There's no such thing as a free lunch...Or is there?

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It's official. The next president of Indonesia is former army general Prabowo Subianto. Quite how the next five years will pan out is anyone's guess but hopefully the foreign pundits who always bring up his dodgy human rights record will be proven wrong. Nonetheless, on policy making, Prabowo's popularist move to literally offer the poor 'a free lunch' every day of the week does not augur well for the future. Such a policy - if it ever came to fruition - would cost a phenomenal amount of money and likely lead to huge inefficiencies (food waste) and poor incentives (make people lazy). Another concern is Prabowo's strong nationalist bent. Thus, in the possible event that he finds himself with his back against the proverbial wall in the face of stern economic challenges, there is a big chance that he will simply scapegoat foreigners. But he will have to be careful. Construction of the new capital city, Nusantara, for example, is highly dependent on foreign in
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On a jungle utopia

Indonesia really is going ahead with plans to build a new capital city in the jungles of Kalimantan. And from scratch! A visionary act or a folly of monumental proportions? Only time will tell of course but I can’t help but think that this project hasn’t been well thought through at all.


Hahaha!

But it’s not just about the fate of the National Monument of course.  Every single government ministry will need to be moved to Kalimantan. And what about the embassies of other countries which are now in Jakarta? Will they really want to move to Kalimantan given Jakarta’s strategic location and the fact that most of their citizens either live in Java or Bali? Gotta feel sorry for the Americans, in particular. Only a few years ago, they finished constructing their swanky new embassy in Jakarta for a cool US$300 million. What will be its fate?

And if Jakarta really is sinking into the abyss, then why are huge public projects like the MRT and LRT still be continued? For what reason, exactly?

The rational of relocating legions of civil servants (now based in Jakarta) to Kalimantan is also unclear. After all, is it really reasonable to expect a businessman in Jakarta to fly to Kalimantan (and spend the night in a hotel) just to meet a civil servant to get some document signed or approved? Doesn’t make any sense to me. Jakarta may be a mess but at least you can meet someone in the morning and still make it home on the same day (just about).

Some might say there is no option as Jakarta is so overcrowded and messed up.

So why not move the government offices to a satellite town outside of Jakarta and provide access via a high-speed rail service? Why feel the need to construct a completely new city at an astronomical cost which is located far away from where all the country’s business is?

With an initial budget reaching an astronomical US$35 billion, at least some of the funds could instead be used to fix the dilapidated public infrastructure in Jakarta, and to address one of my particular bugbears, the open sewers that can still be found in many parts of the city.

Oh well.

Lots of questions and very few answers.

But hey don’t worry.

Judging by the computer-generated images, the new presidential palace will be a very grandiose affair indeed.

nusantara presidential palace

Utopia in paradise.

Bring it on baby…

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