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)