Capital City
Feb 10th, 2007, in News, by PatungMoving the capital city of Indonesia away from Jakarta.
In the wake of the Jakarta floods some are saying Jakarta is no longer suitable as the capital city, or at least as the centre of government administration.
Chairman of the parliamentary commission for the affairs of the capital city, Biem Triyani Benyamin, says Jakarta fulfils too many important roles, such as that of
- administrative capital
- capital city
- business capital
and one of them should be moved to another city, due to Jakarta’s tendency to flood, increasing subsidence of its land, its overcrowding, and air pollution, among other things.
Benyamin recommends that the administrative function, ie the location of government departments and offices, should be moved elsewhere, but that Jakarta should remain the formal capital city of Indonesia and the presidential palace remain there, for historical reasons.
A number of other politicians however say that the capital city role should also be moved to another city. Arief Natadiningrat from West Java says:
Let Jakarta be the centre of business but the capital city function can be moved to another place, like in Kalimantan or somewhere else on Java.
(Biarkan saja Jakarta sebagai Pusat Perdagangan tetapi Ibukota Negara bisa dipindah ke tempat lain seperti di Kalimantan atau di Pulau Jawa.)
If on Java he recommends Kertajati in Majalengka, West Java, 100 kilometres east of Bandung, because it is on the planned Dawuan toll road route pu.go.id connecting Cirebon and Bandung and Semarang and Cikampek, as well as near the planned Jatigede dam in Sumedang pu.go.id (.doc), and another planned project, an international airport in Kertajati. my-indonesia
Muspani from Bengkulu, agrees and says that the cost of moving the capital city would in any case be similar to the cost of overcoming the flooding problem in Jakarta. republika
Leaders from the Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB), at the urging of former president Abdurrahman Wahid alias Gus Dur, are at the forefront of those calling for the moving of the capital. Muhaimin Iskandar of the PKB says Jakarta is too overcrowded and that the administrative functions and the capital city ones should be separated. detik Muhaimin mentioned the name of Subang, in West Java, 150 kilometres east of Jakarta, as an ideal place for a capital. jawapos
__________________
February 18th.
Nurul Komar of the Democratic Party (PD) said in Depok yesterday that Jakarta was no longer suitable as the capital city. Business and government should’nt be mixed and he pointed to Malaysia as a good example of the separation of the two.
Komar suggested somewhere in the east of Indonesia as a replacement. antara
16 Comments on “Capital City”
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1ndra says:
I smell big money.
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Colson says:
There is no doubt about it. I agree with Tomaculum and indra: the government should not flee to higher grounds, but do something about the problems. Lets put the money where it’s needed most.
Moreover, look at the examples. Does it help the United States that the Bush-gang is in Washington, while the capital of the world is in overcrowded New York? Or is The Netherlands flourishing better because the government is in the Hague instead of in capital Amsterdam?
Answers: no, it’s obviously irrelevant. Like the proposal of Biem cum suis.
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Robert says:
The government should focus on the flood-problem and not be distracted by these kind of fantasies like moving the capital. Moving the capital now, would be a very antisocial gesture. It would be a sheer waste of money and the flood-problem would still remain.
It is very typical that when 100,000’s of people are in dire straits because of the flooding, some politicians (like Biem c.s.) come up with these kind of plans.
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Jakarta is such ‘macet’ city and added with convoy, doubled.
Planning to move might be better in the future when things are getting better, but not now. -
Ihaknt says:
Here we go. Another trick from the government to run away from real problems instead of fixing it. There’s no guarantee the city will be a better capital is it? The people who run it will still be the corrupted f**kwits who sit on the govt. SIGH!
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Andrew says:
It is hillarious to see the finger-pointing circus that is happening around the root cause of the recent flood. Government officials blaming each other and try to save their own a$$. I wonder if they have lost their “urat malu” – they are literally shameless.
They should admit they failed to perform and resign from their post.
