from Jakarta to Java. Kalimantan is a strong candidate and there are 3 suitable locations. Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR), Basuki Hadimuljono, said the results of the study of the transfer of the capital would be reported by the Head of Bappenas, Bambang Brodjonegoro, to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) after the president's visit to Turkey and the G20 meeting in Germany. Personally, I think that by moving the capital to outside of Jakarta or Java to be specific, could be benificial for the government and the citizens, as a mean to grow the economy and infrastructure of the cities outside the region of Java. This could also shift the population from Jakarta, thus making it more inhabitable.
DeleteThe only issue regarding the shifting and moving of the capital city is regarding the economy. For some long, Indonesia has continue to depend it’s economic income on the activities on the city of Jakarta. It has big and wide infrastructures. Mass-populated citizens, a high priced living cost, and many more factors contributing to this fact. Jakarta was built to be a forward city years ago, while Palangkaraya is not yet as well established as Jakarta, thus making it harder for it to attract citizens due to the fact that it will not be able to make resources yet, but needed resources to build the infrastructure and economy.
DeleteThis topic, although it never crossed my mind, is an important topic to discuss nonetheless. I lived in Jakarta for my whole life and the traffic there is definitely a problem. Most of the time, one would have to go to work or school hours before the actual needed time just to avoid the massive amounts of traffic. Although the traffic in Jakarta is definitely a problem, I don’t think that moving the capital would necessarily solve the issue. I mean, if you move the capital to a city like Surabaya or Jogja, the smaller roads and packed housing complexes might mean that the amounts of traffic that would be transferred there would increase substantially. Imagine moving to a city like Jogja, where the city streets are packed as it is. It would be horrific just to picture the traffic if the capital was moved here. Another noteworthy factor would be the culture shock. It would be a major culture shock for the inhabitants of Jakarta and the city that would be the new capital.
ReplyDeleteThe consideration and discourse about whether Indonesia should move its capital city have long been discussed. Jakarta is a relatively small in size and is definitely overpopulated. Being the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta is very prone to traffic. Jakarta traffic jam is something that has been occurring for years and it seems to become a problem that no governor can fully erase. Plans on moving the capital city of Indonesia, particularly to Palangkaraya has addressed many discussion regarding the possible positive and negative outcome.
ReplyDeleteGeographically speaking, Palangkaraya is located in Central Kalimantan. This location is be strategic because Kalimantan is the biggest island in Indonesia and because Palangkaraya is a 0 earthquake spot. Unlike Jakarta, Palangkaraya is not overpopulated. Moving the capital to Palangkaraya will help improve the economy in the surrounding region by creating more jobs available for people to work. On the downside, moving the capital city of Indonesia to Palangkaraya would take so much work and money because a lot of infrastructure has already been established in Jakarta. Moreover, building many infrastructure in Palangkaraya would somehow be a threat of modernization to the Dayak tribe in Central Kalimantan.
