There is re-emerging discourse on the planning to move the capital of Indonesia from Jakarta to Palangkaraya in Kalimantan. UGM expert in regional development, Dr. Lutfi Mutaali, M.T., said the place to be selected as the new capital ought to be one that has high territorial openness, especially situating on the sea route of Indonesian archipelago.
“The place to be selected as the new capital has to be high territorial openess, especially in its sea route. Meanwhile, the territorial inclusivity of Palangkaraya tends to be closed,” he said in a seminar themed Where Indonesia’s Capital Should Move? at Faculty of Geography UGM on Wednesday (30/8).
Lutfi added the new city should also have high social inclusivity, marked by openess to changes that are visible in homogenous society.
From these criteria, Lutfi recommended the Province of South Kalimantan as a place that has physical and social openess, compared to Palangkaraya or other cities in Kalimantan island.
Geomorphologist of UGM, Prof.Dr.rer.nat. Junun Sartohadi, M.Sc., added the selection of the new capital ought to also take into account disaster risks in the future. This has to be cities or regencies that have low disaster risks.
Kalimantan Island is seen as the appropriate place as it is relatively safe from geophysical disaster such as earthquake or volcanic eruption. But, said Junun, there were other regions such as West and Central Kalimantan that mainly consist of peat land, hence vulnerable to forest fire.
“Seen from the disaster risk analysis, the area suitable for becoming the capital is situated on the front of Meratus mountains in South Kalimantan,” he said.
Regional Development professor of UGM, Prof.Dr.M. Baiquni, M.A., said the key to capital development was synergitic relations between urban and rural areas. During this time, the relations have been asymmetrical.
“The capital is the rural area. The concept of moving is moving development that can develop cities in the rural areas,” he said.
Another expert of UGM in regional development, Prof.Dr. R. Rijanta, M.Sc., said the move was not based just on the bad traffic factor of Jakarta as this would not become a good solution to the problem.
“Moving the capital should be for corrections of national gap, rather than eliminating traffic problem,” he said.
For national policy drafting on capital move, the mainstream issue is to reduce national gap and to eliminate poverty. “There needs to be encouragement to campaign the capital move soon,” he said.