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)