Immigration rules and rulers
Expatriates of all social categories and origins cannot expect any improvements from Immigration officials after the speech delivered by their boss, Ihza Yusril Mahendra the other day. Even a Justice Minister under Soeharto such as Ismail Saleh (around 1990) was more open-minded.
Indonesians who have already traveled have witnessed the definition of the globalization era while walking the streets. People come from everywhere and are fully integrated. Of course, an influx of immigrants is not easy to manage. There is currently very heated debate on this issue in my country, Belgium.
It is rather shocking that the Justice Minister, who claims to be a democrat, is still warning that his country will not accept immigrants (without saying why) and will only accept foreigners bringing advantages (like under Soeharto, money is still number one, skills are not the main point here!), and who are not a threat to the country.
During eight years of residence in Indonesia (1992-2000), my two Eurasian children and I have had various types of visa, including tourist, social cultural, business, Kitas (temporary stay) and UN diplomatic visas. So I know what I am talking about! When the Soeharto era ended most civil servants were hoping for a simplification of the immigration procedures concerning the social visit visa, as well as for a substantial increase of their salaries such as the one proposed two months ago. So far, we all have seen no improvement at all.
When I was in Indonesia most people like me -- Westerners -- were bringing benefits to Indonesia and its people. Most of us were employing Indonesians, but were unable to get a work permit ourselves. We did not even dream about getting one.
However, I was harassed on a continuous basis over social visit visa procedures. My Sundanese wife in Belgium has a 5-year stay permit under the form of a resident identity card for foreigners. No hassle at all from our immigration divisions, because we are legally married! A legal marriage is adequate enough to get a stay permit allowing us to work and feed our families.
Many expatriates in Indonesia are self-employed and it is very complicated to arrange a work permit because the barriers and conditions to getting a Kitas legally are far too substantial. In my case, I do not see how I could do something that an Indonesian could not do.
The fact that only expatriate women married to Indonesian men can get a stay permit is discriminative and this has nothing to do with a so-called patrilinear system, which we also apply in Western cultures without having to discriminate against women from the immigration point of view.
YVAN MAGAIN
Tubize, Belgium