Rita Padawangi's guest appearances

Rita Padawangi

Talking Indonesia

Alfred Wallace

Jamie Davidson

Intan Paramaditha

Michele Ford

Sidney Jones

Ian Wilson

Jenny Munro

Eve Warburton

Bambang Brodjonegoro

Roanne Van Voorst

Julie Chernov Hwang

Sandra Hamid

Marcus Mietzner

Nava Nuraniyah

Nurul Widyaningrum

OwlTail

Martin Siyaranamual

Not long after winning a second term, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced that the nation’s capital will be moved from Jakarta to a new site in East Kalimantan. Jokowi said that the decision was mainly motivated by the fact that Jakarta is literally sinking from over-development and it can no longer handle the burden of being Indonesia’s centre of commerce and government. The government has argued that moving the capital to East Kalimantan will also help to redistribute economic development to regions outside of Java, particularly in eastern Indonesia.The news was received with both excitement and caution. A move of this scale will take many years to complete, and the costs will be astronomical. There are also questions about the environmental and social impacts of building a new city from scratch in an area that was formerly a tropical forest with rich biodiversity.To discuss the planned capital city move, I speak with Dr Martin Siyaranamual, a microeconomist and lecturer in the Department of Economics at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, and Dr Rita Padawangi, a Senior Lecturer at Singapore University of Social Sciences.

Not long after winning a second term, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced that the nation’s capital will be moved from Jakarta to a new site in East Kalimantan. Jokowi said that the decision was mainly motivated by the fact that Jakarta is literally sinking from over-development and it can no longer handle the burden of being Indonesia’s centre of commerce and government. The government has argued that moving the capital to East Kalimantan will also help to redistribute economic development to regions outside of Java, particularly in eastern Indonesia. The news was received with both excitement and caution. A move of this scale will take many years to complete, and the costs will be astronomical. There are also questions about the environmental and social impacts of building a new city from scratch in an area that was formerly a tropical forest with rich biodiversity. To discuss the planned capital city move, I speak with Dr Martin Siyaranamual, a microeconomist and lecturer in the Department of Economics at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, and Dr Rita Padawangi, a Senior Lecturer at Singapore University of Social Sciences.

Dr Martin Siyaranamual & Dr Rita Padawangi - Moving the Capital

Jakarta’s urban village (kampung) communities have received considerable attention in the last few months amid the hotly contested Jakarta gubernatorial election. While most of the election coverage focused on race and religious issues, former Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama’s track record of forced evictions of kampungs along Jakarta’s riverbanks also stirred much controversy. Kampung residents and activist groups condemn these evictions as unlawful and undemocratic. Yet many Jakartans argue that evictions are necessary measures to fix the city’s notorious traffic gridlocks and seasonal flooding. Is there a middle ground? Can Jakarta’s kampungs co-exist with residential, infrastructure, and commercial projects planned for the city?Dr Charlotte Setijadi discusses these issues with Dr Rita Padawangi, Senior Lecturer at Singapore University of Social Sciences. Rita is a passionate researcher and proponent of participatory urban development, and has worked with kampung communities in Jakarta to get the government to engage in more dialogue with kampung residents in urban planning.Image by Chris Bentley on Flickr.

Jakarta’s urban village (kampung) communities have received considerable attention in the last few months amid the hotly contested Jakarta gubernatorial election. While most of the election coverage focused on race and religious issues, former Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama’s track record of forced evictions of kampungs along Jakarta’s riverbanks also stirred much controversy. Kampung residents and activist groups condemn these evictions as unlawful and undemocratic. Yet many Jakartans argue that evictions are necessary measures to fix the city’s notorious traffic gridlocks and seasonal flooding. Is there a middle ground? Can Jakarta’s kampungs co-exist with residential, infrastructure, and commercial projects planned for the city? Dr Charlotte Setijadi discusses these issues with Dr Rita Padawangi, Senior Lecturer at Singapore University of Social Sciences. Rita is a passionate researcher and proponent of participatory urban development, and has worked with kampung communities in Jakarta to get the government to engage in more dialogue with kampung residents in urban planning. Image by Chris Bentley on Flickr.

Dr Rita Padawangi - Urban villages and activism