Indonesia may let a few of its citizens keep two passports

Since independence in 1945, Indonesia has told its citizens to pick one country and stick with it. The South China Morning Post reports that a proposed revision to the citizenship law would open a narrow door. Dual citizenship, meaning the right to hold an Indonesian passport and a foreign one at the same time, would be allowed only for people whose skills the state decides it needs: scientists, medical specialists, athletes, and others recommended by ministries, state agencies or institutions with a good name.

The current rule is strict and catches families more than anyone else. A child of a mixed marriage may hold two passports until the age of 18, then has three years to choose one and drop the other. Adults have no such choice at all. The cost of that shows up in the government's own figures: in June the Ministry of Law said more than 8,000 Indonesians had applied to give up their citizenship in the past five years, most of them after marrying a foreigner. Ayu, an Indonesian who has built a life in France over the last 13 years, told the paper the plan "is giving us hope that maybe we could also have our birthright of always being an Indonesian, even though we're not living there any more."

The limit is written into the design. This would not be a right that any Indonesian abroad can claim. It depends on a recommendation from a ministry or an institution, which means officials decide who counts as useful enough to keep. A nurse or an engineer with no sponsor behind them may still face the old choice.

Why it matters

If you have family in a mixed marriage, or you are studying or working overseas and thinking about taking another passport, this changes the calculation you have been making. Watch two things as the bill moves: whether it survives parliament, and whether the list of wanted skills is published in plain terms or left to officials to interpret case by case. The second one decides whether this is a real opening or a favour handed out one name at a time.