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A proposal to move the Indonesian capital city from Jakarta to other locations has been discussed since the Sukarno presidency, and even earlier during Dutch colonial era. In fact, in early 20th century there was an effort by Dutch East Indies government to relocate the capital from Batavia (colonial Jakarta) to Bandung. In 2010s, the idea to relocate the national capital or administrative center has been revisited, mainly because of Jakarta's environmental degradation and overpopulation problems.
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Early history
In Indonesian history, there has been examples of the transfer of capital practices. The capital of the 7th to 13th century Srivijaya empire, for example is believed has been moved several times with locations shifting between Palembang, Central Java, and Jambi. The Medang Mataram kingdom for example, is also known to move its court several times, such as the capital in Mataram area in Prambanan Plain in the 9th century, and later circa 10th century moved to East Java, somewhere in Brantas River valley. The idea to separate the commercial trading hub with royal capital, has been demonstrated during 13th century Majapahit empire. The major trading ports were located in coastal cities of Hujung Galuh (modern Sidoarjo and Surabaya) and the port of Tuban, while the royal capital, the ceremonial center of politics and administration, was located inland in Trowulan.
The 17th century Javanese Mataram Sultanate is also known has moved its capital several times; from Kotagede to Kartasura, and later to Surakarta and Yogyakarta.
Colonial era
The Dutch colonial settlement of Batavia was established in 1621. Initially, it was a European-styled walled city crisscrossed by Dutch style canals located in low-lying coastal swamp area. The poor sanitation and poor water drain system has made the city unhealthy, infested with malaria, cholera and dysentry. In 1808, Daendels decided to quit the by-then dilapidated and unhealthy Old Town. A new town center was subsequently built further to the south, near the estate of Weltevreden. Batavia thereby became a city with two centers: Kota as the hub of business, where the offices and warehouses of shipping and trading companies were located; while Weltevreden became the new home for the government, military, and shops. These two centers were connected by the Molenvliet Canal and a road (now Gajah Mada Road) that ran alongside the waterway.
In early 20th century there was an effort by Dutch East Indies government to relocate the capital from Batavia to Bandung. The idea was to separate the busy trading port or the commercial center (Batavia) from the new administrative and political center (Bandung). By 1920s the plan to transfer the capital to Bandung was underway. As the city began to laid the masterplan of a well-planned new city, numbers of government buildings were constructed, such as Gedung Sate that was planned as the colonial administrative center of Dutch East Indies. The plan however, was failed due to the Great Depression and the outbreak of the Second World War.
Republic era
During Indonesian struggle for independence (1945-1949), the capital of the republic has been moved several times — prompted by political and military emergency — as the seat of the republic in exile during wartime. The capital moved from Jakarta to Yogyakarta (1946-1948) and then to Bukittinggi (1948-1949) as the seat of Emergency Government of the Republic of Indonesia. By 1949, the national capital of the republic was returned back to Jakarta.
During Sukarno presidency, Jakarta was established and developed as the capital of the new republic. In 1957, Sukarno laid the foundation and street grid layout of Palangkaraya as a new planned capital city of Central Kalimantan province. Sukarno however, foresee the new city as the possible new national capital in the future. The vast available area and its geographic location in the center of the archipelago has become the main advantage of the city. Nevertheless, Sukarno seems to favour Jakarta instead. In the late 1950s to first half of 1960s, he filled Jakarta with numbers of monuments and statues. Numbers of monumental projects were conceived, planned and initiated during his administration, including Monumen Nasional, Istiqlal mosque, DPR/MPR Building, and Gelora Bung Karno stadium. Sukarno also filled Jakarta with nationalistic monuments and statues, including Selamat Datang Monument, Pemuda Monument at Senayan, Dirgantara Monument at Pancoran, and Irian Jaya Liberation Monument at Lapangan Banteng. Although many of this projects were completed later in his successor era (Suharto administration), Sukarno is credited for shaping Jakarta's monuments and landmarks. He desired Jakarta to be the beacon of a powerful new nation.
In 1966, Jakarta was granted its official status as DCI (Daerah Chusus Ibukota) Djakarta, or the Special Capital Region. It promoted the rate of development of government office buildings and foreign embassies. Rapid development created the need for a master plan in order to regulate Jakarta's growth. Since 1966, Jakarta has steadily grown into a modern metropolis.
During the Suharto's highly centralized New Order regime, Jakarta was further established as the political and economic core of the nation. Prompted with rapid development and urbanisation, Jakarta attracted large numbers of new settlers from all over the archipelago, with majority came from rural Javanese towns. High rise buildings sprung up, especially in Jakarta's commercial and financial centers along Thamrin, Sudirman and Kuningan avenues. As the result, since 1970s the population of Jakarta spiked tremendously, and spilled to areas surrounding the capital. The Jabodetabek or Greater Jakarta region has become the largest and the most densely populated urban agglomeration in Southeast Asia. The massive overpopulation, coupled with lack of urban infrastructures, lack of public transportation facilities, the over-extraction of ground water, the encroachment of urban areas replacing open green spaces, and the spread of slums areas within the city, the gridlock traffics and poor water drainage systems; all of these has led to ecological degradation of the city. As the ground water extracted, the city slowly sunken lower, in fact parts of Northern Jakarta are virtually below the sea level, and regularly suffers flooding. Jakarta suffered massive flood in 2007, and again in 2013. These urban planning failure and environmental calamities, has prompted the proposition to relieves Jakarta by reviving the idea to relocate the political and administrative center elsewhere.
In 2010, the debate continued about the creation of a new capital city that would be separated from the urban, economic and commercial center of the country. Former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono supports the idea to create a new political and administrative center of Indonesia, due to Jakarta's environmental and overpopulation problems.
Bandung, the planned capital of Dutch colonial era however, was ruled out, since the capital of West Java province itself is currently overpopulated and suffering ecological breakdown.
The three alternatives
There are three major alternative approach about the new capital proposal:
- Move the national capital altogether by creating a completely new planned city, similar to the way that Brazil moved its capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia, a planned city, in 1960.
- Create a separate administrative center and keep Jakarta as the official capital, in same fashion like Malaysia moved the federal administrative center to Putrajaya.
- Keep Jakarta as both capital and administrative center, just like Tokyo for Japan.
Proposed new capitals
Since the idea was launched, numbers of provincial regional governments, governors and regents, has expressed their interest to be the host of the new capital. These are some options on the approach to create a new national capital:
New capital city
If the first option to create a completely new capital away from Jakarta would be chosen, then the island of Kalimantan is considered as a suitable location. The island is vast and away from Indonesian tectonic convergent boundary, which means it is relatively safe from earthquake and volcanic eruption. The suggested locations include:
New administrative center
If Jakarta is kept as the official capital, and the administrative centers would be moved to other location not far from Jakarta, the suggested locations include: