Chinese become Indonesian citizens

Chinese become Indonesian citizens

LAHAT, South Sumatra: A total of 91 people of Chinese descent have been naturalized and became Indonesian citizens recently, Antara reported yesterday.

The Chinese took their oaths in a ceremony on Wednesday.

"They can change their names to Indonesian names now," the chief of the Lahat District Court, R. Joedijono, said.

The group was among the 76,000 stateless people of Chinese descent who have applied for Indonesian citizenship since free naturalization services were introduced nationwide last December.

The service was introduced in line with a recently issued presidential decree on naturalization, which offers Indonesian citizenship to people of Chinese descent who lost their citizenship when Indonesia cut diplomatic ties with China in 1969.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs' records, there are currently about 208,000 stateless people of Chinese descent living in Indonesia.

People of Chinese descent used to have to pay between Rp 350,000 ($153) and Rp 1 million for naturalization. (swe)