Gender bias

I am a white foreigner. I am married to an Indonesian. I am a Moslem. We are expecting a baby. I am utilizing a social visit visa so I can stay with my wife. I have purchased a home for my wife and child. We have bought an Indonesian-made automobile, and Indonesian-made furniture.

The balance of my entire cash reserves have been converted to rupiah and are invested in Indonesian state banks. We can easily live off the interest earnings from such investments, and we purchase Indonesian goods to assist Indonesian workers. My former country will pay me a pension in a few years that will give us further income, and which will be used to educate our child.

It seems, therefore, that I am an asset to Indonesia, and I wish to become an Indonesian citizen when legal time allows.

I am told that to remain here I must obtain a job or start a company, even though there is no need for me to work. I am also told that our new baby will not be classed as an Indonesian citizen because I am a foreigner.

Where can I find the answers to the following questions?

Why should I obtain work and so take the job that may be available to a willing Indonesian who needs the income? Why will our baby not be Indonesian although conceived and born here?

How can one become a good Indonesian citizen, by choice, not by birth, if one must leave here every few months to visit an Indonesian embassy in another country to get a new visa? Why should I have to pay airlines many hundreds of U.S. dollars to travel for such a visa when the money could be spent here assisting our own economy? Why doesn't the Indonesian government want such a person?

If I were a female married to an Indonesian male, there would be no such saga as I could automatically stay here.

Name and address

known to the editor