Dayak People Need To Prepare For State Capital Relocation

Jakarta, July 18 (Antara) - The residents of Dayak, who inhabit the mainland of the island of Kalimantan, must prepare themselves from now to anticipate the transfer of the state capital city from Jakarta to one of the provinces on the island. Currently, three provinces on the island of Kalimantan, namely East Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and Central Kalimantan, are being studied to determine which one deserves to become the state capital of Indonesia. Even the heads of regions in these three provinces have also expressed their readiness and capacity if the national capital is moved to their province. The central government will consider carefully which one of these three provinces will be chosen to be the location of the state capital, as well as anticipate the impact that will arise, but the local government with the community must prepare themselves if the discourse about the transfer of the capital really materialized. Kotawaringin Timur district government spokesman Halikinnor Halikinnor remarked on Sunday in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, that the discourse of transferring the state capital from Jakarta to Kalimantan must be anticipated by the local people, especially the Dayak community. "We certainly should be grateful if later the state capital is relocated to one of the provinces in Kalimantan Island. Therefore, the people of Dayak must prepare themselves in order not to be marginalized," Halikinnor stated. He noted that when the state capital is relocated to Kalimantan Island, job competition will certainly be getting tighter, and thus, the local people, especially the Dayak tribe, must prepare themselves to be able to compete with job seekers from outside the region. Preparation is done by improving the ability of human resources. One of them is with the mastery of knowledge, technology, and skills as stocks to get employment. President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has urged National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Head Bambang Brodjonegoro to conduct a thorough and comprehensive study on the plan to move the capital city from Jakarta in a bid to reduce a heavy burden in Jakarta. Jakarta has borne the heavy burden not only as the capital city but also as the country's financial and business center. "The burden on Jakarta is already too high, as it has served as the center for everything. All parties should have realized that our economic growth could not rely solely on Jakarta. We need to have distribution of new growth centers," Brodjonegoro said. To date, Jakarta has served as the center for governance, finance, and business in the country. Hence, Bappenas is still evaluating the plan to relocate the capital city to another city outside Java Island, which has a wider and suitable space. Brodjonegoro admitted that some cities have the potential to be selected as the new capital city, including Palangka Raya, an idea that had emerged since the era of first president Soekarno in the 1950s. Brodjonegoro revealed that a Bappenas team has analyzed the criteria of the location, its readiness, and space availability, as well as the funding source for the development of the new capital city. The discourse on relocating the Indonesian state capital of Jakarta can be an option to realize equitable development outside of Java Island. As the world's most populous island, with more than 60 percent of all the population living there, Java has been the most developed of all islands across the country. Although Java is the fourth-largest island in Indonesia, it accommodates more than half of the nation's population and dominates it politically and economically. Hence, Minister/State Secretary Pratikno has opined that the discourse on the relocation of the state capital can be comprehended as an effort to improve the distribution of development outside Java as well as to save the ecology in the Jakarta Capital Special Region. After speaking at a workshop on the implementation of the values of state philosophy of Pancasila, held at the Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta recently, Pratikno remarked that relocation of the state capital will save the ecology of Jakarta. The discourse on the relocation of the state capital has indeed become one of the focus areas of the central government today, and it should be placed as an open option to be studied together. "If the discourse on the transfer of the state capital is not made known, then we will never think about it," the former rector of the Gajah Mada University remarked. So far, economic and development activities are still concentrated in Java, even specifically in Jakarta. Money circulation and transportation facilities are also dominant in Jakarta, causing traffic congestion. Indeed, the idea of transferring the capital has been raised long ago by Bung Karno, but it needs to be adapted to the current situation in Indonesia. "Precisely, since the idea had emerged long ago and was never realized, we need to conduct a review in the current-day context," Pratikno remarked. However, People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Chairman Zulkifli Hasan has asserted that the transfer of the state capital should not be done in the near future, as the government still needs enormous energy and expenses to run the programs promised by Jokowi and Vice President Jusuf Kalla. Zulkifli pointed out that the government has yet to realize several programs, such as irrigation development, food self-sufficiency, and trans Sumatra and trans Java toll roads. Zulkifli believed that 2018 will be an important year in politics in terms of the registration of candidates for the post of legislative members and the determination of presidential and vice presidential candidates, which is why the government should increasingly focus on completing these programs.