Citizenship bill 'will protect RI women'

Citizenship bill 'will protect RI women'

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Some people may think that lady luck smiles on Indonesian women
who are married to foreigners, Caucasians in particular, who will
provide their wives with financial security.

Foreigners are usually perceived to be rich as they are paid
in U.S. dollars instead of rupiah, which has devaluated many
times over in the past three decades.

But Indonesian Nuning Hallet reveals that the opposite is
often the case despite her marriage to an American man.

"The economic burden is very heavy. Sometimes, it has placed
psychological burdens on me," she told a seminar on Saturday.

The seminar, titled "Dignified Legal Relations for Couples in
Mixed Marriages", was held by the Alida Center which provides
advocacy for couples in mixed marriages.

Citing an example, Nuning said an Indonesian woman she knew
was recently forced to divorce her foreign husband due to
financial difficulties. Another couple have been forced to leave
Indonesia due to the same reason, she said.

Nuning underlined the problem did not lie in financial
security for women, saying the country had issued a series of
regulations that necessitates that a family spends a lot of money
in order to live here.

Therefore, she opposed the Supreme Court's plan to require
foreign men to deposit Rp 500 million (about US$50,000) before
marrying an Indonesian citizen.

The court was following the example of Egypt, which requires
foreigners who plan to marry Egyptian women to pay 25,000
Egyptian pounds (about US$4,300) into the Nasser Bank as
collateral.

Nuning said the main problem in the prevailing law was
discriminatory rulings against Indonesian women.

Ratna Batara Munti, the chairwoman of the Women's Legal Aid
Foundation (LBH APIK), concurred. Ratna said the Supreme Court
confirmed accusations that women were treated as second class
citizens, despite the Constitution which guarantees gender
equality and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Woman, which the country has adopted.

"The citizenship bill maintains the discriminatory articles,
including an article which says that Indonesian women may lose
Indonesian citizenship if they marry foreigners," Ratna said.

Legislator Slamet Effendy Yusuf, who heads the special
committee deliberating the citizenship bill, said the draft law
improved protection for Indonesian women.

"We have not created the difficulties. It's because of the
difference in legal systems. You cannot just think about love as
marriage is also related to laws. One must understand Indonesia's
laws as well as those of other countries," he said.

Slamet said the draft law did not contain the Supreme Court's
advice.

"There is no such a stipulation in this bill, but we may
consider it as it may be beneficial to protect poor Indonesian
women who are married to foreigners," he said, referring to
problem of contractual marriages in Singkawang, West Kalimantan.