Cost of divorce hits estranged couples

BOGOR (JP): Just like marriage itself, getting through the official procedure to end a union requires shelling out big bucks, or so say residents of Bogor.

According to a father who helped his daughter process her divorce lawsuit, he even had to bribe officials at the Bogor Religious Affairs District Court in an attempt to get the case settled immediately.

"I've already spent Rp 500,000 (US$68) on the first two trials. By doing so, the hearings could be carried out more smoothly, once a week," Suwardi, 67, told The Jakarta Post at the court on Thursday.

Otherwise, he added, "the sessions would be only once a month. There are several cases here that have not been solved in a year."

The size of the outlay, which is significant for a police officer pensioner like Suwardi, however was not enough to enable his daughter to live separately from her husband.

"I'll have to pay more for the divorce certificate later," Suwardi grumbled.

He had no idea about how much money he would spend later. But the total amount could be used to host a decent wedding ceremony.

Suwardi insisted that he could do nothing to stop the malpractice at the Religious Affairs District Court.

"Such illegal practice cannot be proved because no bills are required when the officials asked for the fees (bribe)," he added.

Suwardi said that he also could not refuse the officials' demands, saying that such illegal practices also occurred at many other courts and other civil and military institutions all over the country.

When asked to comment on the practices, court secretary Muhtar Saleh that the court only charged a plaintiff based on the distance of the plaintiff's residence from the court.

The further the plaintiff's address from the court, the higher the cost, which ranges between Rp 76,500 and Rp 106,500, Muhtar said.

"The fee is used to summon the defendant. We have no budget to summon defendants," he explained.

He said the plaintiff would be asked to pay more if the divorce trial needed more than three hearings.

For Suwardi, and probably many relatives of local couples whose marriage are already on the rocks, the bad attitude of the Bogor religious court's employees could not be changed even by the massive waves being created by the students' reform movement.

"The reform movement has only thus far been able to replace former president Soeharto and his ministers.

But lower officials are still here," he said, pointing to the court. (24/jun)