September 2, 2026 | 04:16 pm
The state is forcing through the Nusantara capital city project. There are no guarantees that it can bring the city to life.
NUSANTARA Capital City (IKN) faces problems more fundamental than merely slowing construction and shrinking budgets. In an interview with Tempo, IKN Authority Chair Basuki Hadimuljono acknowledged that in the early stages of development, IKN needed “very strong political pushes.” Such dependence on political pressure reveals the project’s authoritarian character.
Authoritarianism refers to how power operates. Major decisions are made from the top, based on the belief that the state can steer society toward goals set by those in power. In relocating a capital, this logic is evident when the state determines the location, pours in the budget, builds infrastructure, relocates the bureaucracy, and then expects society and capital to follow.
A capital relocation should have strong, well-tested reasons, such as reducing congestion, promoting more equitable development, or separating the administrative center from the business hub. Putrajaya, for example, was built by the Malaysian government to organize government functions while reducing the burden on Kuala Lumpur.
By contrast, the reasons for relocating Indonesia’s capital have not been convincing enough to build strong public legitimacy. The project was a political decision by President Joko Widodo that was fast-tracked after he secured a second term in 2019.
This background is similar to Naypyidaw. The similarity lies not in the political systems of the two countries, but in the way a new capital is produced from the top down. Myanmar’s capital relocation in 2005 is difficult to separate from the authoritarianism of the military junta and its top-down approach. Government buildings were erected and broad roads laid out, but Naypyidaw has remained a dead city.
IKN faces an even greater challenge. Nusantara is 1,260 kilometers away and separated by sea from Jakarta, the center of the economy, business, education, media, and culture since the Dutch East Indies era.
The state can build buildings and roads, but bringing a city to life is another matter. When people and capital do not come on their own, the state mobilizes civil servants. Some 2,200 employees from various ministries and agencies now live in Nusantara. Next, the IKN Authority has asked 16 ministries and agencies to send some of their employees there.
Who is willing to go? Several surveys have shown high resistance among civil servants to relocating to the new capital in East Kalimantan. When officials are unwilling to move, the government ends up incurring additional costs, such as pioneer allowances. The state even covers the transportation costs of domestic helpers, not just those of employees, their children, and their spouses. In other words, the state is not only building a city, it is also paying civil servants to be willing to live there.
The state has spent more than Rp100 trillion to build IKN—more than 20 percent of the planned Rp460 trillion cost of developing IKN through 2045. Meanwhile, Nusantara remains far from finished.
President Joko Widodo’s legacy is no longer a priority in the eyes of President Prabowo Subianto. The state may be able to force itself to build a city, but it does not always have enough money to keep it alive.
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