Wiranto and immigration

Wiranto and immigration

The leaders of the Indonesian Military (TNI) are disputing the
reports of both the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and
Indonesia's Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights Violations in
East Timor.

Lt. Gen. (ret.) Mantiri said very emotionally in an interview
on SCTV: "We have to be objective when writing such reports and
we shall not accept foreign interference," but he didn't say how
objective it could have been... with or without any kind of
interference. I guess he meant that the reports should have been
more in favor of TNI by, perhaps, finding excuses for the mess
left behind TNI when giving up East Timor to the UN forces.

Gen. Wiranto further said to the media, "TNI would never ask
for its troops to burn cities, rape women, kill people and
arrange a massive exodus"... But he did not mention how all that
could effectively take place when TNI soldiers were still there
in East Timor. Also if Indonesian soldiers were emotionally
troubled, as he often claimed they were as an excuse for the mess
there, why did it take two weeks for TNI to recommend that the
Habibie government request the assistance of UN forces?

Now Gen. Wiranto is busy reviewing policies on visa on arrival
facilities. Why in the name of God is he concerning himself with
that issue? It is not his business at all! By this means, he is
targeting the USA and Australia, because they do not give
Indonesian citizens the same visa facility their citizens receive
from Indonesia.

Well, of course he did not read my many letters on visa issues
relating to foreigners married to Indonesian women, but perhaps
he should have. Indonesian people married to an Australian, to an
American or like in my case to a Belgian citizen (regardless of
the gender) receive much better treatment in these countries.

So, if Gen. Wiranto wishes to use comparisons in looking at
immigration laws of different countries, he should compare
everything and look at the motivations behind these laws.

Of course, policies in developing and developed countries
cannot be similar, because the social environment is different.
As of the problem of drug smugglers, I doubt very much, Mr.
Wiranto, that Americans, Australians and Belgians are smuggling
drugs into Indonesia.

Why do you keep targeting Americans and Australians when the
main problems of your country (also the one involving security
and defense) come from inside Indonesia? Do you think that
looking for trouble with these two nations will give you more
credit in the eyes of the Indonesian people and is a good
strategy in these difficult times for Indonesia? Western
countries are helping Indonesia to get out of this crisis and you
want to make it more difficult for their citizens to visit
Indonesia as a tourist? Is that a wise policy or is the final
goal different (like getting visa money that way for Indonesia --
and Indonesian civil servants? -- but, excuse me, that would be
totally insane with all the foreign assistance you receive
through the World Bank, ADB, IMF, USAID and AUSAID)?

As to the spokesman of the Directorate General of Immigration,
Mr. Mursanuddin A. Ghani, he shall be busy with malpractices
going on in his own directorate and at Soekarno-Hatta Airport,
and he shall try to review positively all the immigration laws to
ease the work of the civil servants at the field level and to
erase the discrimination and harassment that people like I myself
have experienced in this country. I simply want to live here with
my Indonesian wife and our two Belgian children born in
Indonesia.

YVAN MAGAIN

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