Discriminative immigration laws

Discriminative immigration laws

Sometime ago, my wife Elis Suminar asked the Ministry of
Justice why there was gender discrimination in immigration laws
and why it was so difficult for Indonesian legislators to start a
national debate recognizing the benefits of dual nationality. Mr.
A. Ghani of the Directorate General of Immigration informed us
that immigration laws followed Indonesian marriage laws, which
were patriarchal.

This is pure nonsense. Why? Western marriage laws also follow
the same pattern since children automatically take the family
name of their fathers. However, Western immigration laws grant a
stay permit to all foreigners married to Westerners. After five
years in Belgium, these foreigners can even become Belgian
citizens without losing their citizenship in their home country.
Of course, this is only possible between two countries accepting
the principle of dual nationality.

Mr. Ghani also contradicts his own government, because
Indonesia signed the United Nations antidiscrimination charter a
few months ago. Is he aware of this? Moreover, no immigration
officers would dare to come up with such a justification in a
face-to-face meeting, and certainly not if they were good Muslims
or Christians (any religion is against discrimination, as
Abdurrahman Wahid often insists). The truth is that most civil
servants are embarrassed by these unfair laws they have to apply.
At the end of our contracts, they know that Western men often
stay here at the requests of their Indonesian wives.

Now, the Directorate General of Immigration and the
legislators, under the urging of President Habibie, have
increased our immigration fees by fourfold. The members of the
national commission who worked on these new fees have a stunning
sense of social justice and fairness. Paradoxically, in his
national speech on Aug. 17, President Habibie said he wanted to
"eliminate all forms of gender bias in laws". To say it is one
thing, to do it is another thing. It is our hope that civil
servants' salaries will also be increased by fourfold, unless raw
material is more important than human resources in this country.

As a result, my family of four, including three Belgians, is
so fed up with the constant harassment, costs and discriminative
rules, we have no choice but return to Belgium next year. This
will cost my wife and two kids, who hold KITAS, Rp 3,000,000 in
airport tax.

People taxed by any administration in this world should have a
tax number, and no child in any country is supposed to be taxed.

Indonesia is a smiling and welcoming country. Its immigration
officers and laws should reflect this spirit. Respect all
foreigners married to Indonesian citizens by allowing them to
have a stay permit, and give the kids (at the least) access to
dual nationality. In this era of openness and globalization that
everybody is praising during national seminars and workshops,
this would seem the only step to take for everybody who has a
good heart.

YVAN MAGAIN

Bandung