Papuan Kid Asked President Jokowi Why He Didn't Choose Papua As The New Capital City

Liputan6.com, Sorong - In his second term, President Joko Widodo is working to relocate the capital to Kalimantan. One of the arguments is that Jakarta will sink in the future, therefore the government chooses to just leave the city of 10 millions and build a new one from scratch called Nusantara.

During his visit to Papua island, the president received a question from a school girl about his decision to relocate to East Kalimantan instead of Papua. 

"Why is the capital not just relocated to Papua?" said the girl from Sorong city.

The president warmly explained that Kalimantan is chosen because of its location in the center of the country.

"If the one in the east was chosen—if the capital was chosen in Papua—those coming from Aceh to Papua here would travel so far, Nine hours from Aceh to Papua by airplane. If by ships that could be weeks," said Jokowi as quoted by the statement from the Presidential Secretariat, Friday (7/7/2023).

"Therefore it was chosen as the capital to be in the center, so Nusantara in Kalimantan is chosen," said Jokowi.

Papua is the easternmost island in Indonesia. Poverty and technology infrastructure are among the crucial problems in Papua.

The relocation of the capital city is not without criticisms, particularly about how to finance this so-called "Future Smart Forest City". Last year, Softbank of Japan abruptly abandoned the plan to invest in Nusantara.

And although the government uses climate as the main argument, Greenpeace criticized this project for just relocating environmental problems in Jakarta to Kalimantan.