KUCHING: Indonesia’s proposal to move its capital to Borneo island could boost tourism and investments in the region, said political analyst Datuk Peter Minos.
“The move would make Borneo more famous and the whole world will know more of what and where Borneo is,” he told New Sarawak Tribune yesterday, believing that Sarawak would stand to gain from this shift as well.
He said this in response to Indonesian President Joko Widodo who on Thursday reaffirmed that the country’s capital would be moved to Borneo island from the congested Jakarta in Java island.
Minos noted the reasons behind the intended transfer of the capital — Jakarta is sinking steadily, not to mention being overpopulated and highly congested, with some areas being too dirty.
“It is too difficult to improve and too expensive to maintain,” he explained.
He reckoned that once the capital of Indonesia is shifted to Borneo island, perhaps at least one million people from Java would move along with it. With this, he believed that new developments would take place — roads, airports, bridges, housing, offices, malls, universities and more.
“This will be great. We can hope that there will be local designs and art in the buildings to make the place unique and beautiful,” Minos said, commenting that Indonesians have a creative streak. He felt that this would benefit Borneo as a whole.
However, he raised some concerns that the locals may harbour such as deforestation, domination by the Javanese and their cultures, and being taken for granted and sidelined. As such, he stressed that taking these concerns into consideration and looking after the interests of the locals would be crucial.
“We hope that with the ‘New Jakarta’ in Kalimantan, our Indonesian friends will not have ideas about Sarawak, Sabah or Brunei,” Minos remarked, citing the previous Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation between 1963 and 1966.
“The Javanese have been noted in the past to have tendencies towards territorial expansion and invasion. We cannot tell their long-term intention.
“We must be aware — it is a ‘no’ to making Borneo into one nation,” he stated.
According to a tweet posted by Joko, the location for the new capital could be in Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan or South Kalimantan (Kalimantan referring to the Indonesian portion of Borneo island).
The Indonesian government aims to start moving to the new capital by 2024.
