Citizenship and graft

Citizenship and graft

Perhaps the most appalling incident of late, amid the national
crusade for a clean and democratic government, is the story of
yet another victim of the corrupt bureaucracy. This news came in
the wake of the authorities demonstration of a greater tolerance
toward Chinese-Indonesians. The Chinese are now allowed to
celebrate their New Year festival and it has been declared a
national holiday.

Since the casualty in this case was a badminton champion,
Hendrawan, a Chinese-Indonesian, the news has stunned people as
it emerged just as the champion was preparing to defend Indonesia
in the Thomas Cup in Guangzhou, China.

Hendrawan was unable to obtain an Indonesian Citizenship
Certificate (SBKRI) after trying unsuccessfully to penetrate the
jungle of illicit business within the bureaucracy. The 30-year-
old champion is not the only Chinese-Indonesian to have faced
this problem. One has to question oneself as to how this could
have happened when Indonesians of Chinese origin have lived in
this country for centuries, long before the Dutch colonial power
set foot in this archipelago in the 17th century. In Jakarta, the
Chinese have lived here since the present day downtown Jakarta
was still swamp land.

Hendrawan was only able to obtain the certificate after the
personal intervention of President Megawati Soekarnoputri. It
seems that history has repeated itself without anyone learning
the lesson. Twenty years ago, Ivana Lie, another noted badminton
champion, also faced the same senseless headache. Ivana's problem
ended after the personal intervention of president Soeharto.
Ivana and Hendrawan were able to solve their problem because they
are national figures. But who will help the lesser known Chinese-
Indonesians who have been in the same predicament for decades?

To get a citizenship certificate is not only a very complex
problem but since corruption is also involved it has become a
very complicated question. You have to beg at least 12
bureaucratic institutions before you can get your certificate.
You start with begging a signature from the head of your
neighborhood unit, later from the subdistrict office, the
district office, the municipality office, the governor's office,
the police substation, the police station, the city police
headquarters, the prosecutor's office, the district court, and
finally the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. In each of
these agencies you have to pay. The certificate is a must
otherwise you cannot process many other documents, including
passports, business licenses, credit applications and even
university enrollment.

Actually the authorities have stepped in to take the burden
off the people's shoulders but the result remains to be seen. For
example, in 1996, president Soeharto issued a decree stating that
a citizenship certificate was no longer necessary. The decree was
further strengthened by president B.J. Habibie's decree in 1998,
which instructs government agencies to provide the same service
to all citizens, without prejudice or discrimination. Even though
there was another instruction, issued in 1999 ordering all
government officials to follow up on his earlier instruction and
barring government agencies and officials from discriminating
against Indonesians based on their ethnic background, the
officials always find a way to defy orders. This time they said
the decree lacked the technical instructions to implement it.

Corrupt officials have emerged as victors because the
authorities have been reluctant to probe further into the case.
Lack of supervision is an ugly disease in our bureaucracy. And,
as in other agencies that provide public services, corrupt
officials are free to blackmail the people. In this case the
Chinese-Indonesians have no recourse other than to do what the
corrupt officials say. In most cases the officials are not acting
out of ethnic sentiments, much less morality. Their victims are
people of any group or color.