Jakarta – The East Kalimantan (Kaltim) Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) held an action in front of the Nusantara capital city (IKN) Authority offices in Balikpapan on Thursday August 15 ahead of the Republic of Indonesia's 79th Independence Day on August 17.
During the action, Jatam brought a number of banners containing criticisms of the IKN development. They also brought a kind of trophy of appreciation for the IKN Authority.
"We will give the trophy to the IKN Authority as the best player for land grabbing", said one of the speakers during the action.
Jatam also criticised the development of the IKN which gives the impression of being pushed through, resulting in various problems for local communities such as the confiscation of land, intimidation and criminalisation.
"Also destroying other islands to the point of threatening bankruptcy due to the use of fantastic amounts of public funds", they said.
The protesters said that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo will soon hold a ceremony commemorating the 79th anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia at the IKN.
This however will ignore the accumulation of social and ecological problems, especially in the development cycle of Indonesia's new capital.
"President Jokowi is instead busy building a fake campaign about the new capital city", they said.
Jatam also highlighted who will profit from this mega-project worth 466 trillion rupiah. This is because determining the location for the construction of the new capital is considered to have been very non-participatory and not based on supporting data that is easily accessible and transparent.
Jatam also called for the entire process of building the new capital to be halted because it has the potential to bankrupt Indonesia.
"And evaluate the entire process of this mega-project and ensure that all processes are transparent and can be directly monitored by the Indonesian people", they said.
Widodo will hold the Independence Day ceremony at the IKN even though he is faced with the fact that basic infrastructure development is not yet fully ready.
In early July, Widodo cancelled moving his office to IKN Nusantara due to the lack of basic facilities. He emphasised that he would move when facilities such as electricity and clean water were ready.
The number one person in Indonesia finally took up office at the IKN on July 29-31 but said he could not sleep well. This was because there was a problem with the air conditioner.
Widodo has repeatedly denied that the development of IKN is being rushed or is chasing targets. He has emphasised that so far the progress of IKN development has been in accordance with the road map established from the start.
The former Mayor of Solo also emphasised that the IKN mega-project is a long-term development project, so the overall results cannot be seen in the short term. (yla/pmg)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was " Demo Jatam Kaltim: Otorita IKN Pemain Terbaik Perampasan Ruang Hidup".]
