Rome Not Built in One Day
The Joko “Jokowi” Widodo government has decided to move the capital city from Jakarta to East Kalimantan. Moving the capital city will not be easy.
Looking at the experiences of other countries that have also moved their capital cities, it takes a long time before the new capital is fully functional.
Canberra was decided to be Australia\'s capital city in 1908, with the laying of its first corner stone in 1913, but most of the government buildings were opened only in the 1960s. Malaysia has been moving its capital city to Putrajaya since 1999, but until now, several ministries are still based in Kuala Lumpur. Likewise, South Korea’s capital city has been moving from Seoul to Sejong City since 2007, but the whole transfer process will be completed by 2030.
The experience of these countries shows that capital cities cannot be moved at once. For Indonesia, there are so many things that need to be considered in the transfer and implementation of the new capital city. This paper is limited to only three issues. First, how to prevent social conflicts from happening at all stages of eviction; second, how the new capital city can attract people so that it does not become a ghost town; and third, how to make the capital city transfer the efforts for inter-regional equity in Indonesia.
Preventing social conflicts
Given that the current population of East Kalimantan is around 3.8 million people, the two scenarios will bring significant changes to the composition of the province’s population – especially if that includes residents of the two regencies that make up the new location of the capital city, Kutai Kartanegara and North Penajam Paser, whose total population is only around 1 million people. The impact of resettlement will be even greater.
It is necessary to ensure that at each stage of the move, there should be no social conflicts, both vertically and horizontally. Vertically, there are differences in the quality of human resources between civil servants and East Kalimantan residents. About half of the workers in the province only have a junior high school level education, while more than half of civil servants from the central government have a university-level education (undergraduate and diploma). On average, the monthly per capita expenditure of East Kalimantan residents (2018) is only around Rp 1 million (US$71.24), while the lowest income (salaries and benefits) of civil servants from the central government is almost Rp 4 million.
The existence of coal mines and oil fields, which have been there since the 19th century, means that many residents are accustomed to migrants. The largest religion and ethnicity in the province is similar to the largest religion and ethnicity among the civil servants. The results of the 2010 Population Census showed that the largest ethnic groups in East Kalimantan were Javanese, followed by Bugis and Banjar.
Meanwhile, for civil servants in Jakarta, the top ethnicities are Javanese, Sundanese and Batak. If we assume the civil servants who will move follow the order of this composition, it is likely that the order of the largest tribes in East Kalimantan will not change. This does not mean that social conflicts will not occur in the new capital city. The experience of transmigration programs shows that resettlements of people in large groups that have different characteristics from residents in the destination does not always run smoothly. What is certain is that we do not want indigenous people to be excluded from development, like the Betawi in Jakarta. Similarly, we do not want the new capital city to have hidden issues that can be provoked at any time by certain parties and break into conflict as we see in Papua today.
A vertical conflict can spread and turn into a horizontal one, and this can occur at the early stages. Once the issue of land acquisition is completed, construction of facilities and infrastructure such as roads and buildings will begin. At this stage, many skilled construction workers will be needed, who may have to be brought in from Java. When the capital city starts functioning, a large portion of the administrative workforce will be needed, which is likely to also be filled by migrants. All of these need to be considered carefully so that the potential for conflict can be minimized.
Avoiding a “ghost town”
Myanmar moved its capital city from Yangoon to Naypyidaw in 2005. In contrast to Sejong City or Putrajaya, the city is still relatively quiet. Without good planning and implementation, something similar is very likely to happen for our civil servants in Kalimantan. The government says that only the function of the administrative center will be moved, while the economic center will remain in Jakarta. That kind of thing opens up the possibility of civil servants and their families for pulang Jumat kembali ahad (PJKA, leaving on Friday and going back again on Sunday), whether it’s to return to Jakarta or other big cities.
Since the capital’s workers and officials will generally be middle class, public facilities and infrastructure that are higher than the minimum standard for urban areas are needed so that they want to live in the city with their families. To be willing to move, they want quality schools for various levels of education, class A hospitals or even international class and the same level of entertainment that they usually get in Jakarta at present.
On another thing, data shows that about 30 percent of civil servant couples in Jakarta work as permanent employees or contract workers. Because of that status, most couples will have to quit their jobs to move. By simply moving to the center of government, the opportunity to work for family members is relatively smaller.
If the new capital city cannot encourage civil servants and their families to resettle, the risk is that the population in the region would be low, and there would be no economies of scale sufficient to make prices in the region relatively low, or economies of scope of various sectors that make the capital city economically resilient to various disruptions.
Helping inter-region equity
Of the various objections over the capital city’s relocation, this is the most difficult to achieve because only the center of government will be moved and not the economic center. Cities with a majority of government workers will find it difficult to become agents of economic growth. East Kalimantan\'s economy has so far focused on agriculture (oil palm) and mining (oil and coal), whose sustainability depends on commodity prices on the international market and has little connection to other regions. Moreover, because Kalimantan, located on Borneo island, is a protected area rich with biodiversity, the choice of developed industries needs to be carefully considered.
Good planning
All the three problems can only be solved by good planning from the start. From now on, it is necessary to identify the types of work that are needed at various stages so that the government can provide the appropriate education for residents in selected areas. Therefore, when needed, local residents can get involved in the development.
To prevent the city from turning into a ghost town, maybe Pakistan\'s experience can be an example. When moving its capital city from Karachi to Islamabad, the city of Rawalpindi, located adjacent to Islamabad, became a transitional city. Workers and their families can enjoy the facilities already available in the city of Rawalpindi. Two big cities in East Kalimantan, Samarinda and Balikpapan, might be used for the same thing.
Another possibility is to follow Canberra. The population of the city increased rapidly in the 1950s when the Australian National University began to function fully and attract people from other regions. The possibility of building a quality university or relocating one of the top state universities to the new capital city can be taken into consideration, too.
Although on paper it looks good, the success of this strategy is greatly influenced by the success of each of these components. So far, various special industrial and economic zones that have been established have not developed satisfactorily.
It should be noted that simply moving the capital city to East Kalimantan will not be enough to help inter-regional equity. The head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) said the relocation of the capital city was only a part of a three-prong strategy for inter-regional equity. The other two are the development of metropolitan areas in various locations and the construction of various special industrial and economic zones. Although on paper it looks good, the success of this strategy is greatly influenced by the success of each of these components. So far, various special industrial and economic zones that have been established have not developed satisfactorily.
The discussion in this paper assumes the new capital city will be relocated; this means that President Jokowi\'s decision will be supported by politicians in Jakarta. The political process for the relocation of the capital city in the legislature (and possibly the judiciary) will not be easy and will take time. Meanwhile, a comprehensive resettlement study and its implementation need to be carried out from now on, including future socio-humanities, finance and technology studies.
As Rome was not built in one day, the new capital city will take a long time so that the entire relocation process can run smoothly. Looking at the experiences of other countries, it is possible that Indonesia will have a fully functioning capital city in Kalimantan by 2045, when we celebrate 100 years of independence.
Turro S Wongkaren, Chairman of the Demographic Institution of the School of Economics and Business of the University of Indonesia (UI)