Citizenship bill maintains institutionalized racism

Citizenship bill maintains institutionalized racism

Moch. N. Kurniawan and Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Demands for the elimination of institutionalized discrimination
against Chinese-Indonesians have fallen on deaf ears as both the
government and House have moved to reinforce existing
discriminatory laws.

In the citizenship bill that is about to be deliberated in the
House, the government makes no attempt to reverse regulations
requiring Chinese-Indonesians to obtain the controversial
Republic of Indonesia Citizenship Certificate (SBKRI), long seen
as a blatant piece of discrimination against Indonesians of
ethnic Chinese origin.

Article 39 of the bill, which was submitted to the House in
2000, stipulates that every one is required to prove their
Indonesian citizenship, and those who have citizenship may apply
to the justice minister or official to obtain it.

Chinese-Indonesians, who account for over three percent of the
country's population of 215 million, are still required to have
an SBKRI as stipulated in the Citizenship Law No. 62/1958. Many
had hoped that the new citizenship bill would scrap this
requirement.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who declared the Lunar New
Year, or Imlek, a national holiday, is scheduled to attend the
national celebration for the Chinese New Year on Thursday.

It is still unclear, however, if she will revoke some of the
over 60 laws that discriminate against Indonesians of Chinese
ethnicity.

Megawati had reportedly asked Minister of Justice and Human
Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra to revoke the SBKRI ruling, but the
later declined saying that this would go against the 1958
citizenship law.

Yusril was referring to the closing article IV of the 1958
citizenship law and Presidential Decree No 52/1977 on demographic
affairs.

Chinese-Indonesians are the most affected by the SBKRI
requirement, and frequently complain that institutions like the
immigration office and state universities still require them to
present an SBKRI if they want to get a passport or enroll.

The government has actually scrapped all laws and regulations
on the SBKRI requirement through Presidential Decree No. 56/1996
on the SBKRI, but many institutions have been reluctant to
implement it.

The bill also regulates the citizenship of children born out
of both legitimate and illicit relationships.

Article 2 (e) stipulates that a child born in Indonesia from a
lawful marriage between an Indonesian mother and stateless father
will be recognized as an Indonesian citizen.

A child born here from a lawful marriage between an Indonesian
mother and foreign father will also be declared Indonesian.

Compared to the existing laws, the bill provides greater
protection for Indonesian women who get married to foreign
citizens.

Meanwhile, a member of the National Commission on Human
Rights, Saafroedin Bahar, said on Wednesday that with enough
commitment, legislators should have no problem deliberating the
citizenship bill.

"When we submitted the bill to the House, there was already a
broad understanding among legislators to end discrimination,"
said Saafroedin, explaining that the government had asked the
commission along with several non-government organizations to
help draft the bill.

But he doubted that legislators would start debating the bill
anytime soon. The House has yet to start or finalize the
deliberation on a a number of bills that the government submitted
last year or even earlier.

University of Indonesia constitutional law expert Jimly
Asshiddiqie agreed that the government had little choice but to
wait for the legislators to start working.

He advised against bypassing the present citizenship law with
an ad-hoc government regulation, fearing that this would create
damaging loopholes in the regulation without a law to back it up.

But he suggested that the government launch an anti-
discrimination campaign to support the implementation of the new
citizenship law.