17 foreigners naturalized

17 foreigners naturalized

JAKARTA (JP): The West Jakarta District Court naturalized
yesterday 17 foreigners who have lived here for a long time.

Led by Judge Andar Purba, the court's chief judge, the 17, all
of whom are of Chinese origin, pledged allegiance to Indonesia,
that they would respect the national constitution and law, and
were willing to defend the country. Most of the 17 are over 40.

The court initially planned to naturalize 25 people, but eight
of them failed to show up, according to Slamet, a court employee.
He said most of their families had lived in Indonesia for
generations.

In 1994 the government began offering foreigners residing here
the chance to be naturalized. Since last year the court has
naturalized about 7,100 foreigners, Slamet said.

One of the new citizens, Lai Kho Liong, 72, said he applied
for Indonesian citizenship in December.

"I arranged my papers at the police office, the Bureau of
Communications, the subdistrict office, the West Jakarta District
Court, and the immigration office," Lai said.

He said the procedure was smooth. "I had to pay only Rp 5,000
(US$2) at every office." (13)