Creating a remote capital is not itself a malicious idea - even though that may be the case here (and Myanmar's close ties to North Korea which did the same is probably no coincidence).

But in general, the notion creating a new remote capital free of the existing concentrated power structures of the biggest cities is an old idea.

It was the motive behind the build up of Washington DC, which at the time was not very populated and mostly swamp land. The motive was to be free of the unfair influence of any one state. Brasilia copied that idea (it's amazing how visually similar it is in many ways to DC). ...and you might say Constantinople was the original. Similarly, most US state capitols are intentionally NOT their largest city (ie NYC is not the capital of New York State). ...even Vermont chose Montpelier instead of Burlington.