Liza Yosephine, Jakarta – No one can predict who they will end up marrying or whether that person will be a foreign citizen, but that should not prevent Indonesians from owning property in their own homeland, says Ike Farida about the woes transnational couples face in Indonesia.

Ike, who is married to a Japanese citizen, was denied an apartment that she had paid for in full due to her husband's citizenship.

"We don't know with whom we will be married. I think [almost everyone], whether woman or man, who is now with a foreign spouse, probably did not have the goal of marrying a foreign citizen," Ike said on Wednesday.

Referring to her own religion, Ike said according to the Muslim faith nobody knows when they would die, nor could anyone negotiate which parents one is born to. The same went for marriage, she said.

In May 2012, Ike had finalized payments for an apartment in Jakarta. However, the developer refused to give her ownership rights to the property after becoming aware that her husband was a foreign national.

Supported by her background in law, Ike was determined to bring the matter before a district court to claim her rights. Earlier this year, her case was dismissed by the judge on the basis of a government regulation (PP) released in December last year, namely PP No. 103/2015, which regulates property ownership by foreigners who reside in Indonesia.

It was a blow she had not expected, especially since she had bought her property before that regulation was implemented. Furthermore, she noted the peculiarity of the regulation in that it pertains to foreigners yet also impacts Indonesians that are married to foreigners.

The regulation stipulates that Indonesians who marry foreign nationals require a notarized prenuptial agreement in order to buy and own property after they marry.

That stipulation, she said, referred to a now-abolished Article 29 of the Marriage Law to prevent mixture of spouses' assets.

Last September, prior to the abolition of Article 29 on Oct. 27 by the Constitutional Court, Ike had filed for a review of PP No. 103/2015 by the Supreme Court.

Following the Constitutional Court's decision to eliminate the requirement for a prenuptial marriage agreement in Article 29 of the 1974 Marriage Law, Ike saw more reason for a review of the 2015 regulation, as it had created confusion through the non-uniformity of rules on property ownership.

As a member of the Indonesian Mixed-Marriage Society (Perca), Ike assisted the organization in filing for another judicial review of the same government regulation Wednesday, this time also pointing to the contradictions with existing laws.

In their petition, Perca specifically cites three laws, the 1960 Agrarian Law, which stipulates that all land ownership should have a social benefit, Law No. 12/2011 on the formation of legislation, and Law No. 39/1999 on human rights.

"How is it possible to discriminate against Indonesian citizens [just because] they are married to foreign spouses?" Ike noted on her human rights concerns about the regulation.

The document called on the government to pay attention to confusion caused by the laws, she said, but would leave it up to the authorities whether to revise it, create new regulations or abolish it completely.

"It's sad that we are discriminated against, it's extremely sad. And it's not only us who are discriminated against, but also our children," Ike says.

Perca head Juliani Luthan noted that the review petition on PP No. 103/2015 was important for the organization, as it affected its more than 1,140 members. She urged clarification on the regulation, which she said appeared to be out of sync with existing rules, especially the 1945 Constitution.

"The Constitution clearly states that an Indonesian citizen has full rights to property ownership, both right-to-own permits and right-to-build permits," Juliani said.

She called on the government to eliminate PP No. 103/2015 entirely or at least abolish Paragraph 2 in Article 3 of the regulation.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/11/10/group-wants-court-nix-prenuptial-regulation.html