Non-discriminatory civil registration demanded

Non-discriminatory civil registration demanded

M. Taufiqurrahman
Jakarta

An activist with a non-governmental organization campaigning
against discrimination recently told a discussion that 126 poor
Chinese-Indonesian families in Tegal Alur, West Jakarta, could
not apply for birth certificates for their children as they could
not produce the required Indonesian Citizenship Certificates
(SBKRI).

She said the families were too poor to obtain the
certificates.

Also speaking in the discussion, an official with the Ministry
of Home Affairs said around 5,000 couples of different religions
had to go to Singapore to formalize their marriages as
Indonesia's civil registration regime does not recognize mixed
marriages.

These cases portray the adverse impacts of the flawed system
of civil registration, which, he claimed, was the legacy of the
Dutch colonial administration.

The civil registration system collects data concerning births,
deaths, marriages and divorces, and other aspects of the civil
status of individuals.

Currently, there are 15 laws and government regulations on
civil registration which date back to the colonial era, when
citizens were grouped according to religious belief, race and
other social categories.

"Law No. 1/1974 on marriage, for instance, only recognizes
five religions, and wedlock of those who don't adhere to these
religious beliefs are not entitled to be registered with the
civil registration office," the chairman of Anti-Discrimination
Struggle Movement (Gandi), Wahyu Effendi, said.

The discriminatory system is also aggravated by the absence of
a single institution that deals with civil registration.

Joko Moersito, deputy chairman of the Civil Registration
Consortium, an institution consisting of government
representatives and local and international NGOs involved in
drafting a bill on civil registration, said that currently there
were ministries concerned with the civil registration system.
They are the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Religious
Affairs, Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Justice and
Human Rights.

Indonesia is among 19 countries in the world with the lowest
coverage of birth registration. Only 40 percent of Indonesian
children aged under five are officially registered. The figures
are lower for registered marriages and divorces.

To reform the civil registration system, the consortium has
drawn up a bill on civil registration which will ensure that all
important statistics of citizens are recorded, regardless of
their backgrounds.

The consortium is now trying to persuade the House home
affairs commission to adopt the draft as a House initiative and
discuss it with the government during the next legislative
session.

The bill seeks to eradicate discriminatory practices as
stipulated in Article 11, which requires civil registration
officials to treat all citizens equally.

The draft defines marriage as "a union of a man and woman
under one God".

"Endorsement of the bill will move the country one step closer
to eradicating structural discrimination against its citizens,"
Wahyu said.

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said
recently that bureaucrats at the lower levels continued to ask
Chinese-Indonesians to produce SBKRI due to their lack of
knowledge of the law.

Yusril said the ministry had not intensively promoted the
government policy to the effect that Chinese-Indonesians were no
longer required to present the SBKRI to apply for an identity
card or passport.

"If they ask you, you have to tell them you don't need to
present an SBKRI as your grandfather already has it. Just show
them your birth certificate," he said.

He said the SBKRI was only required by foreign nationals who
wished to acquire Indonesian citizenship for the first time.