Inaugurating NasDem Tower, Jokowi: Bang Surya Has A New Office, I Also Have A New Capital City

Surya Paloh and Jokowi meeting on the 8th NasDem Anniversary (Twitter/@jokowi)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo inaugurated the new office of the Central Leadership Council (DPP) of the NasDem Party on Jl. RP Soeroso No. 42-46, Gondangdia, Menteng, Central Jakarta.

The inauguration of the new office called NasDem Tower was broadcast live via live streaming on the YouTube channel NasDem TV which was monitored on Tuesday, February 22.

In his remarks, President Jokowi assessed that the new NasDem office was very complete. He believes that the 23-story building is the capital for the NasDem Party to become the largest party in Indonesia.

"Bang Surya and the NasDem party have a new office, I also have a new capital city," said Jokowi.

Jokowi then mentioned the construction of the new state capital project in North Penajam Paser, East Kalimantan, which reaped the pros and cons. In fact, according to him, the development of IKN is the beginning of a new change for the Republic of Indonesia which has been supported by the DPR RI.

"This is nothing, a lot of it is a big transformation, a big change, a big idea must have pros and cons. There are those who agree and those who disagree, but in our political system it is clear that the law has been approved by the DPR, and has been approved by 8 factions. of the 9 existing factions, it means that the political law has been completed, so if it is like that, it should not be contested anymore," said the President.

Jokowi also revealed the reason for moving the new capital city to East Kalimantan. One of them is for equal distribution of population and economy.

"I want to convey, why did the capital city have to move? Our country is a big country, we have 17 thousand islands, 514 regencies/cities, 34 provinces. If we look at the population, 56 percent are in Java, 156 million Indonesians are in Java. , even though we have 17 thousand islands," he said.

"Our GDP is 58 percent on the island of Java, and to be more specific is Jakarta. So that the magnets of all the islands are here, the magnets of all cities are all to Jakarta, what happens is the inequality of economic cycles between Java and outside Java. What happens is the inequality between regions, infrastructure inequality between Java and outside Java. This is why the move to the capital city has been initiated for a long time," Jokowi continued.

Jokowi said that during the Soekarno era, the transfer of the capital city had been initiated. However, the idea did not continue due to political upheaval.

"In 1957 Bung Karno had the desire to move from Jakarta to Palangkaraya, but was hampered by political upheaval so the idea was not carried forward," he said.

It was the same in the Suharto era. So, Jokowi said, the relocation of the nation's capital city had gone through a thorough study.

"Pak Harto also had the idea of moving the capital city, but shifted it slightly to Jonggol in West Java. So the study already existed. Once again, this move is for equity. Both economic infrastructure and social justice are equal," Jokowi explained.