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.