'Stateless' Chinese dream of basic rights

'Stateless' Chinese dream of basic rights

Emmy Fitri and Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Residents of Kampung Pulo in Citeureup, Bogor, and Tegal Alur in
Cengkareng, West Jakarta, are not immune from the mass hysteria
over Taiwan's TV series Meteor Garden.

Some children and teenagers can be seen walking around wearing
T-shirts sporting the picture of the four stars from the series.
On the walls of their rooms, or even in their living rooms, are
large posters of F4, Meteor Garden's stars, who are also Taiwan's
top boy band.

In a corner of the neighborhood, several housewives are caught
up in a discussion over the plot of Meteor Garden and other soaps
starring the boy band, which are all aired by the local TV
stations.

As Asian TV dramas -- not only those from Taiwan but also from
South Korea -- begin to flood the country, evidence of the new
frenzy can also be spotted in Tegal Alur and Kampung Pulo,
particularly as both places have a lot of residents of Chinese
descent.

However, the glamor life of the rich kids portrayed in the
series does not even come close to the residents of either
subdistrict, whose population of Chinese-Indonesians reaches 550
respectively.

Living in small houses, they are far off from the stereotype
that Chinese-Indonesians are well-off, as most residents earn
below or slightly above the regional monthly minimum wage (UMR).
Most work at nearby factories.

Being categorized in the lower income bracket of the economy,
however, is not their only problem.

As with many Chinese-Indonesians, they also face
discrimination. Worse still, because of their roots, they have
difficulty in obtaining legal documents, such as their
citizenship certificate and identification card, which makes them
practically "stateless".

Their history is a bit complicated as it goes back as far as
1958, when the People's Republic of China claimed that every
Chinese person in the world was a Chinese citizen.

The Indonesian government gave those of Chinese descent the
option of choosing their citizenship. Unfortunately, not all of
them were well informed about it. Chinese ships, which were
supposed to carry back those who opted for Chinese citizenship,
came only once, leaving many others without citizenship.

The situation became worse with the tense relationship between
China and Indonesia around 1965.

Afterwards, the government issued many regulations related to
citizenship, which discriminated against the Chinese.

It resulted in creating difficulties for those of Chinese
descent who wanted to obtain legal documents.

For the wealthy Chinese, the problems could be overcome by
bribing the officials, but not for those with a lower income,
such as the residents of Tegal Alur and Kampung Pulo.

To start with, although they were born in this country and
have been here for several generations, many do not have birth
certificates.

"We also have difficulty in obtaining ID cards. Without an ID
card, we can't get married. That's why many of us don't have
marriage certificates, because we just throw small parties for
our families and relatives. That's it. It's not legalized or
anything, but it's common here," Tjan E. Lie of Tegal Alur said
lightly.

As a consequence, many children in both places are not
recognized by the state. The children have birth certificates,
but there is a note saying that he or she is "anak luar nikah" or
a child born out of wedlock, and they are their mothers'
children.

"My children understand that they are registered as children
born out of wedlock. But what can we do? It's because I don't
have an ID card or a marriage certificate," Tjan said.

She said it was possible to obtain an ID card if they paid
about Rp 25,000. But they would still have to enclose their
Republic of Indonesia Citizenship Certificate (SBKRI).

A citizenship certificate is needed to process many other
documents, including passports, business licenses, credit
applications and even university applications.

The process is endless as the citizenship certificate is also
difficult to obtain.

Top Indonesian shuttler Hendrawan, for example, only got his
earlier this year after President Megawati Soekarnoputri stepped
in to help.

Data shows there are no less than 12 bureaucratic institutions
involved in the process of issuing a citizenship certificate
before it can be signed by the president.

The institutions are the community unit (RT), the neighborhood
unit (RW), the subdistrict office, the district office, the
mayoralty office, the gubernatorial office, the police
subprecinct, the police station, the city police headquarters,
the prosecutor's office, the district court and finally the
Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.

With all the bureaucracy, Tjan and her husband Tju Lu Lian and
many of their neighbors simply gave up in the end.

"We are worried that we will get arrested if we are caught in
a police raid for ID cards," Tju said.

Another problem arises when they want to get a divorce as
their marriage is not even recognized.