I do not really live in Jakarta but i live close to Jakarta i often go to Jakarta to hangout with my friends. Traffic is not something new in Jakarta as it has been a problem since the old days. In my opinion the problem is not going to be solved any time soon as what i only feel is the increase in the number of vehicles. I think the road planning in Jakarta is unsufficient enough for the hectic shedule of jakarta. As you know Jakarta is a capital city making it on of the most crowded place in Indonesia. Unfortunately there are only a few public transports available in Jakarta. They are mainly buses and in my opinion buses are just not enough. AS of today the goverment has been making efforts in handling the congestion problem by creating more public transports such as MRT, LRT and KRT. This would help decrease a little portion of the congestion as these LRT, KRT and MRTS have a short route and haven’t covered all part of Jakarta.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion there are several options to handle this problem. One of them is by expanding the transport routes inJakarta by building more LRT, KRT and MRT stations. Aside from that i suggest that we expand Jakarta. What i mean by expanding is by increasing the size of Jakrta. One way to do is by buying land from the suburbs near Jakarta.By doing this it would decrease the high population density of Jakrt and indirectly spread the congesion over a bigger area which would decrease the traffic jam. Another possible solution is by decreasing the amount of vehicles entering and exitting Jakarta. I know that as of today the goverment has been trying to do that by the even and odd plate regulations. In my opinion the method works quite well but if we were to decrease congestion by a lot i think the best solution would be to improve the quality of the public transports. By increasing the quality of public transports comfort would be better thus attracting more people to use public transports instead of their own vehicles
DeleteThis topic has been a hot topic in the recents months because of the problems that has been happening lately in Indonesia. The problems are just simple things that usually happens in modern cities. The problems are such as traffic and overpopulation. Eventhough, traffic and overpopulation are the problems that are stated above what i think that really is the problem is the unequal spread of cities in Indonesia. Jakarta being the capital city tend to be the center of everything. Jakarta has been the center of industry, government, and economics. This is one of the main reason of why overpopulation is booming in Jakarta where every citizen in Indonesia are moving to Jakarta to find a better living. This is also the reason why moving the capital city is very important. It has the advantage of equalizing the spread of cities function in Indonesia. This resulting the government to change to another city and decreasing the population in Jakarta.
ReplyDeleteThe plan of moving Indonesia’s capital city hasn’t been realised over the past years. The current Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta, isn’t just where the government operates, but also functions as a cosmopolitan city where businesses take advantage of market opportunities. This is the reason of the huge population in Jakarta consisting of approximately over ten million people, which in result creates a very bad traffic. It can take a couple of hours to go to a certain place located not too far which makes it inconvenient to travel especially for tourists and foreigners who aren’t used to this kind of condition. If Indonesia is still planning to move its capital city elsewhere, I will support the idea. I don’t mind if its capital city moved to a different island like Kalimantan for example, like what the news stated years ago. As long as the government can operate more freely, far from the crowded traffic and the huge population, the government have the opportunity to operate more efficiently.
ReplyDeleteI could see where this proposition comes from. Jakarta is now overpopulated; people from outside of Jakarta are all coming here to look for stability and to settle down. Not little of them failed to do so, leaving Jakarta full of jobless newcomers with no place to stay. In addition, there are also people who bring along their family hoping to have a better life here in Jakarta. It’s not hard to see homeless people roaming around big roads in Jakarta. Thus, it really is not a bad idea to move the capital city. Somewhere outside of the Java Island where the government could develop the infrastructure and public transportation from scratch. If not, as the article suggest, “What Jakarta really needs is a metro” could be the answer to a better Jakarta. Let’s just hope the MRT that President Jokowi is currently working on could be a better solution than to move the capital city.
ReplyDeleteThe article above picturized the condition in Jakarta under Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY). However, the current condition when the government is ruled by the president Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is totally contradicting with what described in the article in which he focused in the improvement of public infrastructures and services such as developing toll roads within the city and building a convenient commuter line that connect the areas within the city. Due to this improvement, people prefer to use the public transportations rather than personal transportations thus, it reduced the number of vehicles within the city and resulting to less congested condition. In addition, there is a project called Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) which is an underground train that will start to operate in 2019. In conclusion, as there is a rapid development in Jakarta, I think Jakarta should remain to be the capital city of Indonesia and continuously provide better quality of infrastructures and services.
ReplyDeleteI first saw a suggestion like this many years ago when a social media post explained the prospect if Indonesia moved its Capital city to somewhere like Batam. It explained social and economic benefits if something like this were to happen. Trade would be easier, hence the increase in economic growth, and its proximity to Singapore and Malaysia would bring ease of travel between countries. This passage explained the need for Indonesia to move its capital because of issues such as congestion, flooding, and pollution. However, these problems doesn’t necessarily mean that Indonesia needs to move its capital; most, if not all, of these problems could be dealt with if Jakarta had a sufficient enough infrastructure to accommodate the rising population. Infrastructures like a metro could reduce congestion and cut down air pollution at the same time; while an improved sewage system would reduce the frequency and severity of floods in the monsoon seasons.
