Jakarta to register stateless Chinese
JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta municipal administration is going to register all stateless Chinese living in the city starting from May 6, in order to get accurate data on the group and to settle the issue of their status once and for all.
"Thus far there has never been an efficient, comprehensive registration of the group. Each agency in the city administration has its own records, which conflict with each other. That's why the registration is being done," Idrus, the deputy governor in charge of administration affairs, announced yesterday.
Nurhadi Djudi, director of the Office for Developing National Unity at the Ministry of Home Affairs, who was also at the press conference, said the registration is in adherence to the memorandum of understanding signed by Indonesia and the People's Republic of China in 1992. The memorandum concerned the ethnic Chinese living in Indonesia without clear citizenship status.
"There are many Chinese here who are registered as stateless residents. They are not recorded as Indonesians because they haven't been naturalized yet. Moreover, they have no passport to prove that they hold Chinese citizenship," Nurhadi said.
According to the records at the Jakarta Population Affairs Office, around 27,590 stateless people of Chinese descent live in the capital.
"I believe the actual number is much higher than the figure we have recorded," Idrus said.
Idrus said the stateless Chinese to be registered are those who have lived here for one generation but have not yet been naturalized, as well as illegal immigrants.
Chinese residents classified as "ex-PP 10/1959" also will be asked to register. The PP 10/1959 is governmental regulation No. 10 of 1959 concerning the obligation of all ethnic Chinese in Indonesia to choose either Chinese or Indonesian citizenship.
The term "ex-PP 10/1959" was coined to refer to those who opted for Chinese citizenship but remained in the archipelago into the mid 1960s. The Indonesian government faced difficulty sending them back to China following the break in diplomatic ties between the two countries after the abortive communist-led coup in 1965.
Naturalization
Idrus said the upcoming registration was based on a 1993 instruction from the Ministry of Home Affairs, which applied nationwide, except in East Timor, where all residents automatically became Indonesian citizens in 1976.
Nine provinces nationwide, North Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Java, Central Java, East Java, East Kalimantan and South Sulawesi, have carried out similar registration drives.
In Jakarta, the provincial secretary, Harun Al Rasyid, serves as chairman of the registration team.
"Everyone wanting to register should come in person," Idrus said. The registration will be done at district offices.
After being registered each person, who qualifies, can apply for Indonesian citizenship, while the rest will be given documents to announce their foreign citizenship.
For naturalization, each person has to have more than a dozen documents, including a birth certificate, a document certifying loyalty to the nation and good conduct papers, which may cost each individual a total of Rp 647,000 (US$302.30). (jsk)