Why in News?

• On January 18, Indonesia’s Parliament approved a bill to relocate the country’s capital from Jakarta to a new city to be built on the island of Borneo, named as Nusantara. The decision was taken after the growing concerns of the long-term sustainability of Jakarta. The move has triggered concerns about the environmental impact on the forested island of Borneo.

About Borneo Island

• The Southeast Asian island of Borneo, located on the Equator, is home to some of the world’s most diverse rain forests and Southeast Asia’s last intact forests.
• Borneo is the world’s third largest island.
• The island’s tropical climate and diverse eco-regions have created habitats that house thousands of unique species.
• Massive rivers cut across the landscape. These are the islands’ lifelines, offering transport and providing the freshwater needs for the islands’ people.
• Borneo and Sumatra are the only places on Earth where tigers, rhinos, orangutans, and elephants live together.
• The forests are home to marvelous creatures like the proboscis monkey, sun bear, clouded leopard, and flying fox bat.

Drawbacks with Jakarta

• In August 2019, President Joko Widodo first announced that the capital would be shifted from Jakarta, on the island of Java, to a new city to be built in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.
• The city has suffered from a range of urban problems from overcrowding to pollution and congested roads.
• One major concern about its longterm future was the slowly sinking of the Jakarta.
• Studies have forecast that the entire city could sink by 2050, while flooding is a recurring problem.

The bill & the Plan

• The bill has given the green light to Mr. Widodo’s move and outlined a plan to shift the capital in five stages.
• Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa told Parliament the first stage, to be completed by 2024, will focus on basic infrastructure such as new roads to provide access to the site.
• The last stage will be finished in 2045.
• The project is estimated to cost more than $30 billion. A broader goal, President Widodo has said, was to bring greater economic activity to Kalimantan and reduce the dependence on Jakarta.
• Government offices will all be moved to Nusantara.
• If the current capital is suffering from pollution and flooding among other problems, environmental groups have, however, expressed concerns that the new project may end up bringing those problems to Kalimantan, a region known for its forests and biodiversity

The name “Nusantara”

• The name literally means “archipelago”.
• It also has a historical context referring to the entire region, including Indonesia and its neighbours in Southeast Asia.
• The Planning Minister said Nusantara “is a unity concept that accommodates all of our diversity, whether in race, language, or ethnicity” and the hope was for the new capital to be reflective of that aspiration.
• The name Nusantara dates back to Majapahit, a Hindu empire that was based in Java and ruled from the late 13th to the early 15th centuries. At its peak, its influence extended beyond today’s Indonesia to much of Southeast Asia, including Brunei and parts of Thailand and the Philippines.
• While the official explanation is that this connotes diversity, there has been disquiet over, why the name from a list of 80 suggestions was choosen, that refers not only to Indonesia but to the entire region.

Shifting of capitals by countries

• States have shifted capitals for a multitude of reasons throughout history, from reasons to do with the weather and the military to pride projects and just politics.
• In 1997, Kazakhstan shifted its capital from Almaty to Astana, a planned city.
• Then Astana was itself renamed in 2019 to Nur-Sultan, in homage to long-term former President Nursultan Nazarbayev .
• Myanmar in 2005 shifted its capital from Yangon to another planned city, Naypyidaw. Strategic reasons were cited as one possible explanation for the military regime’s decision