ReplyDeleteJakarta is packed, and every year, people are moving to Jakarta expecting for a better life. Jakarta itself is both the financial hub of the country where most people expect working opportunities once they move to Jakarta and also becomes Indonesia's political center where the country runs its government. Intense research for whether the capital city of Indonesia to move or not should be done by the government in order to consider moving the capital city somewhere else, as it will allow a new province to grow in terms of job opportunities and infrastructure. Imagine if those who would work with the government will move out from Jakarta, I am positive that Jakarta will be less crowded and it would be better for business to grow since there will be less traffic and will result to more productivity. The US, for example, have implemented this strategy. They set DC as their capital city where they govern the country and New York as their financial center. This applies as well in Australia where Canberra becomes their capital and Sydney as their financial center. Both worked well, and I hope Indonesia will take account of this possibility.
ReplyDeleteDebates are still going on regarding the issue of moving the capital city of Indonesia and one of the cities that is considered to be suitable to be Indonesia’s capital city is Makassar. Makassar is the capital city of South Sulawesi province and it is the largest city in eastern Indonesia. Makassar enjoys a central location in the Indonesian archipelago and is Indonesia’s busy air hub, connecting Sumatra, Java, Bali and Kalimantan in the west with Sulawesi, the Maluku and Papua in the east. The city is southern Sulawesi's primary port, with regular domestic and international shipping connections. Due to its strategic location, Makassar would be suitable as the capital city of Indonesia. Furthermore, Makassar is not densely populated like Jakarta or the Java Island in general. However, Makassar is not very developed in terms of infrastructure. If Makassar were to be the capital city of Indonesia, many infrastructures will have to be built because the main offices will have to be moved from Jakarta to Makassar. On top of that, many developments will have to be made and this will be very costly.
ReplyDeleteThere’re many issues that the capital city of Indonesia will me move to Palangkaraya in Kalimantan. This is because Jakarta is not conducive and supportive anymore to be the capital city of Indonesia. Traffics, flood, and over population is becoming the three major reason of this action. Everyone in Indonesia tend to move to Jakarta because they are looking for jobs and people in their home country will recognized them as someone success if they work in Jakarta rather than becoming a farmer in their home country. Actually, this kind of stuff is only a mindset in which they think that people that work in Jakarta are wealthier rather than the one living outside Jakarta. Even though the capital city is move, which means only the governmental activity is move not the working places and other stuff is move outside Jakarta. I hope in the future generation this issue is becoming reality because Jakarta is over populated.
ReplyDeleteWell I think it is a no for me and certainly not a must. For the level of urgency, I think it’s not going to happen anytime soon also. We all know there are positive sides in making a move of the capital city to another city. It could benefit such things as reduce congestion of foreigners. But at the other side? It would take some extra time, effort and money to move the capital. Think about what would happen with embassies and government departments needing to inform others of the relocation. Also, where would you move relocate the capital to? It will still have to be close to Jakarta, and can’t leave the island of Java. Maybe to Bogor, or somewhere in the island. There is no point. Lastly, if we are talking by history, Jakarta is the birth place of Indonesia. It is where the declaration was read out. So maybe these are the reasons why I believe that the capital city doesn’t need to be moved.
ReplyDeleteThe crowd of Jakarta has always been a major problem for the Indonesia’s government. But even though it’s a huge problem, it doesn’t really mean that Indonesia has to move its capital city. I think it’s a very irrational solution since it won’t solve the problem. First it will just creating another massive cost to move a capital city of Indonesia; second if we are moving then what will happen to Jakarta? Will the city be use again? That means it will still leave Jakarta that way with all those massive traffics and criminals isn’t?; third its inevitable for such capital city to not to facing a crowd issues because capital city always contain the center of everything. So rather than thinking of moving the capital city, why not trying to look upon solutions of how to get all the traffic, floods, and all criminal issues done? Think of simple solution that can be create into such a new policy to create a better Jakarta, instead of thinking that the capital city of Indonesia needs to be replace.
