Un-happily ever after
Un-happily ever after
There are many forms of discrimination. Some inherent due to
ignorance, others proliferated by economic envy. Then there are
those resulting from sheer bigotry.
Perhaps the worst kind of prejudice is one that is propagated
by the state, and mandated through unjust laws that perpetuate
the legitimization of wrongful biases.
Indonesia's archaic Citizenship Law is one flagrant example of
how a prejudicial mind set is preserved by condoning preferential
treatment of one citizen over the other.
Law No. 6/1958 stipulates that an Indonesia woman who marries
a foreigner cannot sponsor stay permits for her spouse or their
children. Neither can she automatically claim citizenship for her
children from that marriage, since they are, by these laws,
required to only adopt the citizenship of their non-Indonesian
father.
At the heart of these principles is a chauvinistic bias, which
refuses to accord women the same rights as an Indonesian man who
marries a non-Indonesian woman.
This is just one example of the many debilitating laws that
propagate sexism and prejudice in this country.
When confronted, most everyone agrees about the need for
change. But in practice, there is a clear lack of political will
to make the necessary amendments.
Issues relating to citizenship as a result of marriage are
just the tip of the iceberg. The right of citizenship for 'non-
indigenous' Indonesians (e.g. Chinese-Indonesians) often remain
complicated despite presidents making declarations and issuing
decrees prohibiting discriminatory treatment.
The bureaucracy seems to delight in complicating
administrative procedures. Reports suggest that permits from
about a dozen institutions -- the community unit (RT), the
neighborhood unit (RW), the subdistrict office, the district
office, the municipality office, the gubernatorial office, the
subdistrict police, the district police, the city/provincial
police, the prosecutor's office, the district court and finally
the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights -- are involved in the
process of issuing a citizenship certificate before it can be
signed by the president.
Eventually these "procedures" appear to be nothing more than
an extortion scam for bureaucrats to exact money.
Under the guise of security, the spirit of these regulations
treat those who want citizenship as "potential traitors" rather
than those who desire to dedicate their life to living in this
country.
We understand that regulations are necessary, and conditions
are required. But we cannot accept laws that are based on gender
bias and simply are in place to line the pockets of immigration
officers.
An Indonesian woman must be equal in rights and privileges as
those of a man. That privilege should also be extended, based on
rational considerations, especially to her children who have a
right to seek Indonesian citizenship.
Several of the laws relating to this issue were drafted in an
era of xenophobia fueled by cold war rivalries. In this ever-
shrinking world, mixed marriages will become more common. Hence
the spirit of these regulations should be one of facilitation,
not complication; inclusion, not exclusion.
We should modernize our narrow perceptions of an Indonesia
beyond fatuous notions of skin color or blood lines. If a person
from Sumatra can acclimatize and be accepted into the subtleties
of Yogyakarta (Javanese) culture, for example, so too can a
foreign resident, who is married to an Indonesian, become a good
Indonesian.
It is ironic that while the greatest emotion God gave his
people -- love -- can unite couples from different races,
religions and nations, there are still people here who seek to
tear them apart using narrow-mindedness and legal semantics.