SBY Questions Jokowi's Plan on Capital City Relocation

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Democrat Party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono or SBY voiced criticisms about the government’s performance under President Jokowi in 2019 during his reflective speech at JCC Senayan, Jakarta, on Wednesday, December 11.

The sixth Indonesian President mentioned the government’s bad records in the implementation of the 2019 general election that claimed many lives due to exhaustion. This issue, he added, could be a strong basis for evaluating the election system and regulations.

Yudhoyono further questioned the government’s strategy in relocating the capital city from Jakarta to East Kalimantan. He said he wanted to be exposed to the plan since the mega-project must not be failed.

"What is the concept? How is the timeline or construction schedule? How much does it cost? Where does the budget come from? Is there really an idea to sell state assets and even take foreign debt to finance it?" the Democrat party chair said.

He recalled that during his time of serving as a president, he had also made plans to construct a new administrative center. At that time, the concept followed Malaysia’s for its capital move Putra Jaya.

According to Yudhoyono, his government prepared lands in West Java, 1.5 hours from the east of Jakarta. However, the project was canceled due to several factors.

“At that time, our consideration was that we did not have a very large budget [for the capital relocation], while there were many urgent goals on the development. Besides, the environmental factor that we must not overlook did not support it,” said SBY.

FIKRI ARIGI