Makassar should be more like Singapore before being like Dubai

Makassar Trip Report: Makassar is the largest city in Eastern Indonesia. It’s building a Dubai-inspired new urban area on artificial islands, but it should look to Singapore’s example for fixing the city sidewalks first.

Makassar is the largest city in the Eastern Region of Indonesia. It has a population of about 1.5 million people, and the metro area has about 2.8 million people.

I wrote previously, wondering why there are no great coastal cities in Indonesia, and Makassar stands out as such a city.

Map of Eastern Indonesia (via Wikimedia).

I think Makassar is a great city, but in this context, I mean great as in why is it not a more prominent regional city? It should be a bustling international city that anchors the eastern half of Indonesia.

Makassar Airport is the third-busiest airport in Indonesia and the 10th busiest in Southeast Asia. Makassar is the regional hub of the east, with flights funnelling passengers to be redistributed to flights further west. ⁠Despite its grand size, the only international flights are to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore⁠ (not including the seasonal Hajj flights to Jeddah and Medina that only serve outbound passengers).

A Hajj flight at Makassar, a planespotters’ delight to see a 747.

I visited Makassar in 2015, and there were signs that the city had big plans for the future. A mega land reclamation project (Center Point of Indonesia) was being planned, and the Trans-Sulawesi Railway began construction in 2014. ⁠There is also talk of an MRT (or some kind of transit system), so Makassar is moving in the direction of becoming a dynamic city in Eastern Indonesia.

I returned to Makassar in 2024 to ride the Trans-Sulawesi Railway and to see the land reclamation project. Center Point of Indonesia is still under construction, but it’s open to the public. The Garuda-shaped islands are visible on Google Maps.

Center Point of Indonesia

After visiting the new islands and walking around the city, I realised that Makassar needs to⁠ fix the fundamentals, such as sidewalks and open drains (like Singapore), before building the flashy thing-shaped islands like Dubai.

Center Point of Indonesia

Center Point of Indonesia (CPI) is a group of islands off the coast of the central area of Makassar. This new urban area will eventually include a business district, government institutions, housing, and a landmark mosque.

Mosque of Center Point of Indonesia viewed from the Makassar city waterfront

The Garuda-shaped islands remind me of the palm and world-shaped islands off the coast of Dubai. I’m not sure if any other cities in the world have been inspired to make thing-shaped islands like Dubai has (Langkawi was going to make an Eagle-shaped island group).

I visited CPI, and it has the same bad urban design mistakes as other new cities. It’s hard to walk, it has an American-style business park with an abundance of car parks, and there are gated communities that are shut off from the public.

I wrote a separate review about the bad urban design of Center Point of Indonesia.

They reclaimed land to build this.

Instead of building these Dubai-inspired islands, they should have gridded out an area and let each block be developed individually, and leave a reserve for a future transit system.

A missed opportunity for a seaside promenade

As I mentioned in my coastal cities article, the coastal cities of Indonesia are disconnected from their waterfronts. Makassar at least has a waterfront along the central business district, though it is fragmented by big roads and private properties that block the view. ⁠North of the city centre is the port area, so that is not included as a potential walkable area.

Losari Beach city waterfront area

The main waterfront area in Makassar is Losari Beach. There is no beach there, but it has a great view of the sea. There is a market here at night, which turns it into a lively area.

Losari Beach Night Market

Losari Beach is near the bridge that leads to Center Point of Indonesia. This would have been a good place to build a landscaped walkway that allows pedestrians to walk to the island.

At the bridge, there is no way to safely cross the road to continue walking along the waterfront.

There is land reclamation further along, and a canal has been formed between the reclaimed land. There is a big mall that is on the canal, so I used that as a target to walk to. It’s an ugly walk that is not built with pedestrians in mind.

Jongaya Canal and Phinisi Point Mall

I was curious to see how the mall is connected to the waterfront. I figured if a mall were built by the water, there would be a nice promenade and perhaps some cafes with a view. This is the mall next to the canal.

Phinisi Point Mall

In a city with a lack of public green space, building a waterfront promenade would have been an easy way to increase the amount of green hectares in the city.

Considering the expense of reclaiming land to build CPI, a redesign of the old city waterfront should have been included as part of the plan.

Look to Singapore for sidewalks

One of the catchcries of cities around Southeast Asia is that they want to be the next Singapore.

In my travels around Southeast Asia, the thing that sets Singapore apart the most is functional sidewalks. I have written before that sidewalks are the secret sauce to simulating Singapore’s success.

Sidewalks should be a compulsory bare minimum for urban planning. Fix old sidewalks and make sure new roads have sidewalks on either side. And make sure that roads can be safely crossed by pedestrians.

The inner city area of Makassar has some nice tree-lined streets that would be transformed by functional footpaths. It would take years to fix all the streets, so this project should be viewed as reclaiming the streets for pedestrians one block at a time.

Everywhere wants to be the next Singapore, but the broken sidewalks are ignored, and planners are distracted by Dubai-inspired mega projects that are just as unwalkable as Dubai.

Connecting the train station to the city centre and Center Point of Indonesia

My main reason to visit Makassar was to review the new railway line that will eventually form part of the Trans-Sulawesi Railway. Here is my review of the Makassar – Pare Pare Railway.

Makassar – Pare Pare Railway

The current station for Makassar is out near the airport, and it’s difficult to get to. They are planning to extend the line closer to the city, so at least they have opened the line on the section that is operational.

There is a proposal for an MRT in Makassar, though the plan is light on details. One news report says that it will be integrated with the Makassar–Pare Pare train, and other reports have mentioned it being connected to the airport and Center Point of Indonesia.

Part of the problem with these transit proposals in Indonesia is that they propose elevated railways through areas where there is no room for an elevated railway. The proposed Bali metro started as an elevated and ground-level system, but they have finally conceded that this was never going to work, and it will be all underground (if it is built at all).

Makassar has the same problem of where to put the MRT. There are not enough wide roads to place an elevated railway, and the main highway to the airport doesn’t go through enough residential areas to make it a viable transit system.

The plan for the MRT to go to Center Point of Indonesia is also confusing. There doesn’t appear to be any reservation for a future train line. They built this big island to be a new residential area, and there is only one bridge to the main area. CPI is also filled with low-density housing (gated villas), when they should have built a dense new inner city.

Future Makassar

I plan to explore more of the eastern half of Indonesia, which will mean going through Makassar again. I am curious to see how CPI turns out, and see if the railway is extended to the city. I was hoping that more progress would be made on the Trans-Sulawesi Railway, but there haven’t been any updates on the future extension, which will eventually go to Manado at the northern end of Sulawesi.