Stateless and discriminated against in their country

Stateless and discriminated against in their country

Hendrawan is perhaps Indonesia's best-known sportsman. Olympic
Badminton silver medalist in Sydney 2000 and World Champion in
2001 he has stood tall on the podium, and proudly listened "his"
national anthem being played. Yet he only recently received his
citizenship certificate (SBKRI) after direct intervention by
President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

But Hendrawan is lucky. Antonius Budi Irianto, the men's
doubles bronze medalists at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics with Denny
Kantono, has been waiting for 12 years. Like him, an estimated
110,000 people are somehow still "stateless".

The problem of statelessness in Indonesian refers exclusively
to the Chinese minority, and due to turns and twists of
situations, it has now reached paradoxical depths, involving
several generations of people.

Its roots lay in the different criteria adopted by China and
Indonesia in granting citizenship. China grants it on the grounds
of blood, while Indonesia on the grounds of territory. After the
declaration of Independence many Chinese-Indonesians found
themselves with dual citizenship.

In 1960, the two countries agreed to solve the issue and the
Chinese-Indonesians were called to choose. And here is where the
problem started.

The choices were limited to Communist China and Indonesia.
Taiwan was not an option. Some Chinese-Indonesians left the
country, most opted for Indonesian citizenship while many others
declined to claim any. The reasons are varied: affiliation with
Taiwan, ignorance, negligence or even economic difficulties.

The result was a mass of people that had no legal status in
reference to citizenship.

But this is not all. Currently in Indonesia, from the time
their birth certificate is issued with a mandatory stamp,
denoting their ethnicity, Chinese-Indonesians are forced to prove
their citizenship in several circumstances.

In order to do so, the SBKRI certificate was devised.

Every Chinese upon reaching 17, is/was requested to apply for
one.

Here is the second paradox. To obtain a passport you need to
provide your father's SBKRI document and not your own. On this
basis, Hendrawan, whose father had opted for the Indonesian
citizenship, had no problems. But he never applied for the SBKRI
certificate himself. Recently, in order to obtain his daughter's
birth certificate he had to produce his citizenship certificate
and then...problems.

Farcically, we have reached a situation where we have a three-
layer "stateless" problem.

The first involves the original generation that failed to make
the choice.

The second involves the children of those who opted for the
Indonesian citizenship but failed to apply for the SBKRI at 17
(like Hendrawan).

The third involves these people's children who are requested
to produce their father's SBKRI (like Hendrawan's daughter).

What makes the situation even more ridiculous is that
presidential decree No. 52/1997 stipulates that the SBKRI is no
longer required. We are living in a situation where, while
legally the document is not necessary, in reality it is still
demanded by most government bureaucrats.

Chinese-Indonesians are still required to provide the document
when they apply for certain facilities such as banks loans,
police clearance and passports. Some universities still ask
students to provide it upon enrollment.

Corruption and discrimination still keep the SBKRI
artificially alive. Under-the-table "fees" are estimated to start
at around US$500, but are often far higher. Still - paying is not
a guarantee - Hendrawan's older brother applied over 20 years ago
and paying the "market" rate a few times over, has proven
insufficient.

Like most newly independent countries in Southeast Asia,
Indonesia, is faced with two problems: ethnicity and nation
building. Maintaining 62 discriminatory laws in its Constitution
is not a step in the right direction. Eliminating them would
solve several other problems at the source, including the plight
of the Chinese. Otherwise I doubt that the remaining 110,000 or
so pseudo-stateless will have the privilege of direct
presidential intervention and the concept of nationhood will
continue to be nothing but empty rhetoric. -- Fabio Scarpello