Indonesia - The Herculean task of becoming an Indonesian family

Is mixed marriage a status symbol? For some, like movie stars and rich people, it may be, but not in my case. My wife, an Indonesian, and I met in a Jakarta hospital and fell in love, and decided to tie the knot.

We didn’t foresee the difficulties that would arise from a mixed marriage in Indonesia at that time. It turned out, as I remember, that I obtained permission from 12 institutions to get married in 1996.

It was similar with religion – getting the approval of her parents was also difficult. Also, if you are not wealthy and not well educated, getting a work permit to work in Indonesia is also a tough task.

Bureaucracy is a hard nut to crack. It’s quite stressful. Troubles and discord lurk everywhere.

Yet people are ready to undergo strenuous tests, make sacrifices and adjustments for the sake of love.

Unfortunately, there was no counselling or briefing from the Civil Registry Agency about the implications of mixed marriages before our nuptuals. The most important aspect was the prenuptial agreement on the assets of the mixed-marriage couple. We didn’t know about this. We should have signed the agreement (harta pisah) prior to our marriage.

Only when my wife wanted to buy a house in her name did we learn about the difficulty of our situation. Under the Marriage Law No. 1/1974, both the wife and husband, irrespective of their nationality, have equal rights to family assets. But this is contradictory to the Land Law No. 5/1960, which states that foreigners should not own land in Indonesia.

As a result, an Indonesian wife of a foreigner loses her rights as a citizen to buy land and borrow money from a bank for marrying a foreigner. It is discriminatory and contradictory.

More problems arise when mixed couples have children. Previously, children were granted their father’s nationality. It meant that parents had to spend a lot of money on processing visa papers every year for their children. Obtaining Indonesian citizenship may be a possible solution, but it’s not an easy task.

In 1998, my daughter and I decided we wanted to become Indonesian citizens. One immigration officer told me that we would not get Indonesian citizenship even if the law allowed it.

 Any Indonesian law or regulation is not a single entity. One has to fulfill a number of conditions mentioned in other laws and regulations.

So it is a set of rules, which often repeat or just certify what you possess, and sometimes with contradictory meanings and rules. Bureaucrats often use the interpretation of laws as a big weapon, depending on the requirements of respective officials and departments.

An agent offered me help to obtain Indonesian citizenship for the price of 100 million rupiah (US$10,800).

Since then, I decided to spend whatever money I had on my daughter’s education, while waiting for a new reformist government and new citizenship and immigration laws. But I had to spend lot of time and money every year to extend my daughter’s visa.

Surprisingly, officials never asked for extra money other than the official fees when I applied for my daughter’s Indonesian citizenship. Maybe the officials I met were either honest or they didn’t know much about the new law and other related regulations.

Thanks to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and then Justice and Human Rights minister Hamid Awaludin, a new revolutionary law regarding Indonesian citizenship was enacted in 2006, with implementing regulations released a year later.

Article 41 of the Citizenship Law No. 12/2006 allows children born to mixed couples like me and my wife to obtain Indonesian citizenship and allows them to keep their original nationality until they reach 21 years of age.

According to Article 19 of the Citizenship Law No. 12/2006, foreigners who have resided in Indonesia for five years continuously or 10 years with gaps, can apply for citizenship.

I had to go to more than 20 offices, some of them repeatedly, to get the job done. After more than 20 years of staying here, I learned a lot about how to deal with Indonesian officials; many are nice, hardworking and friendly. But some of the rules and procedures are really frustrating.

My main weapons were patience, a smile and determination. I used to carry dozens of photocopies, photos of different sizes, stapler, glue and original certificates for me and my family.

In many offices, people suspected I was a private broker or agent who processed official documents after seeing my bag was full of papers.

Finally, my children became Indonesian citizens in 2007. Once I received the citizenship memo signed by the minister, I had to return to another 15 offices, similar to the first go-round, to complete the paperwork.

I became an Indonesian in 2010, thanks in part to my habit of hoarding all my receipts and documents. The Immigration Office asked me to produce the photocopies of my temporary stay permit cards for 18 years in order to obtain a certificate stating that I stayed in Indonesia on legal visas.

This certificate was the key to applying for Indonesian citizenship. The second requirement was marrying an Indonesian man or woman.

But it would be more complicated as a foreigner if your spouse is a Chinese-Indonesian.

All these years, my family and I experienced considerable discomfort. Until 2007, my wife, an Indonesian, was the only foreigner in my house. After 2007, I was the only foreigner in my house. Now we are a proud and happy Indonesian family.

The government must overhaul the way their offices function to avoid duplication of work. Efficiency, speed, quality and reliable services are important to boost the image and productivity of the government offices.

Veeramalla Anjaiah

The Jakarta Post

The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post

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