Citizenship rules need revision

The House of Representatives is now working on the revision of the Citizenship Law (No. 62/1958), which has caused many difficulties for couples of different nationalities. This week's cover story highlights the problems caused by the legislation and underlines the need for its revision.

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

At a glance, Sue's marriage may seem like one made in Hollywood as it involved short courtship (five months) and was followed by separation three years later.

The difference for the 36-year-old British woman was that instead of a million dollars in alimony and custody of her children, she had to leave this country and "kidnap" her two sons from her Indonesian husband.

All because of the Citizenship Law (No. 62/1958), which does not allow dual citizenship.

The law stipulates that children automatically take the father's citizenship, the wife cannot claim custody of the children after a divorce because of her different nationality, and must be sponsored by her husband should she wish to live in Indonesia, as well as obtain sponsorship from her employer should she want to work.

On the other hand, like in Sue's case, an Indonesian husband can easily revoke his sponsorship of his wife and force her out of the country, leaving her children behind.

"During four years of sporadic physical abuse by my husband, I tried to leave him on many occasions. But he told me that if I left him, I would never be allowed to keep the children as they were Indonesian," Sue, who asked The Jakarta Post not to reveal her last name, said by e-mail.

This was despite the fact that she had supported the family, and his, from the time of their marriage in 1993 -- a year after she first came to Jakarta -- until they were separated three years later.

Unexplained serious bruising on her son's face after a visit to his father, and the kidnapping of the children with an ensuing police chase through South Jakarta, put an end to any pretense of an amicable civil separation.

"I was terrified to divorce a violent husband who neglected the children and provided nothing for our family."

Finally, friends came to her rescue, got her a good lawyer and ensured she got a divorce and custody of the children in 1998.

However, the school she managed was destroyed in the May 1998 riots, leaving her without a job, and thus no sponsor, and she had to leave the country.

"But my children had been born and raised there. I loved Jakarta. My friends in Jakarta had become my family. Indonesia was very much where my children and I belonged even if my marriage was over," she said.

Sue had tried to become an Indonesian citizen, but it was denied as she was no longer married.

After going through difficult times, including getting arrested by immigration officers, living on a small contribution from family and friends, and facing "some people in positions of power who exploit the weaknesses in the law", she finally moved back to London with her children in mid-2004.

"My children are still Indonesian and proud to be so. However, we are facing the reality that within the next year, they will have to become British as Indonesian law will not allow them to have dual nationality.

"My youngest son in particular has cried when told that he must change his nationality because I have always taught them to be proud of their Indonesian birth," Sue said.

Despite the implications for women, Sue said that the implications for men and their children are serious too as incidences of abduction by the Indonesian mother are also frequent.

"I know of three other women who left Indonesia secretly, sometimes forging documents to get away, because they were so scared that in a divorce/separation they would not be able to keep their children.

"Indonesian mothers disappear in Java and foreign mothers get their children out to Singapore and then onwards to other countries, sometimes with little more than the clothes they stand up in. And this is not an exaggeration. If the women had equal rights over their children, or a right of abode after a divorce, they would not take the children so far away. In the end, despite my ex-husband's own faults, he has lost contact with his children because of my fear of losing my children."

With the House of Representatives working to revise the law, Sue said she hoped that the amended legislation would provide assurances for everyone in mixed nationality families that they are legally part of Indonesian society and have a right to live and work for the benefit of their families and society.

"I also hope for the recognition of a tenet of other Indonesian legislation, which I believe reads that men and women have equal legal rights in Indonesia."