President Jokowi and the ‘Southern Pearl’

Kompas/Hamzirwan

President Joko Widodo chats to a seaweed farmer on Nemberala Beach on Tuesday morning.

The image of barren land upon hearing the name “Rote” quickly vanished as the Indonesian Military Air Force’s EADS CASA CN-295 landed on Monday afternoon (8/1) at DC Sundale Airport in Ba’a, Rote Ndao regency, East Nusa Tenggara. Paddy fields and a dense forest dotted with meadows like green carpets stretched out in the fertile, southernmost part of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Iriana Joko Widodo opened the year 2018 by taking a work visit to Rote Ndao regency, which is known as the “Southern Pearl” of Indonesia. During their visit, the President and First Lady also spent a night at the Nemberala Beach Resort in West Rote district, which is adorned with white sands, coconut trees and lush meadows.

The President, the First Lady and their entourage flew to Kupang from Jakarta on the Indonesia Presidential Plane-1 on Monday at 6:33 a.m. After carrying out a number of activities in Kupang, the President flew to Ba’a on Monday morning on the Presidential Plane, an Avro RJ-85.

Along the route from DC Saundale Airport to the Rote Ndao district office, followed by a 40.1-kilometer ride to Nemberala Beach, the local people stood by the side of the road to welcome President Jokowi. “We are so happy that the President has finally come to see us here,” said Mira, 22, a resident of Mokdale subdistrict, Lobalain district, Rote Ndao.

Rote Ndao is the southernmost regency on the border between Indonesia and Australia. It is located not far from Timor Island. A journey by sea from Kupang to Rote takes only around 2 hours, while the journey by air would take around 30 minutes from Kupang’s El Tari Airport to DC Saundale Airport.

A clear, blue-green sea surrounds Rote Island and its white-sand beach, which faces toward Prince Regent National Park and the Dampier Peninsula, where Australia’s capital of Darwin is located. Rote Ndao is so close to Australia that Marcell Kilok, 29, of Da’a says, “If we go by boat, we could reach Australia in a week.”

It cannot be compared to the distance between Rote and Jakarta, which is 2,461 kilometers, but no obstacle for President Jokowi to come and stay in Rote.

Kompas/Hamzirwan

President Joko Widodo accompanied by presidential spokesperson Johan Budi SP (left) and presidential chief of staff Teten Masduki enjoy the view from Nemberala Beach, Nemberala village, West Rote district, Rote Ndao regency in East Nusa Tenggara on Tuesday morning.

Indonesia-centric

Regent Leonard Haning and the local people of Rote Ndao were very happy to welcome the official visit of President Jokowi and First Lady Iriana. For them, the arrival of the President in Rote Ndao is a long-awaited blessing.

President Jokowi’s Rote Ndao visit was part of the head of state’s work tour from Sabang, Aceh, to Merauke, Papua, and from Miangas in North Sulawesi’s Talaud Islands regency to Rote – a tour that covered all four corners of the country. The Sabang-Wamena leg of the tour took 9 hours and 15 minutes on the Indonesian Presidential Plane-1.

Indonesia is a vast archipelago with more than 17,000 islands, 714 ethnic tribes and 1,100 local languages. The largest archipelagic nation in the world, the flight time from Sabang to Merauke – from its westernmost to easternmost points – is the same as the flight time from London, England, to Istanbul, Turkey; or from Jakarta to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

President Jokowi often mentions Indonesia’s greatness as a country and nation in his regional work visits to both to urban and rural areas.

President Jokowi always calls upon the people of the nation to work together in safeguarding Indonesia’s diversity and turning it into capital for building an advanced nation that provides prosperity to its people. Without togetherness, the efforts of the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla government to build a country and nation based on an Indonesia-centric vision will not proceed as smoothly as hoped.

The Indonesia-centric development plan involves developing the islands outside Java that had been left behind for dozens of years. In the last three years, the government has been aggressively building airports, seaports, toll roads, railways and modern traditional markets across the country.

The impact, of course, will not appear overnight. However, the development program, which focuses on improving connectivity between regions and creating new centers of growth outside Java, will have a long-term positive impact if is implemented continuously.

Checking progress on the ongoing projects is one of the reasons for the President’s frequent visits to the regions, particularly those in border areas. The determination to develop Indonesia from its outer regions is also why President Joko Widodo and First Lady Iriana were willing to spend several nights in regions like Rote Island, which they were visiting on this occasion.

Importance of water

Three years ago, President Jokowi ordered the Transportation Ministry to expand the runway and facilities of DC Saundale Airport. Now, there are scheduled commercial flights that serve the Rote Island-Kupang route using am ATR-72 plane.

“At first, I thought we had to fly in a helicopter from Kupang. It turns out that the airport can now accommodate planes. I had forgotten that three years ago, I ordered the Transportation Minister to revamp the airport here to allow planes to land,” the President said in Ba’a, Rote, during a speech to executive members of the President Jokowi Volunteer Front (Bara JP), who had come from all over Indonesia.

On his visit to Rote Ndao, President Jokowi monitored the construction of 74 water reservoirs for agriculture lands and community farms. The reservoirs will provide raw water for drinking and irrigation, and also meet the water needs of the community farms.

“New rice fields have been established around these reservoirs, because water is now available. The water is the key to providing prosperity to the people in NTT,” the President said on Tuesday morning after inaugurating the Saina reservoir in Oelolot village, West Rote district, Rote Ndao.

It is not easy to bring the country to the people. However, a leader’s good intentions and his sincerity in leading the way to prosperity will be manifest in development programs that benefits the people, both for the present and in the future. This is a manifestation of social justice for all of Indonesia.