Jakarta Is Sinking While Nusantara Rises
Indonesia is spending Rp 75.8 trillion (around US$4.7 billion) building a new capital in Kalimantan while Jakarta's Giant Sea Wall sits years behind schedule and the ground beneath North Jakarta keeps subsiding. The article argues this is not a failure of foresight but of will, governments are drawn to legible, ribbon-cuttable projects like Nusantara and away from the unglamorous work of regulating groundwater extraction and enforcing zoning. It asks who gains from the move, who is left behind in Pluit and Penjaringan, and what one concrete step the government could take now to signal it is not abandoning the ten million people staying put.
