Governors from all 34 provinces in Indonesia will gather at the national capital city at Sepaku, East Kalimantan and take one litre of water and two kilograms of soil from their province to be placed in a container called Kendi Nusantara.
The container is the starting point for IKN development. This coincides with President Joko Widido’s plan to camp there on 13th-14th March 2022.
“It’s a big container made of copper located at the zero point of IKN,” said Head of the Adpim Bureau for the Regional Secretariat of East Kalimantan, HM Syafranuddin, when contacted by Kompas.com on Friday 11th March 2022.
Especially for East Kalimantan, water and land will be taken from the locations of two sultanates, namely the Kutai Sultanate in Lama, Anggana District, Kutai Kartanegara Regency, and Paser Regency.
“Incidentally, the IKN Nusantara area is part of the Kutai Sultanate and Paser Sultanate. It is a symbol representing the Sultanate in East Kalimantan,” explained the man who is also the spokesman for the East Kalimantan Governor.
Furthermore, the Bengkulu Provincial Government held a traditional procession of taking water and soil from Dendam Tak Sudah Lake and Bung Karno’s exile house to be brought to the IKN.
“This is a form of Bengkulu’s participation in supporting the government’s efforts in realising the new nation’s capital city,” said Assistant to the Bengkulu Provincial Government Khairil Anwar on Friday 11th March 2022, quoted by Antara.
Anwar said that the water from these two sites was chosen because these are tourism locations that are the pride of the Bengkulu people.
The head of the Bengkulu Customary Consultative Body Effendi explained that, based on the customs and habits of the natives, Bengkulu and Kalimantan have emotional closeness because they are both descendants of anak dalam or a tribe of the Malay people.
Meanwhile, the Provincial Government of East Nusa Tenggara also organised a traditional procession by seven regional heads representing seven islands in the region to Governor Viktor Laiskodat in Kupang, Friday 11th March 2022.
The handover of land and water by the regents and community leaders in the region began with traditional rituals from each region.
“On 13th March, we will bring this land and water to East Kalimantan to be combined with land and water from various other provinces on 14th March in the presence of President Joko Widodo,” Laiskodat said, quoted by Antara.
The Governor hopes that land and water can help accelerate the development of the nation’s capital city.
“The land and water from the Flobamora area can create social justice for all Indonesian people,” he continued. “Not all of the land and water will be brought, the rest will be stored in a museum in East Nusa Tenggara as historical evidence that the remaining land for Indonesia is still here.”