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Don't Cry for Me, Indonesia

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Several articles have been written on the blatant discrimination that exists in Indonesian law regarding mixed marriages. Allow me to add another angle to that story and as far as I know, it has not been scrutinized before.

It regards a mixed couple who spent more than 48 years together in marriage. Ever since they married, the expatriate wife dedicated her life to being a housewife and to taking care of their children, while her Indonesian husband as a decorated naval officer and later a non-commissioned local embassy staff member in a foreign country, took care of their daily bread. They decided to spend the final part of their lives as a pensioned couple in Indonesia.

When her Indonesian husband passed away recently, she informed the administrative body that handled the naval officer's pension of her husband's death. They informed her that they had never encountered such a case before and started to dig into the prevailing laws and regulations. They came up with the following token of gratitude: "A foreigner (in this case the widow) is not entitled to receive her Indonesian husband's pension for more than three months after her husband's date of death."

Why? "Well, because you are a foreigner." Courtesy of the Indonesian government.

And while you are at it "be sure to sell your inherited property as that will end up in the Indonesian government's hands after one year, if it still happens to be under the widow's name".

Now, here we have a 70-year-old woman being told to get lost, eat grass or at best find another Indonesian bloke to sponsor her "much appreciated stay".

by ASHER TAURAN Jakarta
The Jakarta Post
August 21, 2005

A subsequent response to the article a visitor to the site:

"To be precise the regulation states that the widow(er) is entitled a death allowance equivalent to three months of the latest pension amount received by the deceased plus a 6-month pension extension as a "bonus". So after 6 months the widow(er) should find another source of income and related to this he/she should act according to his/her new unsponsored status as a foreigner in Indonesia. Furthermore the unmovable inheritance should be sold within one year often putting pressure on the final selling price as buyers may use this knowledge in negotiation delay tactics. This case is therefore not directly an immigration issue but foremost a pension issue with consequences for a foreigner's status in Indonesia."

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