Indonesia’s New Capital Is a Monument to Its Democratic Decline

When Joko Widodo, popularly as Jokowi, was sworn in as Indonesia’s seventh President in 2014, optimism surrounding the state of democracy within the nation appeared at its peak. At a time when dynasties historically dominated Indonesia’s political enviornment, the ascension of Jokowi, who was a carpenter and furnishings businessman earlier than changing into the governor of Jakarta, was hailed as a beacon of hope. 

Jokowi’s election virtually 10 years in the past represented “the peak of democracy in Indonesia,” Vishnu Juwono, affiliate professor in public governance on the College of Indonesia, tells TIME. “He was seen as an outsider, and he’s benefited from the democracy system.”

However because the curtains fall on Jokowi’s decade of rule, he could also be remembered extra for ushering in a brand new period of democratic decline. Even his capstone initiative, what was meant to be a sprawling monument to his legacy—the event of a brand new capital referred to as Nusantara, to switch the prevailing capital in Jakarta starting as quickly as subsequent yr—seems to be to embody such a backsliding.

Because it was introduced in 2019, the formidable undertaking to relocate Indonesia’s capital from the island of Java to the island of Borneo has been mired in skepticism and criticism—from inadequate public consultation to land disputes with indigenous communities to considerations about Chinese investment that critics say is making Nusantara a “New Beijing.” However a extra insidious implication, observers warning, is the undemocratic nature that the brand new capital, tucked tons of of miles away from Jakarta and set to function with out elected native leaders, will deliver to the fore of what’s at present the world’s third largest democracy.

Whereas Indonesia’s present capital, which homes 10.5 million of the nation’s 278 million individuals, will be the epicenter of the Southeast Asian nation’s financial exercise, over the many years it has change into more and more uninhabitable. Jakarta residents recurrently battle heavy traffic congestion, widespread flooding, and unsafe air pollution—the metropolis was earlier this yr ranked because the world’s most polluted metropolis when thick smog shrouded its residents. The town can also be sinking at an alarming rate, with some forecasters estimating {that a} third of its land might be submerged by 2050.

As Indonesian authorities proceed to search for methods to save lots of the prevailing capital, a province some 800 miles away provides a clear slate devoid of Jakarta’s woes. It’s on the luxurious hilly panorama of East Kalimantan that authorities determined to construct the brand new nationwide capital of Nusantara from scratch—hailed not simply as an answer to Jakarta’s congestion and sustainability disaster but additionally as an important subsequent step in Indonesia’s growth.

“After we agree to maneuver ahead as a complicated nation, the primary query that must be answered is whether or not sooner or later, Jakarta because the capital metropolis is ready to bear the burden as the middle of presidency and public providers in addition to middle of enterprise,” Jokowi said in 2019 as he reignited dormant plans to relocate the federal government. 

However what Nusantara represents will not be a lot an answer as a distraction, civil society teams and lecturers argue. Native authorities have lengthy dragged their toes on addressing Jakarta’s city environmental points—even a court docket ruling in 2021, which discovered Jokowi and different senior officers responsible of negligence for the town’s air air pollution, has done little to trigger reforms. 

“It displays actually an escape plan of the failure of successive administrations in Jakarta to tackle and handle the issues of Jakarta,” Ian Wilson, a senior lecturer specializing in Indonesian politics at Australia’s Murdoch College, tells TIME. “The issues of Jakarta will stay, no matter Nusantara. It’s fairly disingenuous, I feel, to counsel that Nusantara will assist remedy Jakarta’s issues. It should solely remedy them insofar as politicians will not really feel any obligation to cope with them and even to talk to them.”

However Nusantara doesn’t simply signify an avoidance of coping with Jakarta’s troubles. It additionally seems to be set to additional detach the nation’s seat of presidency from its middle of civic society, distancing decisionmakers from dissent. Jakarta has lengthy been a stage for a number of the most essential moments of Indonesian politics: student-led protests led to the autumn of authoritarian chief Suharto in 1998; in 2016 and 2017, amid rising non secular conservatism, Islamist protests in opposition to Jakarta’s then-Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama noticed him jailed for two years for blasphemy; and in 2020, protests in opposition to an omnibus regulation on job creation that many employees feared would curtail their labor rights led to the Constitutional Court docket ordering the government to amend elements of the laws.

