The Ministry Of Home Affairs Says, If There Are Residents Who Also Have Passports From Other Countries, It Will Not Make The Status Of Indonesian Citizens Disappear

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JAKARTA - The Directorate General of Population and Civil Registry of the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) said that someone who has a passport from another country does not automatically lose the status of an Indonesian Citizen (WNI).

"Having a passport from another country does not automatically lose an Indonesian citizen," said the Director General of Population and Civil Registry of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Zudan Arif Fakrulloh in Jakarta, Wednesday, May 18, quoted from Antara.

He gave an example of cases that have occurred, namely the candidates for Sabu Regent Raijua Orient Riwu Kore and Djoko Soegiarto Tjandra who have United States and Papua New Guinea passports but still hold Indonesian citizens status.

The reason the two people are still recognized as having the status of Indonesian citizens is because they have not taken any administrative action by the government.

He explained that the Government Administration Act regulates two things, namely factual actions (feitelijk handelingen) and legal actions (rechtshandelingen). That is, in the Indonesian government system, nothing is said to be null and void automatically.

"The legal principle is that higher regulations beat lower regulations," he said.

Therefore, he continued, as long as there is no government administrative action in accordance with Article 23, it has not been included in a concrete legal action.

"So, we don't know when Orient Riwu Kore and Djoko Tjandra will lose their citizenship," he said.

Referring to the two cases, he is of the view that the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) especially the Directorate General of General Legal Administration (AHU), needs to issue a decision to cancel citizenship, revoke and so on because that is the essence of the Government Act.

Finally, it is important to pay attention to this, especially in facing 2024 as a political year.

"The goal is to prevent the Sabu Raijua case from repeating itself," he said.

Moreover, he said, so far the pairs of candidates for regional heads or legislative candidates who will advance have never told them that they have or have not pocketed passports from other countries if they are not asked by the relevant institutions.

In the future, he explained, it would be better if the General Elections Commission (KPU) made a form for each candidate participating in the regional head election (pilkada) and the legislative election (pileg) writing down that they have never had a passport from another country.