As Indonesian President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, is closing the curtain on his ten-year term, with his successor’s inauguration scheduled for October 20. Now he is rushing to raise the curtain on Nusantara, the country’s future capital and his pet project in jeopardy.
Indonesia’s Independence Day on August 17 was supposed to mark the inauguration of the new high-tech and eco-capital. But when the day came, a stripped-down ceremony took place at the presidential palace in Nusantara, with only 1,300 of the originally planned 8,000 in attendance, surrounded by half-finished buildings. (Another ceremony was taking place simultaneously hundreds of kilometers away in Jakarta, the current capital.) Although 12,000 officials were supposed to move in by September, only a fraction of the housing allocated to them has been built so far; water and electricity supplies were only recently provided; and investment flows for the project have dried up.
Construction delays have left the future of the $30 billion project uncertain. And it will soon fall into the hands of President-elect Prabowo Subianto, who has said he supports the idea but has shown little interest in making it a priority – a worrying sign for Jokowi, who has stepped up efforts in recent weeks to speed up Nusantara construction.
“This is Joko Widodo’s last attempt to restore his authority and secure his legacy,” Vishnu Juwono, associate professor of public administration at the University of Indonesia, tells TIME.
To prove that Nusantara’s development is progressing well, Jokowi spent his first night in the new capital in July – he said he had not slept well the next morning – and held his first cabinet meeting earlier this month, inviting influential figures to visit and report on the construction site.
“The new capital of Nusantara is a canvas on which we can shape the future,” Jokowi said at the start of the cabinet meeting on August 12. “Not every country has the opportunity or ability to build a new capital from scratch.”
It remains unclear whether Indonesia can do this. The problems plaguing Nusantara – from land disputes to environmental concerns to an unexpected shortage of private funds – will not be solved quickly.
With construction progress slow and confidence in financial returns low, Nusantara remains a tough sell to private and foreign investors, who the government planned to provide 80% of the project’s financing. (The remaining 20% would be covered by the Indonesian national budget.) However, of the 100 trillion rupiah, or more than $6.4 billion, that the government had expected in investments by the end of 2024, Nusantara has received only about $3.5 billion – and that was from domestic companies and state institutions.
Although more than 400 foreign companies have expressed interest in investing, no concrete deals have been reached despite Jokowi traveling the world to persuade foreign governments and companies. Jokowi is now trying to lure investors with nearly 200-year land licenses, which critics say is a “fire sale” of land that would harm local residents.
Meanwhile, the grand presidential palace, which is shaped like Garuda, the mythical bird-like creature from Indonesia’s national emblem, was mocked online, with others pointing to signs of botched and rushed construction.
Read more: Indonesia’s new capital is a monument to democratic decline
Political uncertainty also casts a dark shadow over the sprawling Nusantara construction site. In June, the resignations of two Nusantara project leaders fueled speculation about its stability. And even if Nusantara remains on the next government’s to-do list, it seems far from being at the top of the agenda.
Prabowo told reporters earlier this month during a cabinet meeting with Jokowi in Nusantara that he would “continue and if possible finish” the project, but many remain skeptical that he will keep his word. His populist presidential campaign had centered on a free lunch initiative that will put a heavy strain on the national budget. Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the vice president-elect and Jokowi’s eldest son, said he had no plans to move to his official residence in Nusantara but would stay in his own home in Jakarta.
Jokowi, for his part, has acknowledged that the transition to Nusantara should not be rushed. His plan appears to be to make it impossible for his successors to ignore the 250,000 hectares of capital under construction.
“He is building and developing the capital as much as possible so that it reaches the so-called point of no return,” Yanuar Nugroho, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and a former deputy chief of staff to Jokowi, tells TIME. Whoever inherits the Nusantara project, Yanuar says, “does not want to be seen as someone who is jeopardizing that.”
But Jokowi’s successors could instead delay construction until it is politically more convenient to abandon it. “Nusantara could drag on, and it could drag on quite slowly,” Ian Wilson, a lecturer in Indonesian politics at Australia’s Murdoch University, told TIME. “If it becomes a useless project, if it consumes too many resources, while (Prabowo) has other political priorities, it would be quite easy for him to walk away from it. And that would then undermine Jokowi’s legacy.”
Jokowi has undoubtedly enjoyed broad public support during his ten years in office – even in the final stretch of his presidency, his approval rating reached a new high of 77%. And to his credit, he has gone further in attempting to move the capital than any of his predecessors, who have all planned or attempted to carry out such a move in one way or another over the past decades.
But whether Nusantara succeeds or fails, his legacy may already be written, political analysts say. A decade ago, Jokowi was hailed as the “Obama of Indonesia” and the “new hope” for Indonesian democracy. But as his final term draws to a close, Jokowi’s reputation has been tarnished by his apparent maneuvers to build a dynasty in Indonesian politics. The political turmoil that has marked his final months in office, particularly accusations that he is undermining Indonesia’s nascent democracy, has increasingly overshadowed the popularity that underpinned his tenure.
“Jokowi will certainly be remembered as someone who initiated the construction and development of the new capital,” says Yanuar. “But he is also known as someone who destroyed Indonesian democracy.”
Last year, Gibran’s selection as Prabowo’s running mate – even though he was not yet of the minimum age to be a candidate – was made possible by a ruling by the Constitutional Court, whose chief justice was Jokowi’s brother-in-law. Now he is trying to secure his influence in Golkar, one of the country’s largest political parties, by putting himself and his allies in senior positions. And in recent weeks, his allies in parliament tried to change the electoral law before pausing amid widespread protests to pave the way for Jokowi’s youngest son, Kaesang Pangarep, to run as governor.
“I fear that at this moment, even without (the Nusantara project),” says Yanuar, “Jokowi will not be remembered as a wise person. He will not be remembered as a statesman.”
