REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- A political party has expressed support for the government's plan to move the capital city from Jakarta to Palangka Raya in Central Kalimantan here on Saturday.
"We support it because it has been sought for a long time since the period of Bung Karno (first president) to SBY (former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono). We also supported it during the SBY government but failed. Now we will try again," general chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB), Muhaimin Iskandar, stated.
He noted that the idea of moving the capital city to Palangka Raya had emerged since the era of first president Soekarno. During the government of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, it was insisted but failed to be implemented, he remarked.
He stated that there are a number of reasons why the capital city should be moved to Palangka Raya.
The first reason is that Palangka Raya is safer from possible earthquakes, and secondly, moving the capital city could help spread development to other regions too.
"It is for distributing development more evenly to other regions other than Jakarta. Eighty five percent of money circulates in Jakarta," Muhaimin revealed.
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He explained that moving the capital city out of Jakarta would also help reduce traffic in the city, which is very congested. "Jakarta has been (too much) congested. I always return home from office at 2 o'clock in the morning just to wait for the roads to be emptier. It has really been inefficient," he pointed out.
Muhaimin, however, warned of the need for considering the capacity of the budget before implementing the idea to prevent possible disruption of prioritized programs or burden in the future.
In view of that, he stated that it was not a problem if the government would involve private parties in the effort.
"We must be realistic. Priorities must not be disrupted. Therefore, it will not be a problem if private parties would be involved as it is only a business. It is similar to business between countries," he revealed.
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