Indonesia eases citizenship rules

JAKARTA, July 11 (Reuters) Indonesia's parliament passed a bill today which allows children of citizens with foreign spouses to hold dual nationality until they are 18 and takes a step to end discrimination against nationals of Chinese descent.

Previously, no Indonesian national was allowed to hold other passports and any violation led to the termination of their Indonesian citizenship.

Older laws also did not allow children of Indonesian women married to foreign nationals to become citizens. They had to acquire their father's nationality.

''We now adopt the principle of limited dual citizenship. When the child reaches 18 years old, he cannot be indecisive anymore,'' Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin told reporters.

Supporters of the new bill have said laws made in the 1950s when nationalist fervour was at its peak had forced children from transnational marriages to face an uncertain future in cases where expatriate fathers returned home without their spouses.

The bill also revised the definition of 'indigenous Indonesian' to include all citizens who never assume foreign citizenship, knocking down an old term that discriminated against Chinese Indonesians who account for 3 percent of the country's 220 million population and a much larger share of its wealth.

Several key government posts in the world's fourth most populous country are exclusively for 'indigenous Indonesians' and those who are not in that category often face more complicated bureaucratic processes when they deal with the government.

REUTERS PKS BD1540