BEATRICE SYAFIRA

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Why Moving The Capital City is The Best Choice for Indonesia

Indonesia will be moving its capital city. After winning the reelection back in
April, Joko Widodo announced that this move will begin in 2024. The new capital city
will be located nearly 4.000 km away from Jakarta, in the middle of East Borneo,
Borneo Island. This move will cost approximately 466 trillion rupiah. This is a plan that
has been suggested by various presidents over the decades but finally, it is going to
happen now. Jakarta has been this nation's capital city since the declaration of
Indonesia's independence back in 1945. It has been the center of economics, culture,
politics, and government ever since. So it's not surprising if Jakarta is not a suitable
place to be the nation's capital anymore. Jakarta is facing many big problems, such as
traffic problems, environmental issues, and decreasing area of land. With these
conditions of Jakarta as the soon-to-be-former capital city, this move most likely will be
the best choice for this nation.
Jakarta as the capital of economics and government in Indonesia is facing a
serious case of overpopulation. Many people from different provinces around Indonesia
hang their hope and dreams of this capital city's "luck" as many people say. This causes
a serious problem of congestion, as the city's street growth is disproportionate with the
vehicle population’s growth. This problem is also caused by the lacked awareness by its
people to reduce the use of their vehicles and use public transportation instead.
These issues with congestions also play a big part in Jakarta's environment. The
increasing of owned vehicles in the street also contribute to the high level of pollution in
Jakarta. It is also caused by ineffective pollution control standards, inefficient
technology, and dirty fuels that make Jakarta's air quality the worst in Southeast Asia
according to Greenpeace and AirVisual IQ. Pollution in Jakarta is also caused by the
many factories near Jakarta that dispose their unprocessed waste to the river, causing the
rivers in Jakarta to be polluted. With all of these problems, it can be concluded that
Jakarta is not the healthiest place to live.
 With the total area of 661,5 km2 Jakarta has to accomodate over 10 million of its
people. Areas of North Jakarta, including the seawall designed to protect them, are
falling at an estimated 25 cm a year, due to subsidence. Jakarta, with its big population,
does not provide enough drinking water, so the people have to rely on pumping water
from inside the ground, which leads to the land above it collapsing. Lack of drainage
has also caused the land in Jakarta to lose its water and slowly but surely start
collapsing. Lastly, the problem has been exacerbated by the explosion of new apartment
blocks, shopping malls, and even government offices, increasing the risk of catastrophic
flooding.
Jakarta as the capital city of Indonesia has carried a very big burden for a city
with that small of an area. Even if the government tries to solve this problem it probably
will take several decades to solve it. The government choice to move Indonesia's capital
city into a new and planned space, can finally ease Jakarta's burden.

Bibliography :
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/why-is-indonesia-moving-its-capital-
city-everything-you-need-to-know
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/08/08/airvisual-jakarta-declared-worlds-
most-polluted-city-on-thursday-afternoon.html