Ridwan Kamil Doesn't Want IKN Like Canberra: The Land Is Wide, But The Population Is Few

Ridwan Kamil (Photo: dock. Antara)

JAKARTA - The former Governor of West Java who is currently appointed as the curator of the capital city of the archipelago (IKN) Ridwan Kamil (RK) hopes that the new capital city project will be successful like Washington DC, United States (US). He considered, Washington DC is the best capital city in the world to be built from scratch.

However, RK said there were also capitals with failed status due to reasons for being too wide to their minimal population. He then gave an example of the Australian capital, Canberra, which is minimally populated.

"The best capital in the world that is designed from scratch is Washington DC. The rest are rare and failed. We are big, short of people. In Canberra, Australia, there are few people, BA'da maghrib is quiet," said RK in his Instagram upload @ridwankamil, quoted Monday, March 4.

To avoid this, said RK, it is necessary to prepare various supporting facilities, such as health facilities, malls, sports, education, entertainment and others. According to him, basically a city must have a mixed function.

"Yes, actually, right, everything is like a city. There will be a stadium, especially the mall, health, education. I followed Jaya Ancol yesterday, like Universal Studio, just whatever entertainment is," he said.

Therefore, RK hopes that IKN is not just a central location for government, such as in Putrajaya, Malaysia. He said the city was filled with government offices only.

The IKN is designed for a population of about 3 million people. However, the target is projected to only be achieved by 2040.

"IKN is the center of government or the city? If the center of government is just a collection of government offices. That's named Putrajaya in Malaysia, that's it. IKN must be a city, the center of government has non-civil servants dominating, that's called Washington DC," he said.