JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): The government is prepared to clear the names of at least 39 Indonesians who were rendered stateless while they were abroad during the 1965 Communist purge, if they are willing to return to Indonesia.
The Law and Human Rights Ministry is currently drafting the necessary policies.
Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD said the government intended to declare that the political exiles had never betrayed the country.
The initiative follows an earlier plan to restore the Indonesian citizenship of people who were forced to remain abroad in the aftermath of the abortive coup on Sept 30, 1965.
The attempted coup was blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and led to a purge of PKI members as well as anyone alleged of being affiliated with the now-defunct party, which lasted from October 1965 through March 1966.
It is unclear how many Indonesian political exiles live abroad today, as the government is yet to finish verifying its data.
Many are believed to have been students on scholarships in communist countries at the time, such as the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, whose citizenship was revoked by the Suharto regime for their supposed ties to the 1965 attempted coup.
Mahfud said that based on the preliminary findings of the law ministry, at least 39 political exiles who were stripped of their Indonesian citizenship after the 1965 incident were currently living in several European countries, including Croatia, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, as well as Russia.
“We will cross-check [the data] one by one. Even if [the political exiles] don't want to come back, we will still declare them as citizens who never betrayed the country,” Mahfud told reporters on Tuesday (May 2) lowing a meeting with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
He also said the President planned to invite several political exiles to travel to Jakarta in June, when the government planned to launch the programme.
The new programme is part of the Jokowi administration’s renewed commitment to right the wrongs of the past through nonjudicial means and a major policy shift for the country, which has long put human rights issues on the back burner.
While the government is focused primarily on restoring the constitutional and civil rights of political exiles, it is also committed to providing social and health reparations for victims of 11 other gross human rights violations that occurred between 1965 and 2003.
President Jokowi, on behalf of the state, in January acknowledged and expressed regret over these 12 rights violations, including the Communist purge that killed at least 500,000 people according to the estimates of some historians and rights activists.
Human rights director general Dhahana Putra told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the ministry held a virtual meeting last week with around 20 political exiles living in Sweden to listen to their aspirations.
Dhahana listed the “four aspirations” resulting from that meeting: to retain foreign citizenship, to be restored Indonesian citizenship, to be given smoother facilitation in visiting Indonesia and to hold dual citizenship.
He emphasised that the final aspiration was not an option, as Indonesia did not recognise dual citizenship.
“We will instead provide priority services in the form of either a visitor visa that is valid for five years and can be extended, or the second home visa,” Dhahana said.
He added that the government was also also preparing a “golden visa”, but declined to provide any details. The directorate general would also be holding meetings on Thursday and Friday to discuss those political exiles eligible for restoration of Indonesian citizenship, as well as the mechanism and paperwork necessary for this.
Dhahana added that officials from the Foreign Ministry and Indonesian embassies, as well as representatives of the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) and the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) would be attending the meetings.
