Selamat Datang ! ( means “welcome!” in Bahasa Indonesia ) My name is Laetitia Sherry Purnama, a year one student studying Environmental Studies at the National University of Singapore. Although I live in Singapore now, I come from Indonesia, the world’s largest island country.
Long ago, Indonesia was known for its majestic volcanoes, virgin seashores, and lush rainforests. Humans and nature really live side by side in harmony.
But everything changed when rapid urbanisation happened…
Annual flooding, traffic gridlock, and pollution are just a few out of many urban issues that are associated with Indonesia, especially Jakarta. As someone who grew up there and experienced these problems first-hand, I feel disheartened by how my hometown’s potential was wasted because the problems were not being handled properly.
Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia. It acts as the centre for administration and as the business and financial hub of Indonesia. It houses almost 11.1 million people in 2019 with a population density of almost 17,000 people per km2. According to Yamashita ( 2017 ), the total population has increased significantly from the 1960s due to the rapid urbanisation (p. 113 ). Moreover, it has also become the melting pot of different races and ethnicities. From my personal experience, I have encountered a diverse group of people. There are Bataknese, Sundanese, Javanese, and even Chinese Indonesians ; and they have different socio-economic backgrounds too.
However, this human-centered problem of rapid urbanisation causes overpopulation in Jakarta, which also leads to the overconsumption of groundwater, land subsidence, and the sinking of the capital in Jakarta. Since Jakarta is so crowded and filled with many irreversible urban damages, the government decided to propose the solution of moving a new capital to Borneo ( which I will introduce to you in the 5th post ). The general idea is to build a “green” and “smart” city which will be sustainable in the long run.
Yet, is the Indonesian government simply discarding Jakarta without tackling the root cause of the problem? Will the relocation of the capital of Indonesia bring further socio-economic and environmental problems? What are the costs and benefits of relocating the capital to Borneo?
Hence, I chose the theme of urban problems in Jakarta and the development of the proposed new capital so I can learn more about the complexities of these problems, the possible solutions, and how crucial urban planning is as a building block of a more liveable and sustainable capital city. Through this blog journey, I would like to bring you to see the multi-disciplinary analysis as to move to the new capital or to stay in Jakarta, as seen in the image above.
I hope that by the end of the journey, we can answer the big question:
“Should Indonesia relocate its capital?”
Until the next post! (:
_______________________________________________________________
References :
Yamashita, A., (2017). Jakarta Metropolitan Area. In Estoque, R.C., Kamusoko, C., & Murayama, Y. , (Eds.), Urban Development in Asia and Africa Geospatial Analysis of Metropolises ( pp. 111-130 ). Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3241-7
Hey Sherry its great to see your first blog post. I love the topic you selected. I wanted to ask your opinion on why the Indonesian government selected Borneo. Borneo is home to a number of endemic species in Indonesia. What would the potential impact of the move be on these species?
Hi Li Zhe! Thank you so much for stopping by and thanks for your question too!
Indonesia is an island country with 5 main islands: Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sulawesi, and Papua. Up until now, most of the population and economic activities are concentrated on the island of Java, causing an inequitable socio-economic development across the country.
In my opinion, the government is trying to make the socio-economic development in the country to be more spread out by relocating to Borneo. Other than that, another consideration is that Borneo is not prone to earthquakes and any volcanic activities!
Also, while it is true that Borneo is home to a number of many endemic ( and some endangered ) species but since Indonesia is still pretty much fixated on its socio-economic development, I don’t think the government put much emphasis on environmental conservation ): Obviously there would be a certain degree of the loss of biodiversity in this area which is pretty disheartening.
I will talk about this more in my future posts so stay tuned ok <3 see u!
Pls post this comment…
reply to Li Zhe is fine (next day) and leaves a bit of a teaser, which is nice. But try and strike a balance between evidence- and opinion-based answers. Same goes for your reply to Yin Chuan.
Also, please communicate to them both that they should read this…
that although their questions are totally valid and thought-provoking, when commenting on blogs of peers, be mindful of the size of questions being asked. Meaning, these are HUGE questions – you don’t want to ask each other things you can’t reasonably answer without writing an entirely new post, if you get my drift.
Dear Dr Coleman
Thank you for your comment! I will definitely try to do so and also tell them both about this!
Hey Sherry! I am really humbled and grateful that you’d share something so close to home. Unfortunately, rash decisions to rapidly urbanise has affected many of our SEA neighbours and it’s sad to hear about what has happened to where you grew up. I was wondering if there are any cultural or political implications to changing Indonesia’s capital to Borneo and how would citizens in Jakarta feel about that?
Hey Chuan! Glad to see you here (: Thank you for your question too!
Like many other problems, I believe that this problem will bring political implications. The real question is what is the extent of it. It is too early for me to say but one of the obvious implications is that Jakarta will not be the political epicentre of the nation anymore. This will mean that lots of political parties which saturate the political scene in Indonesia need to revamp their way in outreaching to other areas in Indonesia. It would not be centralised anymore and hopefully, there are greater communication and coordination between each province.
Regarding the cultural implication, since I feel that the city will be modernised ( and maybe westernised? ), a lot of rich local culture will be diluted and become more homogenous. I just hope that they will be able to strike a balance between both culture: being progressive while still retaining their cultural identity.
As for your last question, I will discuss this more towards the end of this blog journey so stay tuned! <3