Relocating Indonesia’s Capital City: The Struggle for Power and Resources in Borneo

This book looks at the process of relocating Indonesia's capital from Jakarta to Nusantara in East Kalimantan. It looks critically at the surrounding conflict and its causes, as well as the solution from the perspective of evidence-based-policy and regulatory impacts assessments whose presence is increasingly needed today, to campaign for participatory policies and achieve the right targets. It is not widely known that the process of relocation of the capital took place behind closed doors and unilaterally. Through a closed legislative process, without public debate, and by amending the constitution later, this takeover process took place without resistance from disadvantaged regions. Following this, when the central government faced financing difficulties along the way, its development budget initially relied on foreign investment, then became dependent on domestic financing, both sourced from state finances (APBN) and local resources. From here, the book maps the subsequent problems that arose, the first of which relates to local resources. It shows how local residents are also affected with land evictions without proper relocation. Through political-economic research and analysis, the book dissects the conflict as it appears in central-regional power relations, by exploring the roots of the problem and recommending several solutions, as well as looking at possible future development of the conflict.  This timely book is helpful to those who carry out development studies and are involved in making public policy for campus, government, parliament and the business world.