In Kampung Pulo, meanwhile, things are a bit more complex as
the majority of people are believers of Khonghucu. So far, the
state does not recognize Khonghucu as one of the five existing
religions officially listed here: Islam, Catholicism,
Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Therefore, marriages between believers of Khonghucu are
considered illegal, and thus, couples of this faith will not
receive marriage certificates unless they convert to one of the
religions recognized by the government.

"Many of us have refused to do so because that means we're
being a hypocrite," said Tan Im Yang, 55, a prominent figure in
Kampung Pulo.

Just like the children in Tegal Alur, many children in Kampung
Pulo are then declared as being born out of wedlock.

"I don't understand. We've been here for many generations and
you can see that we don't even look so Chinese anymore. Yet, we
cannot have simple basic civil rights like owning ID cards. And
then they don't recognize our religion.

"It's ridiculous. They (the state) give us the freedom to
conduct our religion, but they don't recognize it as being
legal," Tan said.

Tan's daughter, Lois Taneri, 17, said she was often ridiculed
at school.

"My friends mocked me, asking 'Is there such thing as the
Khonghucu religion?' At school, I have to take a Catholicism
class. The school administration also stated on my student card
that I'm a Buddhist. I then erased it and changed it myself,"
said Lois, who has just graduated from the nearby Budi Mulya
senior high school.

Lois does not really pay any attention to what her peers say,
especially since she has graduated, although many other young
believers of Khonghucu do.

Tan Im Yang said that many young people were embarrassed about
their religion.

"I'm afraid that this will lead to a decline in the number of
believers, which has already happened. I don't see why our
religion is not considered to be a valid one. We believe in one
God, we don't believe in superstition. It's a very realistic
religion, so I don't see any reason why I should convert," he
said.

In 1971, he said, the Khonghucu congress was recognized by
then president Soeharto, who turned up for the event.

"I asked the government officials about it. They can't argue
but they don't seem to be doing anything about it either," Tan
said.

As for Tjan and Tju, they still do not have ID cards even
though they have converted to Christianity.

Tju said that his neighbor, a fellow Chinese, got a card very
easily just because they pretended to be Muslim.

"Local officials processed the proposal very quickly and they
never got any hassles for doing that even though they are very
much Buddhists until today," he said.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as Solidaritas
Nusa Bangsa (SNB), have been working hard on this matter, but to
no avail.

"People in Tegal Alur don't have rights, but when it comes to
the general election, for example, their votes are used by
political parties," said Candra M. from SNB.

A team at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights is actually
working on another draft of the Citizenship Law.

An official from the team, who asked not to be named, said
there would be no more discrimination in the drafted law.

"With the law, we don't have to state our religion or our
descent on an ID card or other legal document," he said.

He said, however, that discrimination still prevailed,
especially at the lower government level.

"Honestly, if I needed an ID card quickly, I would also resort
to nembak (bribing an official). It's not a matter of the law,
but the matter of knowing the law," he added.

In that case, it may seem that the people of Tegal Alur and
Kampung Pulo need to wait longer until they can have their
rights, the most basic rights that they are entitled to.

Recent history of Chinese-Indonesians

* 1955: Indonesia and China sign an agreement on dual
citizenship, which allows Chinese people living in the country to
hold both Indonesian and Chinese citizenship.

* 1958: Indonesia approves the citizenship law, which stipulates
naturalization.

* 1959: Indonesia and China agree to a repatriation process for
140,000 ethnic Chinese.

* 1965: An aborted coup, blamed on the Indonesian Communist
Party, takes place. Jakarta accuses China of involvement, which
China denies.

* 1967: Diplomatic ties with China are frozen, bring an abrupt
halt to repatriations. About 100,000 people become stranded here
and are deemed stateless.

* 1969: Indonesia decides not to honor the dual citizenship
agreement. A Chinese person whose parents hold China citizenship
can only obtain Indonesia citizenship through naturalization,
which can only be proven proved by the issuance of an SBKRI.

* 1990: Indonesia resumes ties with China.

* 1992: Beijing says it will issue passports in January 1993 for
stateless Chinese here, whose number now reaches more than
240,000.

* 1996: Soeharto issues a decree on the annulment of the SBKRI
requirement. Chinese-Indonesians may instead use their ID cards,
birth certificates and kartu keluarga (family cards) for
education and business purposes.

* 1998: Habibie issues a decree ordering government officials to
treat all Indonesians the same.

* 1999: Habibie issues a decree banning discrimination against
Indonesians based on origin.