Deposit for Marrying Woman

The Marriage Bill prepared by the government seemed to contain some controversial matters such as the  prohibition of Unregistered Marriage (Siri Marriage) and Contract Marriage. 

Beside that, the Bill also has a stipulation that will require a foreign man who wants to marry an Indonesian woman must pay a deposit of Rp. 500 Million. Please find below a related article in Kompas.

Getting Married with The Bond of Rp 500 Million

Rabu, 24 Februari 2010 | 13:07 WIB

KOMPAS.com — The marriage draft for the Religion Court has been quite a buzz in Indonesia. But most discussions on the draft are regarding the unofficial marriage and marriage by contract, especially whether they should be criminalized. Actually the draft has another interesting aspect: marriage with a foreigner.

Chapter VI of the draft arranges 'international' marriages. A male foreigner who wishes to marry an Indonesian woman must deposit a hefty sum of Rp.   500 million. Wow!

The draft mentions that the money is as insurance in case the husband suddenly left without notice. The money, however, isn't given to the wife, but it's deposited at an Islamic Bank.

It can be understood that  the draft was set to protect women. However, on a different perspective, this brings complications for Indonesian women who are currently involved romantically with a foreign man. If the draft is applied then the guy would be obliged to pay half a billion rupiahs to marry his love.

A number of women who are already married to foreign men initially wouldn't even believe that the draft has such an arrangement. But now they can read it on the internet.

Perhaps for some foreign men it's fine to pursue the relationship without marriage, and thus also avoiding the Rp. 500 million deposit, but in general they still view marriage seriously. And of course, obeying religious tenets is still advisable.

The Rp. 500 million deposit also gives the impression that Indonesian women are 'for sale'. A French colleague even jested, "You (Indonesian women) are quite expensive, around 45,000 euro! Wow!"

Perhaps the regulation is considered because of the number of cases that have occured, such as foreign men who married Indonesian women only to buy property in Indonesia, or expats who left their Indonesian family after their contract expires.
Isn't that instead an indication of how weak the Indonesian law is? If the officials could be bribed to allow dubious marriages then what's the guarantee that if the wife was left she could withdraw the deposit easily? It would be a pity if she was left by her foreign husband and then she gets tangled in bureaucracy and she has to bribe first to get the deposit. Furthermore, the deposit doesn't get any interest.

It's also possible for the woman to take advantage of a foreigner by marrying him for just three or four years and then dumping him to get the money.

There should be further discussion on the matter. The marriage problems between people of different nationalities go beyond material issues.

When the government issued the law of double nationality for the children of mixed-nationality marriages, that was a commendable act. The law should be made more solid and clear regarding marriage issues. (Dini Kusmana Massabuau/C17-09)

The SIRI Marriage

A legitimate Marriage in Indonesia is conducted according to the religion of the couple concerned,   and registered according to the national law.

Basically, a man can only have one wife, and a woman can only have one husband.
However, a man can request the Court of Law to allow him to marry more than one woman, if his existing wife gave her approval.

In spite of the above stipulations of the Marriage Law No. 1/1974, some Muslim men have married women based on the Islamic Law but do not register the marriage with with the marriage registrar office. Such kind of marriage is called the SIRI marriage.

According to Kompas, women activists have protested against SIRI marriage because it does not provide legal protection to women. They proposed that men who practiced SIRI Marriage should be treated as criminals, and punnished by the Court of Law. This proposal was supported by the Chief of the Supreme Court Harifin A. Tumpa, and the Chief of the Constitutional Court Mahfud MD.

Considering the above, I hope that the law enforcement agencies would make more serious efforts to prevent the SIRI Marriage.

Photo : Courtesy of Kompas

Facebook & Marriage

Lots of things, good and bad, have been said about the social networking site Facebook, here is one that I quoted from the Legal Blog Watch.

Will Facebook Destroy Your Marriage?

It turns out that one of the most significant impacts that the rapid spread of Facebook is having on society may be ... destroying marriages?

The Telegraph reports that by reconnecting old flames and enabling new ones, Facebook is tempting to people to cheat on their partners. One law firm that specializes in divorce asserts that almost one in five petitions they process cite Facebook as a reason, as spouses are finding evidence of flirting and even affairs on the site.

The 20 percent statistic may be high as it comes from a law firm that handles divorces online, but Mark Keenan, managing director of Divorce-Online, says that after hearing from his staff that Facebook was a recurring issue, he confirmed the 20 percent figure. "The most common reason seemed to be people having inappropriate sexual chats with people they were not supposed to," he says.

