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