Citizenship Bill to be Enacted this Month
Friday, 30 June, 2006 | 15:43 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Slamet Effendy Yusuf, Head of the Special Committee for the Citizenship Bill guarantees that the bill will be enacted before the session of the House of Representatives (DPR) ends on July 16. He explained that only three issues are still being discussed at the level of a formulating team.

Those issues include the possibility of an Indonesian citizen who lives abroad who may lose his citizenship when the person does not report in five year’s time without any valid reason. Slamet cited an Indonesian worker whose passport is seized by immigration is included in that clause.


Another issue, according to Slamet, is regarding the status of a person who marries a foreigner, male or female. They must choose only one citizenship when they obtain a citizenship from the other country. “So if a person wants to marry a foreigner, he must accept the consequences,” he told Tempo. This is because Indonesia does not allow double citizenship for an adult. That right is only effective for children under 18.

This decree will, according to Slamet, invalidate other decrees which regulate citizenship, such as immigration, administration and residential decrees.

Yophiandi and Aqida