December 14, 2023
JAKARTA – Bestari Barus, spokesman for the Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar campaign team, has clarified presidential candidate Anies’ stance on Nusantara, the new capital city megaproject. According to Bestari, Anies is not rejecting Nusantara but instead wants to “perfect” the proposal.
“Anies is not rejecting IKN, but perfecting it” Bestari said on Tuesday, as quoted by detik.com, referring to the acronym Nusantara Capital City (IKN). “There’s no statement of refusal, he’s evaluating it. OK, IKN is a product of the law. Can the law be revised? Yes. That’s it.”
According to Bestari, Anies will establish four teams for the 100-day program. One of the programs reportedly involves evaluating the IKN Law.
“Pak Anies will form four teams for the 100-day program. First for affordable food, then tackling corruption and […] a team for evaluating the IKN,” Bestari said. “It’s okay to evaluate. Just wait until [Anies is] elected.”
“[Anies] has the right to propose revisions, and the process is not within the NasDem Party, but in the House of Representatives, based on criticism. Who can claim we are all correct? […] So as the era changes, it turns out there is something that requires revision.”
Earlier this month, National Mandate Party (PAN) vice chairman Viva Yoga Mauladi accused Anies of rejecting the new capital. Yoga’s claims that Anies was opposing the Nusantara project were then deflected by the candidate’s other campaign team spokesperson, Tatak Ujiyati.
At the time, Tatak asserted that “Anies has never expressed opposition” and what he said “was indeed compliance with the law.”