Cases of extortion and discrimination

Cases of extortion and discrimination

From Republika

Every year when the Idul Fitri festival approaches, many Indonesian blue-collar workers and craftsmen employed overseas (TKI) come back home. So they did last year. They hoped to be able to meet their families and share experiences as well as gifts and money with them. However, what happened to them last year was something beyond words. On arrival at the Soekarno-Hatta airport, they experienced terror and discrimination by certain officers, who are, in fact, fellow Indonesians.

As soon as they arrived they had to face certain customs officers who made special desks available to examine them individually. There was collusion between these officers and certain porters who demanded that they push the TKIs' trolleys. As soon as the TKIs were outside the terminal, they again had to face illegal scalpers who in turn would force them to get into the cars which they had made "available" for the TKIs earlier.

I would personally like to appeal to certain officers on duty at the airport to listen to their clear conscience, if any. What they have been doing has no doubt set a bad precedent amongst "unofficial extorters" as what they have done is to extort their own fellow countrymen.

Similarly, Chinese Indonesians have been discriminated against in terms of arrangements for their passports: unlike Indonesian citizens at large, each of them has to produce their own documents, for example like a change of name certificate, as well as others whenever they apply for a passport of this republic. This shows that the promise made by the governments under Soeharto, Habibie and now Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid saying that there will be no more discrimination in the field of administration of immigration matters has not been fully realized. They still have to pay invisible costs of Rp 400,000 (for Bogor Regency) to Rp 1,500,000 (for Jakarta residents) if they want everything arranged smoothly. I wonder why other Indonesians of Arabic origin have never been discriminated against in this way. They must have been very lucky!

SUSANTO

Cibinong, West Java