ReplyDeleteI lived 18 and a half years of my life in Bandung which is very close to Jakarta, which means I visited Jakarta a lot in the past. Jakarta is only a two hours car ride from Bandung, but now it has become a five – six hours car ride journey. The traffic problem in Jakarta has always been a major issue over the past few years. This article was published back in 2013, but the traffic in Jakarta has not improved at all. With the existence of Online Taxis and other form of online transportation the traffic has become even more worse. I think with changing the capital city of Indonesia to a different city, it would take a lot of years for people, especially Indonesia itself to settle down and adjust. I’m not saying it is not a possibility especially with Jakarta’s traffic not improving. But, I do think Jakarta is the perfect portrayal of a capital city asides from all of the issue Jakarta currently has.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of moving our capital city elsewhere has been a debated topic since forever. I think there are a few ways to see and address the problem. For starters, changing our capital city from Jakarta to Palangkaraya like everyone said is not really that crazy of an idea. It might jump-start the economy in Palangkaraya and the area near it, thus increasing the welfare of citizens there. They would probably be getting an infrastructure as good as Java, since these kinds of development is usually Java-centric. But, we would also need to consider the cost of rebuilding the new capital, as the money needed on these developments are not small. Should they start developing their new capital city while neglecting the areas that actually need development? This all depends on what kind of problems that our government decided to tackle first. But in my humble opinion, right now moving our capital city is not an option as there are a lot of more important matters that needed to be address.
ReplyDeleteThere has been many debate on should Indonesia move its capital city. Reading the article, I can assume that the government is still trying to avoid the idea of moving the capital by releasing several solution to solve the traffic problems. However, those solutions can only be realized if the source of income is used efficiently not just going into the government officials pocket. I am also thinking, maybe the cost for moving the capital is too much to take and there are more problems that needed to be address. Talking about Jakarta needs metro, I think it is not relevant anymore since now underground subway is being build right now and have significant progress. Once the underground subway is done, it will help solving the traffic problems. It is also Jakarta citizen’s duty to help solving this traffic problems. One way to help solving this problem is by taking public transportation more often and minimize the use of private vehicle.
ReplyDeleteMoving the capital city of a country isn't that simple. Indonesian are aware that moving the capital city doesn't make much change. The main purpose of moving the capital city of Indonesia is to reduce the exceed population in Jakarta. I think Indonesian government just aware about that. There are many historical things about Jakarta as a capital city of Indonesia. We know that Indonesian really care about their history, it's even a main subject in school. Changing the capital city will make a big difference in history. The new capital city needs more development. Indonesian planned to replace Jakarta which is the capital city of Indonesia to Kalimantan, the widest island of Indonesia which has so many forest and blank area. It'll need so much time to build a capital city there. Moving the capital can be done, but it takes years to complete for the case of Indonesia.
ReplyDeleteJakarta’s traffic has been a problem for a very long time. It is time consuming, and inflicts lots of losses to a lot of people. The government is still trying to manage Jakarta and it’s traffic. But with the amount of people living in Jakarta and how easy it is to own private vehicles, it would take some time. Our previous governor had made lots of progress in terms of managing Jakarta. However, it seems like we’ve had some setbacks. Jakarta does have a lot of problems to solve. However, I don’t think moving the capital is the solution. If the government doesn’t manage the new capital differently, or better, then the new capital would just be another Jakarta. I think the government should improve the way they manage Jakarta. We could also help by giving suggestions or solutions to the government. Jakarta belongs to all of us, and is the capital of Indonesia. Therefore, I think we should give more contribution and raise awareness to improve our capital city, Jakarta.
ReplyDeleteAs the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta has become the centre of all government activities and also the centre hub of business. Almost all government and business headquarter located in Jakarta. This caused the overpopulation problem that lead to other problem such as traffic congestion, slums, pollution and many other problems. These problem have make the business and government activities in Jakarta less efficient.
