Capital appreciation: Indonesia’s Nusantara vs Malaysia’s Putrajaya

 

Nusantara is an old Indonesian name for the maritime nations of the Southeast Asian archipelago, a region which Indonesia dominates.

It’s a name everyone in this region should know and understand. If you don’t, you haven’t been paying attention, or worse, you live in a sanitised (or putrid) bubble somewhere, oblivious to the history and culture of our region, or worse, the geopolitics of the day.

It is now also in the news for the prosaic reason that Indonesia has chosen it as the name of its new US$34 billion political administrative capital, situated in its Borneo territory of Kalimantan.

What’s in a name? What’s in a name indeed. Nusantara is an ancient name, having its etymology in the names of conquered territories of old Indonesian empires. I remember thinking of it, long ago, as an outdated and archaic name for the history books, and not one for the modern world.

The notion of a brand-new capital city to be the political centre of a country is not something novel. It often signals a nation’s coming of age, that it has made it: Washington DC, Brasilia, Canberra, Naypyidaw, and of course our own Putrajaya, are examples.

While the idea isn’t new (Washington DC is well over 200 years old, and Canberra well over 100) many of the recent executions of the idea haven’t quite impressed.

Brasilia remains a rather strange place in the middle of the Amazon jungles, unloved and uncherished unlike how Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo are treated. Myanmar’s new capital is still a question mark, and the odds of it escaping Brasilia’s fate aren’t very good.

What about our own Putrajaya? If ever there’s a city that’s a modern-day monument to somebody’s ego, this is it, created literally out of the swamps, resplendent with modern interpretations of old Moorish architecture, dotted with redundant ornamental bridges and parks.

I hate going to Putrajaya. In spite of its supposedly great design, I’ve always managed to get lost in it. I don’t often use Waze there, because I always feel such a modern design should be instinctively familiar. But now I do.

Putrajaya, the soulless antville

What I hate about Putrajaya is its blandness. I feel like I’m an ant lost in a cardboard model of the city itself. The wide-open spaces that offer no shade from the sun appear forbidding and very un-Asian. The architecture is meant to be majestic and awe-inspiring, but I find it contrived, lifeless and soulless.

For a city that claims to be the federal administrative capital of Malaysia, it easily ignores the multiethnic nature of Malaysia, and focuses only on the Islamic, meaning Malay, side of things. We have a skyline that would do Riyadh proud, but not one all Malaysians can equally love.

But at least it’s not all the sharp edges of the Minangkabau roofs, which have become the lazy architect’s go-to version of what Malaysian architecture should look like.

After decades we still haven’t figured out whether Malaysia’s architectural heritage is something from Saudi Arabia, or something from closer to home: Sumatra.

The name Putrajaya itself is so insipid in the typical Malaysian way of taking a name – anything, from an old place name like Petaling, to somebody’s name like Gohtong, and tacking Jaya at the end – with the wish or the prayer that the place will indeed jaya or succeed.

We do have places like Petaling and Subang where tacking Jaya at the end of it seemed to have done the trick. But we’ve many where it hasn’t, with Putrajaya high on the list, and Cyberjaya right behind it.

What does this have to do with Nusantara you may ask?

Well, for the last decade or so, as Malaysia slid down just about every international scale and ranking, Indonesia has been steadily rising. It’s possible to argue that Indonesia has surpassed Malaysia in many aspects, and by some margin too.

Rise of a regional behemoth

In many ways this is inevitable. Indonesia is the regional behemoth, with a huge domestic market, educated population and cheap labour cost. It has both densely populated islands and conurbations such as Java and Jakarta, and resource-rich virgin territories such as Kalimantan and Papua.

Incidentally, Papua used to be known as Irian Jaya. It seems the Indonesians were also into the Jaya name game, though, tellingly perhaps, they’ve abandoned it while we’re still flogging it for whatever it’s worth.

Indonesians also have a rich history of empires and civilizations, including Hindu and Buddhist ones that they’re not ashamed of. This rich and varied history creates a strong sense of identity and pride – important advantages in the competition among nations.

It goes without saying Indonesia should be the strongest and most dominant nation in the region. It’s not fair to expect Malaysia to be able to fight on equal footing with them. We must respect them based on what they’ve become, and what we know they can be.

But we could’ve put up a better fight, exploiting our strengths of diversity, strong democratic systems, better-developed education system (though both of these are now questionable) and our close ties to the western world.

We used to look down on Indonesia as a poor, corrupt, over-populated and unruly nation good only for domestic maids and factory workers. While that’s still true in many instances, it’s disappearing as the Indonesian economic engine chugged and slowly pulled ahead.

Staking a claim of regional dominance

While we’re wringing our hands at the lack of integrity among our leaders, while we laugh and cry at the stupidity we see daily, while we gasp at the incompetence and greed of our elected representatives, Indonesians are beginning to look down on Malaysia, while perhaps, owing to their customary politeness, hiding a chuckle or two.

They’re building a city in the forests of Borneo, almost geographically right smack in the centre of the region. It will be a significant development, regardless of how it turns out.

By naming it Nusantara, they are barely disguising the fact they’re laying claim to dominance of the region, reminding everybody about old history that many have conveniently forgotten.

We are entering an age of Pax Indonesiana, where we’ll be but a minor player. President Jokowi is sending a very clear message about Indonesia’s ambitions and intent. You’d have to be as dumb as a doorknob not to see and hear it. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.