Related tasks in different elements of the world present a glimpse into how new administrative capitals, constructed ostensibly to alleviate clogged cities of their inhabitants burdens, can come on the detriment of public participation and protest. Critics have claimed that Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s notoriously desolate administrative capital unveiled in 2005 by its military regime, serves to protect the nation’s army leaders from uprisings. Equally, observers say that in Egypt, the New Administrative Capital, helmed by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and that has been beneath building since 2015, is designed to benefit the military and the military-aligned government, partially by diminishing the importance of conventional protest spots in Cairo.

“[These] new capital cities are constructed as pet tasks of a selected administration, but additionally contain a technique of disentangling authorities from broader civil society,” says Wilson. “I feel it’s very tough to not see Nusantara in these phrases, after we see the broader evaluation of the final 10 years of the Jokowi administration, which has seen an actual democratic decline.”

As for Nusantara—the place 16,000 Indonesian civil servants, members of the army, and cops are resulting from transfer in subsequent yr and there are plans for an eventual inhabitants of 1.9 million by 2045—how the brand new capital metropolis itself is about to be run has already raised concerns among local observers. In contrast to the remainder of the nation, which is ruled by elected mayors or governors, Nusantara will likely be ruled by a Capital Metropolis Authority helmed by chairpersons appointed by the President.

“When you could have this authority that runs the town and someway it isn’t related to all these individuals who dwell in that metropolis, the notion of residents doesn’t make sense,” Sulfikar Amir, an affiliate professor of sociology at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological College, tells TIME. He provides that Nusantara, the way in which it has at present been designed, could have “solely tenants and customers, not residents.”

Nusantara, says Sulfikar, “doesn’t actually signify the democratic system that’s speculated to be the inspiration of our metropolis governance throughout the nation.” He says he worries, nonetheless, that “the central authorities will imagine that it is a excellent system that must be carried out throughout cities in Indonesia.”

Identified for his laser deal with financial progress, Jokowi has delivered the results. However beneath his management, Indonesia has additionally seen increased online censorship and a crackdown on critics, in addition to legislative modifications that critics say infringe on democratic values—such because the passage of a controversial criminal code final yr that criminalized unauthorized protests or criticisms of the President.

Jokowi has additionally unabashedly begun fashioning his personal political dynasty, having put in his relations in key state positions over the past a number of years. Final month, his 28-year-old son Kaesang Pangarep was named the chairman of the Indonesian Solidarity Party, a youth social gathering, regardless of having no political expertise. In the meantime, Bobby Nasution, the President’s son-in-law, grew to become the mayor of Medan in 2020—the identical yr that Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Jokowi’s eldest son, grew to become the mayor of Surakarta. And simply this week, Gibran was announced as the running mate to protection minister and main presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, after the Constitutional Court docket—which occurs to be headed by Anwar Usman, the President’s brother-in-law—controversially ruled that 36-year-old Gibran was eligible to hitch the presidential ticket regardless of the statutory age requirement of 40.

Moreover, out of the three presidential candidates operating to succeed Jokowi, solely former Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has vocalized doubts about Nusantara. Whereas Jokowi has remained tight-lipped about who he’s endorsing, his legacy will doubtless, in response to present polls, be shouldered by his son Gibran and—maybe extra concerningly—Prabowo.

A former army commander, who for 20 years had been condemned internationally for rights violations, Prabowo twice unsuccessfully campaigned in opposition to Jokowi for the presidency in 2014 and 2019, earlier than Jokowi helped rehabilitate his picture by appointing him to his cupboard. Lengthy recognized for his vehement opposition to democratic reforms within the nation, Prabowo’s ascension, observers worry, might lead to a good sharper centralization of energy and switch towards authoritarianism for the nation.

To make certain, Jokowi has maintained his recognition all through all these maneuvers, boasting an 82% approval rating earlier this yr. But when the beginning of his presidency heralded excessive hopes for Indonesian democracy, the top of it—marked by a swanky new capital and the paving of the trail for Prabowo to probably rule from it—has principally dampened any optimism in regards to the route through which Indonesia’s democracy is headed.

“Indonesia remains to be a functioning democracy, that is for sure,” says Wilson. “However nonetheless, there have been very robust, autocratic developments, and I feel Nusantara must be understood inside that context.”