ReplyDeleteDecentralization could help to reduce the overpopulation problem in Jakarta by moving less essential government headquarters to other cities. This step has been taken by the US government by moving the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention to Atlanta from Washington DC. Maybe we could move the Ministry of Agriculture headquarter to the Central or East Java where most of rice paddies are located. We could also move the Ministry of Forestry to Kalimantan where most of our jungle located. By doing this, we could relieving some pressure on Jakarta and redistribute it elsewhere without having to moving our capital city which need a huge amount of time and resources. It will also increase the efficiency performed by those government agencies.
I don't think it's that simple. Jakarta for all its downsides has grown through the years as a metropolitan filled with various government based organizations and more specifically their main base of operations. It is in fact why the overpopulation problem in Jakarta exists in the first place, the existence of many industrial and commercial districts in Jakarta presented a lot of opportunities for people on the outside but because of that it is also the reason for why so many unemployed are in Jakarta. One of the most promising solutions to this problem is the act of transmigration, the act of immigrating people from more crowded cities to live in less populated towns in other regions. This was first coined by the dutch colonialists and have proven successful before. Other than it making Jakarta less populated it would also reduce the amount of traffic congestions and even reduce the invasive housing of people in the slums area thus reducing the pollution in the city as well.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who comes from Jakarta, I would like to describe this city’s condition as the capital city of Indonesia. Being the capital city, means that all government activities are centered in this city. Hence, I feel like the development of Jakarta is faster compared to other cities. There are some aspects that I feel that Jakarta has more comparing to other places. As a metropolitan city, Jakarta also has many areas that are devoted to office buildings. This have caused a high level of traffic jam in Jakarta. Nowadays, we can have traffic jam all day. Government regulations to decrease the level of traffic jam hasn’t made many differences in the traffic. Currently, there are projects of public transportations such as MRT, LRT and others. Despite the hectic description of the city that I just mentioned, personally, I can not tell if moving the capital city from Jakarta is the right step.
ReplyDeleteThe government should determine which city will be the next capital city. They would have to consider many aspects regarding population, area, security, and many more. After they established the city, they should consider about the process of moving. Moving the capital city from one city to the another is a difficult step and needs time to adapt. Besides time, it would spend a lot of money. Many buildings have to be moved. Government buildings such as president’s office, minister’s offices and residences, legislative offices would have to move to the new capital city. The law enforcement headquarters would also have to move. Building many new infrastructures takes up a lot of time. I also doubt that moving the capital city would make Jakarta a better place. I’m afraid that it will just move crowd to another city. But on the other hand, I already felt that Jakarta is too hectic. In conclusion, even though Jakarta is a hectic city, I couldn’t tell if moving the capital city is the correct option.
DeleteSouth Korea is a advanced country that has high tourism attractions. The Hallyu wave that South Korea has became famous of, attracted many tourists to come to this country. Many spots are being full with tourists. Reading this article makes me realize that these crowd of tourists also need some securities. South Korea is being advanced by providing some tourism police to bring the secureness to tourists in South Korea. In my opinion, by providing and launching tourism police, it may rise tourism level in South Korea. Because tourists will feel secure when they come to Korea. This also show that the government of South Korea care about the tourism sector and always give their best in everything. This shows that South Korea is a very open minding country and always want to improve all sectors of the country. Indonesia, as one of Asian countries too, should make some move so that we will not be defeated from South Korea.
ReplyDeleteJokowi’s plan on relocating Indonesia’s capital city from Jakarta to Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan has reinvigorated the decades-long debate over where the next bureaucratic centre of the country should be. Although some people are not so hopeful about this, the President himself is confident that it would be possible within the next 5 years, having conducted feasibility studies in Palangkaraya and other areas in East and South Kalimantan. The idea of relocating the capital city to other less-crowded areas have existed since the reign on Soekarno during the beginning of Indonesia’s Independence but have never been realized. Lawmakers have also been supportive of this idea as studies prove that Palangkaraya is 4 times larger than Jakarta with a population of just over 236.000 people. This was seen as a prompt solution to Jakarta’s unending overpopulation issues as well as giving impacts to the acceleration of local infrastructures. Other environmental planning experts however suggested that moving the capital city to Palangkaraya is unlikely to happen as the area itself is landlocked. While it is a key requirement for any central government to have high accessibility by sea, land and air, Indonesia is an archipelagic state, where access to sea is seen as most important.
