Wednesday May 24, 2023 – 08:42 WIB

VIVA company – Political and public observer Rocky Gerung highlighted the Archipelago Capital (IKN) project which is currently being promoted by the government of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

The philosophy professor said President Jokowi's decision was ridiculous because he did not understand the promoted IKN project. Rocky said it was very unlikely that Canada would want to fund the IKN project.

“When President Jokowi was in Tokyo, he proposed IKN to the Canadian Prime Minister for funding. “Of course it's not true,” Rocky said when he was a resource person at the Think Tank organized by the political science students of UIN Alauddin Makassar, at Campus 1 of UIN Alauddin Makassar, Tuesday, May 23, 2023.

According to Rocky, Canada is actually an anti-deforestation country, that is, a country that really cares about the environment. Meanwhile, IKN is a project that ignores the principles of environmental sustainability.

“This means that he (Jokowi) does not understand that Canada is the most anti-deforestation country. Why does Canada want to pay for this, when it instead wants to prevent the lungs of the world from turning Kalimantan into a playground private jets land every day bringing the resulting vapors money laundering” Rocky said

Regarding Jokowi's attitude, Rocky made a unique comparison with the Javanese offering gudeg in Makassar. For this reason, Rocky believes that Jokowi made a mistake in proposing investment cooperation for the development of IKN. He said Canada was the opposite of what was happening behind the project.

“Just like the Javanese want to offer Javanese gudeg in Makassar. Well, it doesn't sell. Misplaced. “Or in the morning, a breakfast of yellow rice, coffee with milk and half-cooked eggs, but half-cooked eggs are healthy for my body, what is not healthy is the presidents half-cooked,” Rocky said to the laughter of the participants.

As is known, President Jokowi held a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss economic cooperation and socio-political conditions in the ASEAN region. This meeting was held at the Rihga Royal Hotel, Hiroshima, Japan, on Saturday (20/5).

“We request the support of Your Excellency regarding the conclusion of the CEPA agreement between Indonesia and Canada, the realization of investments of Canadian pension funds focused on the development of the Indonesian capital, the development of financing mechanisms for feasibility study for the project Green field in Indonesia,” Jokowi said in a press release from the Press, Media and Information Office of the Presidential Secretariat.