Jokowi Plans A New Capital For Indonesia Om Shanti

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Indonesian President Jokowi has announced that Indonesia will have a new capital located in Kalimantan.  No exact location has been mentioned in his announcement but Jokowi has been busy checking out a few sites including a place called Bukit Suharto near Samarinda / Balikpapan which is on the coastline in eastern Kalimantan.





The Indonesian president seems determined and his project of building it will most likely succeed.  They intend to start modestly with a road grid, infrastructure and a core city and then let the city grow over time.

1. The first thing I would like to see in a new city will be a short and simple name, best with one or two syllables (Tokyo, Hanoi, Beijing, Mumbai, Berlin, Paris, London). Its easy on the tongue and more importantly in a digital age it takes up least thumb typing on the smart phone texting, less space on the Immigration Disembarkation Cards, less space for the courier companies to type the address, less chances for misspelling the name etc.  Short is sweet.

Palangkaraya (the other potential site in Kalimantan) is a mouthful.  

2.  If I were to choose a site for a new capital, especially in Malaysia or Indonesia, it must be sited right on the coast.  Access to the oceans and trade.  More importantly the culture and tradition of the Nusantara has long been tied to the sea.  There is nothing like having a beautiful seafront to make a city grand.  

3.  A few planned capital cities like Brasilia and Canberra never fully took off until today or have done so very slowly. Brasilia is a straight giveaway but some (or many) may not even know where is Canberra.  Putrajaya is also going to take some time. Cyberjaya may develop faster than Putrajaya.  There are simple reasons for this.

My view is design for a functioning, commercial, economically self sustaining city first. This simply means focus on the people's livelihood first. People must be able to cari makan easily. Meaning design and build  a  new city that will maximise human potential - the easiest part of which is business and trade. (The factories can be put far away lah).  

Once the city is designed such that its people can sustain themselves through trade and commerce then the city will have a greater chance of being a success. 

And then also include the features of a "national capital" into the new city. The grand government buildings, the huge monuments, the grand boulevards, the fancy lamp posts, the cool landscaping, the religious monuments etc which will project the image of a national capital. 

Putrajaya has been designed as an administrative capital. This means it is filled with salaried workers especially civil servants whose only income is their monthly pay check.  

Cities grow on profits from trade and business, big money. You cannot grow a city based on a population that is largely dependent on fixed monthly paychecks. That is why places like Alamanda have not really taken off.  (How many of you have never been to Alamanda?)  The government will have to keep pumping taxpayers money (earned from business, trade and economic activity elsewhere in the country) to keep Putrajaya going. 

So I wish President Jokowi all the best success.  I hope he will give his new capital a nice, short and easy to remember name. If it is built by the sea all the better. And let it be a great commercial city too.


Posted by Syed Akbar Ali 

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