ReplyDeleteMoreover political parties, courts, supreme court, military bases and the President himself would have to move out ; this means that there will be a high demand for housings and offices. Developing Palangkaraya as the capital city would further aggravate local environmental issues which has prevailingly been damaged due to deforestation. Jakarta is already something of a lost cause in terms of infrastructure and relocating the capital city would not just leave one mess behind, on Java but also in Kalimantan.
DeleteA plan to move Indonesia capital city Jakarta to other locations has been discuss since long time ago. A plan to move Indonesia capital city Jakarta also means to move its center of government, business center, center of trade in goods and services. And the plan to relocate the capital city of Indonesia from Jakarta to another place will take lot of efforts, resources, money, and energy, and many more. It will affect the economic growth and efficiency because Java Island has always been the center of trade goods and services. Even there is lot of people think to move Indonesia capital city because Jakarta have to many problems that hard to solve, I think this action plan to move Indonesia capital city is unnecessary because for me personally this plan is not going to happen because there is lot of things to consider and the cost to relocate is just too high.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I could understand where this idea came from. I used to live near Jakarta, and I remembered how crowded it is. Many people say that Jakarta is overpopulated, I agree with them. From my understanding, Jakarta is overpopulated because of the amount of people who are originally from outside of Jakarta are going to Jakarta to seek jobs and also to settle down. Most of them failed to obtain jobs in Jakarta and now jobless with nowhere to stay. I also believe that there are people who would bring their families to Jakarta in hopes for a better life in Jakarta than where they are from. It is hard to not see homeless people in the streets in Jakarta. I think that it would be a great idea to move the capital city from Jakarta to another part of Indonesia. I also think that it would be great if the government could build the new capital city outside of Java or build a metro city, as the article suggested, that might be the answer to a better city that Indonesia needs. But building a city would take so much time. For now, I hope that the Light Rail Transit or LRT for short could be the savior of the overpopulated Jakarta.
ReplyDeleteThe capital city of a country strongly reflects on how well one country is doing. Jakarta is Indonesia’s capital city, which therefore automatically reflects how well Indonesia is doing. I personally think that Jakarta hasn’t been doing well in terms of its development, especially on the topic of infrastructures including the traffic level of this city that could be defined as horrific. There are traffic jams everywhere which practically causes chaos in every side of the capital city. Indonesia needs to improve and develop Jakarta so that it could be perceived for Indonesia’s greatness. After reading this article, I think it is a good idea to move Indonesia’s capital city even though it would be a challenge. In my opinion, it will be better for Indonesia to improve Jakarta’s resources so that it will advance in all sectors. It has already been proven that Indonesia’s government has tried to improve Jakarta’s infrastructure. This can be seen from Jakarta’s MRT that is being built along with some other infrastructures that are always being developed or renovated.
ReplyDeletePersonally, as a person who were born in Jakarta, I think that yes, traffic is a massive problem especially in recent years. Should Indonesia move its capital city? I am not sure about this one because Jakarta is already a great city and it is the centre of trading. Traffic is the biggest downside of making Jakarta the capital city, billions of dollars are wasted everyday because of traffic, money is not flowing as it supposed to be. Also the significant increase in population is also a big problem that Jakarta has to face, urbanisation causes people from rural areas to come to Jakarta because they thought it might be a great opportunity for jobs, but the reality is that it is not as easy as it looks; more and more people are unemployed. Population is really blowing out of proportion, the government need to think about that and how to allocate them or at least give them some kind of subsidies so they can survive living in Jakarta. Currently MRT and LRT is being built in order to reduce the traffic jams, I think that is one step closer to diminish the traffic jams. If somehow the capital is moved to another city then I would not mind at all, Jakarta will be the Jakarta as we know.
ReplyDeleteMoving a country’s capital city is not a simple thing to do. Capital city is the heart of economic and government system which has been there and developing for years, and if the capital city is moved than the whole central government buildings and assets will have to be moved also which is complicated. Moving the capital city I think is not a wise idea in order to relief traffic jam but the best way I think is to build a proper public transportation. Jakarta, with over 13 million people lives there, has not a proper public transportation but the government recently has built MRT which I think it is too late. These integrated public transportation will relief the traffic jam in a considerable amount and allows people to use it on a daily basis, so people will commute all around Jakarta easier and cheaper than using their own private transportation.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I’m not living directly in the heart or central of Jakarta, I can still feel that Jakarta is way over populated. Even this is one of the reason why I moved to the suburbs of Jakarta, Jakarta has become a metropolitan city, traffic is everywhere, easily get flooded due to unclear drainage system, too many water ways being blocked for the sake of establishing new tall building. Meanwhile, looking at the other area of Indonesia, there are still many places that has the prospect of making it as a sustainable capital city area, such as Kalimantan. Kalimantan has been commonly debated for the area relocation of Indonesia’s Capital City. However, going back to the case of moving the capital city, there will be so many limitations like for example: Standard infrastructure must be established, then the local economic condition must also be established to support the development years to come.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have already post two comments regarding this article about my opinion about moving the capital city, now I would like to share some ideas that our country can do. The issue about moving the capital city of Indonesia from Jakarta has been discussed for a quite long time. I have said that I did not agree, nor I also disagree. What I think that our country should do is, to differentiate the city which has the central of government and the city of the central business and daily activities. Countries that implement those method are U.S, Australia, Canada, etc. In U.S., the capital is in Washington, but the city of central activities is in New York. Also, in Australia, the capital is in Canberra, but the city of business and activities is Sydney. It requires time to determine the other city. But Indonesia could implement this method to reduce the density in one city.
ReplyDeleteMoving Indonesia’s capital can be a double edged sword for the government and for the country itself. Moving the capital will to take a lot of money, time and resources from the yearly state expenditure budget. Moving the capital means that the state will have to rebuild and reestablish its center of economic activities. It will affect money flow and also trades, since Java has always been the center of economic activities in Indonesia. They can’t just relocate the capital without taking a lot of aspects, such as environmental effect, population, security and many more into considerations. It will also cause a lot of migration from Jakarta to the new capital city, which can possibly cause suffer to the already stabilized economy of Jakarta and particularly Java. I also think that moving the capital from Jakarta to another city will only move the crowd from Jakarta to another city, which in the long run, could cause the same overpopulation issues just like in Jakarta at this moment.
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DeleteWhile Jakarta itself is very crowded and overpopulated, I believe that recent projects such as MRT, LRT and the revitalization of Transjakarta can solve this problem that has been around since the early 2000s. Separating the industrial and the office areas to a location further away can also be one of the answers of how to resolve the traffic issues in Jakarta. Jakarta has always been the center of economic, industrial and political activities in Indonesia; that is why Jakarta is very crowded and overpopulated. Relocating the industrial sector to another city in java can be more economically feasible rather than moving the capital of Indonesia to another island. Relocating the industrial sector will also create and spread more jobs, which could help some underdeveloped areas in Java to grow significantly. I hope the Indonesian government is wise enough to not make Yogyakarta the next capital city, since it would ruin the city.
Moving the capital city is not easy. Not many countries have tried it. Primarily because everything is already centered in the capital like Jakarta. Industrial, political, and business sectors are all cramped up in the city, and therefore it would be hard to move everything at once. However, moving the political sector is still highly plausible. The idea most people have right now is moving the capital (political and governmental sector) to Palangkaraya, which is a city in Central Kalimantan. However, I think it is too far of a distance to entirely move to a different island. A more possible solution is moving to a city still in West Java. Looking at the surrounding areas of Jabodetabek, perhaps they can move it to either west of Tangerang, or south of Bogor, or maybe around Bekasi as there are still plenty of room for infrastructure and city building around the areas.
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