OH!!… I just realized, this is Indonesia, so that ain’t going to happen. Whatever happen to the country and the people, noone is going to be brave enough to take responsibility and admit guilt. It’s the way of life – “save my own a$$ and to hell with everyone else” mentality.
Blaming others – that seems to be the norm in Indonesia.
Also reflected in this forum 🙂 -
Bas says:
Totally agree with you Andrew. Indonesian people are NEVER wrong NEVER guilty. That’s why they always want to teach you what to do, what to believe and what to think. Such brilliant people! Well unfortunatly they are unlucky. That’s why they are always late and can never do what they say they will do. That’s just bad luck and others fault.
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Cukurungan says:
Very interesting opinion from “Saints Forums”, but your opinion is completely wrong as an Indonesian we never feel un-lucky, we always feel lucky when Jakarta flooded “rakyat Indo” said we are still lucky not hit by Tsunami, when we are sick we are lucky not yet death and when we got accident and our leg was broken also still lucky our head not broken yet etc etc whatever condition we always “masih untung”. that’s the main function of our religion and “kejawen philosophy” just to escape and buffer zones of our reality live.
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That’s what called ilmu ikhlas dan bersyukur. 🙂
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Vid says:
I do agree that jakarta is over populated. People is the source of every problems. So, the idea of advancing other cities is sure a good ideas.
In my opinion, moving the capital city can be one of the solutions, or maybe not. (Depends whether it’s just a trick from government or an authentic solutions). We’ll never know until the result shows.
However by blaming the government and “adat jelek orang Indonesia” we are actually the one to confirm it and not giving solutions rather just blaming.
I believe one day slowly with lot of hard work, our country will get better.
But it might be a very slow. :> -
Rockstar says:
Unfortunately hard work only will never solve the problem.
If blaming our goverment is what we do best, is very logical in my opinion.The problem is very clear to us. How to handle them is not a secret anymore. The problem is in the sewer system and the sewage. And the bad litering habbit of our people.
They know this all along and yet very less action.
We don’t have to give them any solution vid, because like I said they know this but they think the money is better invested somewhere else.
I read Kompas the other day, an expert forcasts another big flood in 2010. So this is just a warning, we’ll see what our goverment will do about it. But yea I highly doubt they will do whatever, flood has been around since ages and our gov is too ignorant too do something.
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The saints forum huh?
What made you think that way? -
Big flood?
Bad littering?
Irigation/water system?Not just government work of course, those bad habit should be erased too.
If I’m a law, I’ll make a chapter about natural social sabotage punishment, yes that included littering.
Hope the government could make better littering laws. -
Brother that’s not ilmu ikhlas nor bersyukur but rather “ilmu menghibur diri”, If the people & gov indo have mastered “ilmu ikhas” there will be no longer blaming game and every one should know what their respective responsibility.
I don’t think a good law will make any significant improvement here because the problems is not in the law itself but the people behind and guarding the law need to be undo or reset.
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At least brother, at least they’re not blaming anyone, including Allah.
‘Mastering’ ilmu ikhlas is painful and next to impossible, because ikhlas should be in every aspects.
And about moving the city, it might be good and we could use that empty ‘castles’ as green-ing mission and make some good water system below.
And other plus, the government wouldn’t bother the people with their convoy. Remember the accident in tol street (Forget the name) because of the convoy in last year? Hope that wouldn’t happened again in the future.
Comment on “Capital City”.
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Hm, not solving the problems, putting it somewhere else.
Next capital of Indonesia: Sleman, Nias, Rambipuji, Rogojampi, Maumere, Merauke or where? And what about the people living in Jakarta? Leave them with their problems? Then maybe they should build a 15 meters high wall around Jakarta, so that no one can see the problems anymore?
Maybe they should consult the dutch government to solve this problem? Without prejudices, that they are former colonialist or that they would misused by the CIA? They (the dutch gov.) have accredited experts in water engineering.
No, I bet, they (these politicians above and many more of this kind) don’t think so far.
It is typical for many of (Indonesian) politicians: not solving the problem, looking for a way to forget it.