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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