Red-White Passport Out of Favor
More and more Indonesians are giving up their citizenship to take up residence in another country. (Photo courtesy of Michelle Unwin).
Some four million people are in the process of giving up their Indonesian citizenship to take up the passport of another country, Foreign Affairs Ministry data show.
Reasons for the change in citizenship include international marriage and working benefits. Many say Indonesia is not able to meet their needs. Unlike many other countries, Indonesia does not allow its adult citizens to take out dual citizenship.
Andhika Sambuaga, an Indonesian citizen living in Perth, is in the process of applying for Australian citizenship.
He is a permanent resident of Australia and now he wants to go one step further.
"I want to change my citizenship because Australia offers better benefits for its citizens," he said.
"For example, the Australian passport enables me to have better mobility throughout the world since Australians don't need visas to travel to countries that are known to have difficult visa application processes, like the US and European countries. This is very beneficial for my career."
He added that the process for obtaining Australian citizenship was easy.
"You only have to pass the knowledge test and then join the inauguration," Andhika said. "The process to be a PR [permanent resident] is much more time-consuming and difficult."
Andhika said that nationalism was not a concern in his change of citizenship.
"Citizenship is not an important issue. This globalized era requires us to be a global citizen, so where you live is not a big deal," he said.
The motivation to change citizenship is different for Budi Jakobus, an Indonesian permanent resident in Singapore, whose wife and children have Singaporean citizenship.
He wants to keep his Indonesian passport, despite living in Singapore for more than 13 years.
"It's more because of the flexibility. Having two citizenships within the family enables us to get the best of the two countries. We can get the benefits of Singapore yet we can still buy properties in Indonesia," he said.
Sutayasa, an Indonesian who has lived in Singapore since 2006, has similar motivations for retaining his Indonesian passport despite the benefits Singapore offers.
"I love Indonesia," he said. "Moreover, I think it depends on your aspiration. I want to run my own business and the best place to do that is in Indonesia. If I want to climb the corporate ladder and work my whole life, there is nowhere better than Singapore."
Michael Tene, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that to change one's citizenship is a human right. "It's their right if they choose to change their relationship. Nonetheless, we regret the decision, but we cannot really do anything about it."
One of the main issues surrounding the change of citizenship is patriotism — whether one's citizenship reflects one's love for the country.
Gerry Anggacipta, chairman of the Indonesian Student Association (PPI) in Singapore, thinks it is not wise to judge people who have changed their citizenship.
"We have to see the reasons behind their decision to change. We can't blame those who were forced to leave Indonesia because of the 1998 tragedy," he said, referring to the May 1998 riots that led to the ousting of long-time president Suharto but targeted many people of Chinese origin.
"We can look up to India or China. Their descendants are everywhere and they hold different citizenships but they still help each other and act as a channel to build their ancestors' land.
"The Indonesia diaspora … has an ultimate goal: to go back to Indonesia and build the country. It's a long term goal, but in mean time we're doing our best."
PPI has been encouraging students to go back to Indonesia once they graduated.
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