Outdated laws hinder marital bliss<\/p>\n
M. Taufiqurrahman
\nThe Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
After a brief romance in early January 2004, a Balinese man
\ntied the knot with a European woman in Canada and the union was
\nduly recorded by the local civil registry.<\/p>\n
The European woman decided to embrace her husband's Hindu
\nfaith to avoid possible legal complications when they returned to
\nhis home country.<\/p>\n
The newlyweds arrived in Indonesia with the intention of
\nregistering their marriage with the Buleleng civil registration
\noffice, but was surprised and upset when the office recorded
\ntheir marriage as between an Indonesian man and a Chinese woman.<\/p>\n
The designation as Chinese entails a legal quagmire for the
\ncouple's future children. The children will be vulnerable to
\ndiscrimination and will be subject to extortion when trying to
\nobtain citizenship documents, a common problem befalling Chinese-
\nIndonesians.<\/p>\n
In another case, when an Indonesian woman married a foreigner,
\ninstead of registering it as a union between people of different
\nnationalities, a local civil registration office recorded it as a
\nmarriage between an Indonesian woman and a foreign man. As the
\nlaw stands, the couple's future children will be regarded
\nautomatically as having the same nationality as their father, and
\nwill thus have to undergo immigration hassles to legalize their
\nresidency here.<\/p>\n
The above two cases illustrate the woes facing men and women
\nof different nationalities or faiths who unwittingly "defied" the
\ncountry's outdated laws to start up a family.<\/p>\n
In both cases, according to a survey by the Antidiscrimination
\nStruggle Movement (Gandi), the two couples were registered based
\non existing regulations left over from the Dutch colonial period,
\nwhich classify citizens into three categories: European, Chinese
\nand native.<\/p>\n
At present, 15 laws and government regulations on civil
\nregistration date back to the colonial era, when citizens were
\ngrouped according to religious belief, race and other social
\ncategories.<\/p>\n
The most notorious of the regulations is Law No. 1\/1974 on
\nmatrimony, which states that a marriage is legal only when the
\nunion is between couples of the same religion.<\/p>\n
As a result, a foreign man who decides to marry an Indonesian
\nwoman -- or vice versa -- must follow one of the five religions
\nofficially recognized by the Indonesian government: Buddhism,
\nCatholicism, Hinduism, Islam or Protestantism.<\/p>\n
An Indonesian couple who adheres to two different faiths must
\neither get married under one religion -- at least on paper -- and
\ncontinue to practice their respective faiths, or go abroad to wed
\nand register their union with the appropriate local registry upon
\ntheir return.<\/p>\n
That a couple of different faiths can get married abroad and
\nregister their marriage locally only highlights the inefficiency
\nand impracticality of the regulation on interfaith marriage.<\/p>\n
The notorious Marital Law, however, is unlikely to be retained
\nin its current state, as an amendment is included as one among
\nseveral priority bills to be deliberated by the House of
\nRepresentatives soon.<\/p>\n
Lawmaker and women's rights activist Nursjahbani Katjasungkana
\nsaid the proposed amendment sought to mend the existing law on
\nmatrimony, which she decried as discriminatory.<\/p>\n
"The proposed amendment seeks to provide a clear-cut
\nfoundation for interfaith or intercultural marriages, or to
\ndetermine whether or not such unions are in need of regulation
\nfrom the government at all," Katjasungkana told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
She said the law required that all marriages be registered
\nwith the country's civil administration system, regardless of the
\na couple's religious or cultural backgrounds.<\/p>\n
Changing the law, however, was only part of the solution,
\nGandi chairman Wahyu Effendi said.<\/p>\n
"Amending the law is one thing, but changing the perspective
\nof government officials who implement the law is another. Even if
\nthe amended law gives the go-ahead for intercultural or
\ninterfaith marriages, change will come slowly, as the officials
\nare used to the old discriminatory practices," he told the Post.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/outdated-laws-hinder-marital-bliss-1447893297",
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