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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 turning into the governor of Jakarta, was hailed as a beacon of hope.
Jokowi’s election nearly 10 years in the past represented “the peak of democracy in Indonesia,” Vishnu Juwono, affiliate professor in public governance on the University of Indonesia, tells TIME. “He was seen as an outsider, and he’s benefited from the democracy system.”
But 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 known as Nusantara, to interchange the present capital in Jakarta starting as quickly as subsequent 12 months—seems to embody such a backsliding.
Since it was introduced in 2019, the bold 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 issues about Chinese investment that critics say is making Nusantara a “New Beijing.” But a extra insidious implication, observers warning, is the undemocratic nature that the brand new capital, tucked a whole lot of miles away from Jakarta and set to function with out elected native leaders, will carry to the fore of what’s presently the world’s third largest democracy.
While Indonesia’s present capital, which homes 10.5 million of the nation’s 278 million individuals, could be the epicenter of the Southeast Asian nation’s financial exercise, over the many years it has turn into more and more uninhabitable. Jakarta residents often battle heavy traffic congestion, widespread flooding, and unsafe air pollution—the metropolis was earlier this 12 months ranked because the world’s most polluted metropolis when thick smog shrouded its residents. The metropolis can also be sinking at an alarming rate, with some forecasters estimating {that a} third of its land might be submerged by 2050.
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As Indonesian authorities proceed to search for methods to save lots of the present capital, a province some 800 miles away presents 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.
“When we agree to maneuver ahead as a sophisticated 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.
But what Nusantara represents shouldn’t be a lot an answer as a distraction, civil society teams and lecturers argue. Local authorities have lengthy dragged their ft 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 University, tells TIME. “The issues of Jakarta will stay, no matter Nusantara. It’s fairly disingenuous, I feel, to recommend that Nusantara will assist clear up Jakarta’s issues. It will solely clear up them insofar as politicians will now not really feel any obligation to cope with them and even to talk to them.”
But Nusantara doesn’t simply symbolize an avoidance of coping with Jakarta’s troubles. It additionally seems 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 few of the most vital moments of Indonesian politics: student-led protests led to the autumn of authoritarian chief Suharto in 1998; in 2016 and 2017, amid rising spiritual 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 ordering the government to amend components of the laws.
Similar tasks in different components 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 defend the nation’s army leaders from uprisings. Similarly, observers say that in Egypt, the New Administrative Capital, helmed by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and that has been beneath development 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 specific 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, once 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 as a consequence of transfer in subsequent 12 months and there are plans for an eventual inhabitants of 1.9 million by 2045—how the brand new capital metropolis itself is ready to be run has already raised concerns among local observers. Unlike the remainder of the nation, which is ruled by elected mayors or governors, Nusantara might be ruled by a Capital City Authority helmed by chairpersons appointed by the President.
“When you might have this authority that runs the town and in some way it’s not linked to all these individuals who reside in that metropolis, the notion of residents doesn’t make sense,” Sulfikar Amir, an affiliate professor of sociology at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, tells TIME. He provides that Nusantara, the best way it has presently been designed, may have “solely tenants and customers, not residents.”
Nusantara, says Sulfikar, “doesn’t actually symbolize the democratic system that’s alleged to be the inspiration of our metropolis governance throughout the nation.” He says he worries, nonetheless, that “the central authorities will imagine that this can be a good system that ought to be applied throughout cities in Indonesia.”
Known for his laser deal with financial progress, Jokowi has delivered the results. But beneath his management, Indonesia has additionally seen increased online censorship and a crackdown on critics, in addition to legislative adjustments that critics say infringe on democratic values—such because the passage of a controversial criminal code final 12 months 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. Last month, his 28-year-old son Kaesang Pangarep was named the chairman of the Indonesian Solidarity Party, a youth party, regardless of having no political expertise. Meanwhile, Bobby Nasution, the President’s son-in-law, turned the mayor of Medan in 2020—the identical 12 months that Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Jokowi’s eldest son, turned 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—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.
Furthermore, out of the three presidential candidates operating to succeed Jokowi, solely former Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has vocalized doubts about Nusantara. While Jokowi has remained tight-lipped about who he’s endorsing, his legacy will seemingly, based on 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. Long recognized for his vehement opposition to democratic reforms within the nation, Prabowo’s ascension, observers worry, might lead to a fair sharper centralization of energy and switch towards authoritarianism for the nation.
To ensure, Jokowi has maintained his recognition all through all these maneuvers, boasting an 82% approval rating earlier this 12 months. But if the beginning of his presidency heralded excessive hopes for Indonesian democracy, the tip of it—marked by a swanky new capital and the paving of the trail for Prabowo to doubtlessly rule from it—has largely dampened any optimism in regards to the course by which Indonesia’s democracy is headed.
“Indonesia remains to be a functioning democracy, that is no doubt,” says Wilson. “But nonetheless, there have been very robust, autocratic developments, and I feel Nusantara must be understood inside that context.”
