Indonesia to amend discriminative law on citizenship

Indonesia to amend discriminative law on citizenship

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is considering an amendment to Law No. 62/1958 on
citizenship that will scrap all regulations that discriminate
against Chinese-Indonesian.

Spokesman for the Directorate General of Immigration, Ade
Endang Dachlan, said on Thursday there were some articles in the
existing law that required Chinese-Indonesians to produce an
Indonesian Citizenship Certificate (SBKRI) when applying for
immigration documents if there were doubts about their
citizenship.

"The requirement was adopted because at the time, there were
many (stateless) migrants living in Indonesia. The rules applied
not only to Chinese-Indonesians but also to Indian-Indonesians
and Arab-Indonesians too," Ade told The Jakarta Post.

He said the regulations were no longer relevant because most
ethnic Chinese-Indonesians were born here and possessed birth
certificates as Indonesian citizens.

"To ensure an end to the discriminatory policy, the law needs
amending," he said. The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights had
begun efforts to revoke articles on SBKRI, Ade said.

Chinese-Indonesians have long complained about the
discriminatory ruling stipulated in the obsolete law.
Discrimination has kept those of Chinese descent from working in
the bureaucracy, the military, police or political institutions.

Former president Soeharto also banned the performance of
Chinese culture and prohibited the use of Chinese writing,
isolating Chinese-Indonesians to the business sector.

It was also Soeharto who issued Presidential Decree No.
56/1996, scrapping many regulations that justified the use of the
SBKRI.

But because the law on citizenship remains intact, in practice
the discriminatory policy is still in effect. Indonesia's first
Olympic gold medalists Alan Budikusuma and Susi Susanti are the
latest to complain about the SBKRI, saying immigration officials
asked them for their SBKRIs when they were renewing their
passports.

Deputy cabinet secretary Erman Radjagukguk said a presidential
decree could not annul the citizenship law.

"We will look into how to amend the citizenship law," Erman
told the Post.

Ade denied reports immigration offices had asked for the
presentation of SBKRIs. Since 2002 the office had circulated a
letter announcing the certificate was no longer needed to obtain
or renew immigration documents, he said.

"Those who hold identification cards, birth certificates and
other official documents that prove their Indonesian citizenship
do not need to present an SBKRI."

"Should they experience otherwise, they should file a report
to the immigration head office. I promise we will take action
against those errant officials," Ade said.

He also called on the Chinese-Indonesians not to use middlemen
or a service bureaus when traveling.

"Sometimes immigration officials make deals with these
middlemen so they can ask for more money. Please try to go to the
immigration office by yourselves to ensure no one will try to
extort money from you," Ade said.