Portal talk:Current events/2019 August 26

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Indonesian capital location announced[edit]

Politics and elections - Politics of Indonesia - Indonesian President Joko Widodo announces North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara regencies as location of the future capital of Indonesia. He says government will prepare a bill to submit in the House of Representatives as soon as possible. (The Jakarta Post) (The Washington Post)

Jokowi is not some lunatic joker - he was recently re-elected as chief executive of a 220-million presidential democracy and seems to care for his legacy. Sources write: "Indonesia will", "Indonesia is set to" relocate the capital city function, also because there's an environmental urgency in Jakarta. This is a huge national project with quite some international impact. Monday's announcement had significant media coverage. See also: Biodiversity of Borneo. Wakari07 (talk) 23:48, 27 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

While I believe that Jokowi is serious about moving the capital, he is not all powerful. To move the capital he still has to have a law passed through the legislature. From what I can tell, the legislature has enough teeth that it is not a sure thing that the capital will move. Even if it were, it might not be a sure thing that it moves where he says it will. In other words, this is like announcing a marriage after one of the parties says "I do", rather than waiting for both to have done so. Compare to Trump building a wall. We didn't note that he was going to build a wall when he was a candidate. We didn't even note it when he got elected. The appropriate time to do so was when he either had a law passed to get the money to do so out of Congress, or when he did an end run around Congress and started building his wall with funds he had full control over. It might not have been the right time until he announced that he had broken ground on said wall. Rockphed (talk) 12:37, 28 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I support inclusion. @Wakari07: is correct; at this point in proceedings, the President's declaration is in itself important, even in the unlikely event this effort ultimately goes nowhere. 89.240.135.201 (talk) 13:00, 1 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]