Rp 500 million Indonesian take-away

(News Terupdate) - Indonesian Princess Graj Devi Lelanyana Dewi has made it clear the proposed law demanding a deposit of half a billion rupiah or US$50,000 from expatriate men seeking to marry Indonesian women does not have her Royal assent.

She said recently in Jakarta “ If I was getting married now, I would do it abroad. The bill is a bit racist and a lot about money. It’s a silly idea.”

Nia Schumacher, the head of KPC-MWW/DM Jakarta, (Kommunitas Perkawinan Campur, Melati Worldwide) — an Italian-based global mixed marriage network, strongly objects to the proposed law too, stating that “Indonesian women are not considered capable of making their own decisions about their own future since the law assumes they do not have the maturity to protect themselves”.

Nia also feels “the law implies that Indonesian women may be regarded as a commodity that can generate funds for the government.”

Her husband Eckart criticizes the law as profoundly discriminatory in that it only applies to Muslims. “If I were a Muslim, I would consider changing my religion to avoid this law — there is always another way out. Also people can marry abroad. The law implies that Indonesia does not want foreigners here”.

Eckhart added that the law seemed to assume “foreign men are devils and Indonesian men are angels, and that all foreigners are bad guys unless proven good over the course of ten years”.

According to Nia, there are reportedly at least a thousand mixed marriages per year in Indonesia.

Her organization has joined a “merger group” to make a joint approach opposing this bill, bringing together a number of mixed-marriage communities including APAB (Aliansi Pelangi Antar Bangsa), KPC Melati melalui Tangan Ibu, Srikandi, and PerCa Indonesia (Masyarakat Perkawinan Campuran Indonesia).

Nia explained the mixed marriage organizations wanted to cover the key issues in opposition to this bill including the primacy of love as the key to successful relationships, the breach of human rights, issues on the collection and use of funds and the discriminatory nature of a law applying only to Muslim women and foreign men.

Sri Fardella, a leader of Srikandi - one of the organizations representing the mixed-marriage community in Indonesia, said “ I’m against it and Srikandi is against [the fact] that they are not seeing ahead, not seeing the broad picture…They should use other ways to protect women, not a marriage deposit.”

Sri also suggested the Indonesian Foreign Ministry should do more to help Indonesian women who had been let down by foreign partners to enforce protection mechanisms already available in other countries, such as maintenance payments.

Rulita Anggraini, chairperson of PerCa Indonesia, and Juliani W. Luthan, the organization’s head of program division, agreed something had to be done about nikah siri (unregistered or contract marriages) and nikah mut`ah. “We agree in PerCa Indonesia, that these two forms of marriage give absolutely no protection to women.”

Rulita and Juliani referred to the 1974 Indonesian Marriage Law. “There’s already a good existing law regulating marriage, which is perfectly clear for people who are planning to marry.” But they agreed there should be better enforcement of the protection provisions and said currently there was no enforcement of court decisions.

Rulita saw no justification for the Rp 500 million deposit, which effectively put a price upon a person. She argued marriage was a Holy institution whereby a couple in love and in the name of God undertook to raise a family, to be faithful to each other, to be responsible in raising their children and support each other and these noble purposes should not be reduced by the state to a financial transaction.

Rulita and Juliani said the proposed law was contrary to human rights on the freedom to choose a marriage partner unencumbered by such regulations.

“How do Indonesian women feel about the government acting on mixed marriages while not acting likewise to protect Indonesian women who marry Indonesian men?”

They also considered the draft law was contrary to Islamic beliefs that God identifies one’s soul-mate, prospects for prosperity and the age and time of ones death. Therefore, the fact that some Indonesian women are destined to marry foreign men, is part of their life journey.

They concluded, “We cannot accept the deposit idea. There’s no justification whatsoever from
the moral and legal, social point of view. What is the justification? What is the objective? What is the ultimate goal?”

But Dwi Rianta Soerbakti of the Hanura-Christian Party fraction in the Jakarta Provincial Legislative Assembly supports the bill and said it should apply to all religious groups and to Indonesian men wishing to marry foreign women.

He accepted most mixed marriages worked well, but argued the best way to end contract marriages was to impose the deposit on all mixed marriages. He referred to the contract marriage system in parts of Puncak and said this should be stopped.

In his personal view, “the deposit should be larger than US$50,000 so that the woman will have enough for the rest of her life”.

He did not agree the deposit should be related to the financial means of the foreign man or the couple. “ If the deposit is paid straight to the woman as in Egypt, then the expatriate can borrow from the bank and give it to her, or whatever.”

He accepted that some people would marry abroad if the law was introduced and not register in Indonesia and that they would lose rights because of this, including as to their children’s education and nationality.

Wanda Hamida from the National Mandate Party (PAN), also in the Jakarta provincial legislature (DPRD), concluded that “If you have no money, don’t get married in Indonesia”.

Posted in: Indonesia News