Hera Diani, Jakarta – The 1958 Law on Citizenship is doing more to harm Indonesian families than it does to help or protect them, experts say.
Most people affected by the law are transnational couples, who are subject to many restrictions. The law contains odd requirements that result in legal complications for couples raising a child, or even maintaining unity as a family. Observers say there are many flawed articles in the law that need revising.
Article 23 (c) of the law stipulates adopted children automatically lose their Indonesian citizenship and gain their adopted parents' nationality. Activists fear the clause could encourage child trafficking and the abandonment of children.
"Indonesia has the fourth-highest number of child trafficking cases in the world and we're afraid that the country will continue to ignore its responsibility to protect its children," said Dewi Tjakrawinata, the head of the Aliansi Pelangi Antar Bangsa organization for transnational parents.
The recent case of Tristan Dowse, an Indonesian boy who was adopted by Irish couple at the age of two months but two years later was returned to an orphanage in Jakarta, was an example of how the law further complicated an already complex situation, she said.
Because the boy had become an Irish citizen – he was ineligible for free education and had to pay for visas and other immigration expenses. The financial problem was only solved when an Irish high court recently ruled the boy's adoptive parents must pay regular maintenance for the four-year old. The boy is now living with his birth mother. "This could happen to any child," Dewi said.
Another article obliges every citizen living abroad to regularly report to an Indonesian embassy or consulate for five years or lose their citizenship. This creates difficulties for migrant workers living in small cities or remote places far from an Indonesian mission.
"Thousands of migrant workers in Malaysia have lost their Indonesian citizenship status because of (the law). One (stateless) migrant lived in Malaysia for 37 years. Those workers are not only often unaware of the regulation, they also live far away from the consulate and usually their employers keep their passports," Dewi said.
Women's activist and lawyer Asnifriyanti Damanik said the law was full of discrimination against women, particularly those in transnational marriages. Security was lost the moment an Indonesian married a foreigner, because they could not sponsor their partner for a visa. If the partner could not work here the family could break up, she said.
Neither could an Indonesian wife win custody of her children if the couple divorced or split because the children of transnational marriages automatically received their fathers' citizenship.
Activists are urging the House of Representatives to revise the law. "The problem of citizenship is not just for women and transnational families, it applies to all of us," Asnifriyanti said.