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Becoming Indonesian: Ending the never-ending polemic
If we could settle the issue of who our fellow Indonesians are, racism and religion would no longer divide us during elections, discrimination would not be a threat anymore because we would use our citizenship as our common ground. Thus, the law about citizenship needs to be changed.
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Recently, popular singer Agnes Monica was criticized because a statement she made was seen as a rejection of her identity as an Indonesian when she explained that she had German, Japanese and Chinese ancestry. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)
W
hen Historia.id and the Education and Culture Ministry organized the Asal Usul Orang Indonesia (Origins of Indonesians) exhibition in October, many were surprised to find we have mixed origins. Thus, no one can claim that he or she is a pure-blood. Recently, popular singer Agnes Monica was criticized because a statement she made was seen as a rejection of her identity as an Indonesian when she explained that she had German, Japanese and Chinese ancestry.
The legal construction of our citizenship does not support the concept that being Indonesian is not about blood but is about the land and soil called Ibu Pertiwi.
We are always whining about why it is hard to quell radicalism, racism, intolerance and discrimination even though we claim to be one nation. We try things like religion or using Indonesian-sounding names to unify us but always fail to do so.
If we could settle the issue of who our fellow Indonesians are, racism and religion would no longer divide us during elections, discrimination would not be a threat anymore because we would use our citizenship as our common ground. Thus, the law about citizenship needs to be changed.
The problem is that the 2006 Citizenship Law adopts the concept of using lineage to determine our nationality (ius sanguinis) as the main method to determine nationality. It stipulates that Indonesian citizens are native Indonesian people and other nationalities are formally legalized under the law as citizens of Indonesia. The elucidation of Article 2 of the Citizenship Law defines a native Indonesian as an Indonesian person (orang Indonesia) who became a citizen of the republic when he or she was born and had never accepted any other citizenship. Yet the law is silent on “who is an Indonesian?”.
The absence of a definition of an Indonesian person in this law creates a very big hole in this concept of citizenship and our nationality as a whole. For too long, the concept of an Indonesian person has been taken for granted and the circular definition given in the law does not help to answer the question.
We are not consistent about the fact that there is no such thing as pure Indonesian blood, the Citizenship Law makes it hard to accept the fact that becoming Indonesian is not about pure blood but any hybrid who turns out to love this land.
