Considered Mahfud Impossible, Anies Explains The Meaning Of The Promise To Build 40 Cities At The Jakarta Level

Presidential candidate number 1, Anies Baswedan explained the campaign promise for himself and vice presidential candidate Muhaimin Iskandar who wanted to build 40 cities to level Jakarta.

This plan was originally disclosed by Muhaimin in the vice presidential debate. Then, the vice presidential candidate number 3 Mahfud MD also doubted the plan. Mahfud sees it impossible to materialize.

According to Anies, building 40 cities is not interpreted as giving birth to new cities. However, the 40 cities will improve their development progress to the equivalent of Jakarta.

Moreover, the former Governor of DKI Jakarta views that the urbanization phenomenon has occurred for a long time.

"We often lose, not that we can't afford it, but because we don't anticipate change. Because we know this urbanization trend will occur, the 40 cities in Indonesia have been upgraded," said Anies in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Tuesday, December 26.

However, Anies emphasized that he would anticipate that the 40 cities that were built more developed would not have urbanization problems such as Jakarta, such as land constraints, sanitation problems, and water pollution.

"What is being upgraded? Prepare public transportation for all places, upgrade clean water, upgrade waste management, upgrade sanitation. So that these cities are ready to become home to so many people in the next decade," explained Anies.

"That is our anticipation going forward. We will anticipate urbanization as something that will happen so that it does not experience what happened in Jakarta," he continued.

Previously, Mahfud MD admitted that he was surprised by Muhaimin Iskandar or Cak Imin's statement regarding his desire to build 40 cities at the level of Jakarta.

Mahfud asked whether the construction of 40 metropolitan cities could be achieved in just 5 years according to the President and Vice President's period.

"I am a bit surprised that I also want to build 40 cities at the level of Jakarta. Yes, can you hold it for 5 years as President and Vice President? How many cities in 5 years?" asked Mahfud in the second debate of the 2024 presidential election specifically for vice presidential candidates at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), Senayan, Central Jakarta, Friday, 22 December

Mahfud also compared it with the construction of one metropolity city, namely the capital city of the archipelago (IKN). Where, its implementation takes quite a long time.

"Ini IKN saja sudah puluhan tahun baru dilaksanakan, itu pun yang investasi baru dalam bentuk janji. Belum ada yang melaksanakan, nah gitukan," tandasnya.