Unwanted visitors
Unwanted visitors
The male foreigner married to an Indonesian who authored
Gender bias ("Your Letters," Saturday, Jan. 17) has understated
the problem.
There are many financially independent foreign men married to
Indonesians who only want to live, not work, here. The only way
we can do this to enter and live in Indonesia on a Visit Visa,
renewable monthly -- for Rp 60,000, three visits to Immigration
each month -- for a total of six months. Within 24 hours of
arriving in Indonesia and after each month's visa extension, we
are required to register with the police.
If not, our wives get a very hefty fine for not reporting us.
After three months we were required to make a special
"registration" with immigration. This is not automatic. You have
to ask for it to be done. You find out about all these procedures
by making mistakes and paying heavy fines. The authorities do not
tell you what you have to do next.
After five months, we have to leave the country to get a new
Visit Visa. This usually means flying to boring (I have done it
so often) Singapore as it is the closest foreign country. As a
matter of principle, I refuse to give Indonesian-based airlines
my money and I use foreign airlines. It is my way of hitting
back.
It takes three days to get a new Visit Visa. Once, in Addis
Ababa I got my visa in 20 minutes along with a cup of tea. Each
six-month visa trip costs me about US$600 for flights and hotel
expenses.
Because we are visitors to Indonesia, we are not allowed to
own a house, car or motorbike, nor do we have access to
Indonesian civil courts. Our children are compelled to take their
father's nationality. I have heard heart-wrenching stories of
babies being forcibly repatriated with their fathers when a
marriage has broken up. The father cannot stay as he has lost his
sponsor -- his wife.
Because she is married to me, my Indonesian wife automatically
obtained permanent residence when she arrived at the UK airport
as my wife. There are no other formalities. She has all the
rights that I have except that she is not allowed to vote. She is
not required to register with the police, immigration or any
other authority. She can get a job, start her own business, own
land, criticize the government and complain to a member of
parliament (or anyone else) and do anything that she wishes; if
she is in need she will receive state benefits. Foreign husbands
in the UK are treated exactly the same way.
The author of the letter asked the Indonesian government to
explain the rationale and logic for treating us in such an
uncaring, illogical and inconsiderate manner. It is a good
question because, as I see it, we contribute very positively to
the country by importing and spending our foreign currency while
taking nothing from it.
We are contributors to the country's invisible foreign
earnings, and right now Indonesia needs as much as she can get.
Western logic suggests that the Indonesian government should
actually be encouraging us to stay and spend our foreign money,
instead of indirectly telling us that we are not welcome here
and implementing a very deliberate policy of attrition and
driving us away. I have long ceased to attempt to understand
Indonesian logic. I do not believe it exists.
As the 1994 revision of the immigration law makes it even more
difficult for us by replacing a two-month visa extensions with
monthly ones. In addition, the opportunity of us getting a
permanent residence permit, like foreign wives, when we reach 60
years of age was abolished. I can only conclude, from this very
clear signal, that the government does not want us here. I do not
know what the government thinks is so important that it needs to
be protected in such rigid visa restrictions. Certainly not the
social benefits.
GORDON STURDY
Semarang, Central Java