Stateless Chinese take advantage of amnesty
Stateless Chinese take advantage of amnesty
JAKARTA (JP): Almost 1,000 stateless Chinese in three West
Jakarta's districts have applied for citizenship since the start
of an amnesty aimed at settling the status of residents who are
without documentation.
The drive, which started a week ago, focuses specifically on
the Chinese population who are without any formal citizenship.
Current estimates put their number in the city at well over
25,000.
In Tamansari district, for example, some 500 of an estimated
5,000 stateless Chinese have registered for the citizenship
documents as of yesterday.
In Tambora, where an estimated 5,500 Chinese are living
without papers, 380 have already applied for citizenship at the
district office.
In Grogol Petamburan, where there are believed to be nearly
1,000 unregistered, about 100 have applied for their papers.
Officials in the three district offices said yesterday they
expected to see more Chinese applying in the upcoming weeks. The
documentation amnesty will remain open until October.
Eddy Sukirman, head of West Jakarta Social and Politic Affairs
office, said last week that of the recorded 27,500 in the city
who do not have citizenship, almost half of them live in the
mayoralty of West Jakarta.
After being registered, each person who qualifies can apply
for Indonesian citizenship, while the rest will be given
documents to confirm their foreign citizenship.
However, naturalization is still a long way off once the
application for citizenship is approved. To be naturalized, each
person has to obtain more than a dozen documents, including a
birth certificate, a document certifying loyalty to the nation
and good conduct papers.
Several Chinese without documentation in the Tamansari and
Grogol Petamburan districts were interviewed by The Jakarta Post.
They said they had wanted to apply for citizenship for a long
time. However, they said that they were unable to do so because,
in the past, they would have had to pay more than Rp 1 million
just to apply for citizenship.
T.M. Pardede, head of the assimilation agency at the
Directorate General of Social and Politic Affairs of the Ministry
of Home Affairs, said last week that registration was free of
charge.
Pardede asked the stateless Chinese who have already
registered to tell two friends each about the registration.
The ongoing registration covers all stateless Chinese,
including those who have lived here for one generation but have
not yet been naturalized, as well as those classified as "post -
PP 10/1959."
The PP 10/1959 is a government regulation issued in 1959,
requiring all ethnic Chinese to choose either Chinese or
Indonesian citizenship.
The people of Chinese descent who are considered stateless are
those who do not have either Chinese or Indonesian citizenship.
The suspension of diplomatic ties between the People's Republic
of China and Indonesia, in the wake of the 1965 aborted communist
coup, made it impossible for Chinese residents to apply for
Chinese citizenship. However, ties with China were restored in
1990. (11)