Escaping the Primate Cities: Study from Capital Shifting Planning in Southeast Asia, Cases of Putrajaya, Nay Pyi Taw, and Nusantara

Southeast Asia is the home of numerous primate cities: Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta, Vientiane, Yangon, and Kuala Lumpur. However, the last two mentioned administrative capitals have already shifted in the last three decades to Nay Pyi Taw and Putrajaya, respectively, as newly built capital cities to disseminate the tardiness of Myanmar and Malaysia’s previous capitals. In 2019, Indonesia also followed this move to shift the capital from Jakarta to Eastern Kalimantan that still ongoing despite the pandemic situation. This research compares three capital shifts in Southeast Asia, limited only in its planning stage. The timeframe limitation follows different stages of capital shifting in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Myanmar. In comparison, Malaysia and Myanmar have already finished the shifting, while Indonesia is currently confirming its desired new capital location. This research tries to scrutinize and focus the research on state capital shifting on a regional basis that Southeast Asia interestingly provides more than one accomplished state’s capital shifting in a single region. The focus will be adjusted on when and how this capital shifting project was initiated, which institutions and stakeholders are responsible for the project, how long the project planned to be completed, initial pros and cons in public discourses, how big the budget allocated, from where sources the budget come from, and how the states choose the new capital sites.