Anies Criticism Of IKN Makes New Inequality, Jokowi: We Don't Want To Be Javancentric, But Indonesiacentric

President Jokowi while in the capital city of Nusantara (IKN)/PHOTO via Instagram @jokowi

JAKARTA - President Jokowi has denied moving the capital city to IKN Nusantara in East Kalimantan has even made inequality as Anies Baswedan is concerned. In fact, Jokowi emphasized that IKN was built to overcome inequality.

"We don't want Jawacentric but want Indonesia-centric. 58 percent of the economic GDP is in Java. 58 percent is on the island of Java. So we want Indonesia-centric. On other islands there is also economic growth, on other islands other than Java there are also new economic growth points. We hope for that," said Jokowi, Wednesday, November 29.

"Economic equity, equitable population, growing new economic growth points. I think the direction is there. But this, right, is not a day or two or a year or two years. Long term," added Jokowi.

Anies Baswedan previously spoke at length about the purpose of building a new city during the Muhammadiyah open dialogue at UMS Surakarta, on Wednesday, November 22. Anies' answer answered questions from dialogue panelists about whether the development of IKN was prospective for Indonesia.

According to Anies, the goal of building a new city will not produce equity. On the contrary, the construction of a new city actually creates inequality with the surrounding area.

"When the goal of building a new city and a new capital city is to equalize, it does not produce a new equitable, why? Because it will produce a new city that is unequal with the surrounding areas," Anies replied, quoted from Kompas TV Youtube, Thursday, November 24.

According to Anies, for equitable development in Indonesia, development must be carried out targeting small cities to become middle and middle into big cities.

"So between the goals of wanting to generalize Indonesia, if you want to equalize Indonesia, then building a small, medium-sized city becomes a big city throughout Indonesia, not just building one city in the middle of the forest," explained Anies.

Therefore, according to Anies, what the government is doing by building IKN is actually problematic. The government's move is not connected to its goals.