The article even mentions one 35-year-old woman who discovered her husband was divorcing her when he updated his Facebook status to read: "Neil Brady has ended his marriage to Emma Brady."

Polygamy in Indonesia

On 17 October, a polygamy club was established in Bandung, West Java.

In spite of the club's name, the Malaysian based club is headed by a woman i.e. Chodijah Binti Am, and its members consists of polygamous men as well as unmarried men.

The establishment of said club has been supported by members of a similar club in Indonesia that was established by the polygamous owner of Wong Solo restaurant, Puspo Wardojo. However, it was strongly protested by lawyer & ex lawmaker Nusyahbani Kantjasungkana and the Women's Legal Aid Institution (LBH Apik) who are worried that the club's high profile campaign might inspire more men to practice polygamy.

Actually polygamy is not forbidden in Indonesia, whereby the Marriage Law No. 1/1974 stipulates that a Muslim man can marry more than one woman provided that a Court allowed him to do so.For which purpose the following conditions should be fulfilled :
1) He has a (written) permit from his wife
2) He guarantees to fulfill all the needs of his wives & children
3) There is a guarantee that he will be fair on his wives & children

These conditions are necessary, because a man who marry two or three or four women must equally share his love with all his wives and children, therefore must have a steady income that is two or three or four times much bigger than if he only has one wife.

For detailed media reports on the above, please click here, here, here and here.

Considering that the Marriage Law allowed Muslim men to practice Polygamy under certain conditions, as law abiding citizens we cannot reject a man's right to marry more than one woman as long as it is done legitimately.
However, I hope that civil servant/public officials would not be allowed to marry more that one woman so that he would not be tempted to get more money by abusing authority that has been placed in him.

Bambang-Halimah failed to Divorce

The Supreme Court has confirmed the verdict of the Religious High Court of Jakarta which rejected the Divorce of the son of late President Soeharto: Bambang Trihatmodjo from Halimah Kamil.

The Supreme Court's verdict was passed on 4 August 2009 and announced on 28 September 2009. As a consequence, Bambang and Halimah will remain legitimate husband and wife according to the Marriage Law No. 1/1974.

It all started on 7 July 2000 when Bambang secretly married Singer Mayangsari based on the SIRI Islamic way, without permission from Halimah whom he married on 24 October 1981, therefore contradictory to the Marriage Law.

This marriage was kept secret from public until 30 March 2006 when Mayangsari gave birth to a baby girl Khirani Siti Hartina.

On May 2007, Bambang filed a Lawsuit with the Religious Court of Central Jakarta to request for Divorce from Halimah, and on 16 January 2008 the Court granted the Divorce.
Unsatisfied with the Court's Verdict, Halimah filed an Appeal with the Religious High Court of Jakarta which decided on 8 October 2008 to reject the Religious Court's verdict, therefore declaring the marriage still exists.

With this Supreme Court's verdict, Bambang is only legally married to Halimah. Whereas Bambang's marriage to Mayangsari will remain illegitimate and so will the status of their daughter who only has legal relationship with Mayasari and cannot inherit from Bambang.

Nevertheless, Bambang still has a chance to get the Divorce i.e. by requesting the Supreme Court to review its verdict, for which purpose he should submit within 180 days after the date of verdict, and must have new evidence to back up the request.

For detailed media reports regarding the above, please click here, here, here, here and here.

It would be very interesting to know about the next step that will be advised by Bambang's attorney Juan Felix Tampubolon on this case.

Manohara & the Prince of Kelantan

Every year, the Indonesian people celebrate the 21st of April as the birthday of Kartini i.e. a lady whose ideas have made the status of Indonesian females equal to the males.

But yesterday, the celebration was disturbed by a very strange news about the kidnap of a 17 years old Indonesian model i.e Manohara Pinot, by Tengku Muhammad Fakhry (31) Prince of Kelantan, Malaysia, who happened to be her own husband.

According to KapanLagi, the couple was married on 26 August 2008 not long after they met, when Manohara was only 16 years old and the Prince was already 30 years old. Apparently, their marriage did not go well, because the Prince turned out to be a brutal, high tempered, possessive & sex maniac who’ll ruthlessly beat his wife if he did not get what he wants. His brutality include slashing Manohara’s breast with a razor. Obviously, Manohara cannot stand it any longer, so at the end of December 2008 she runnaway to her mother in Jakarta.

According to Oktavita, the prince then made efforts to restore the shattered relationship with his wife and family and get Manohara back. In early March he took them all to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for an Umrah Pilgrimage. Then on the way back to Jakarta, as they transited in Kuala Lumpur airport, four of the prince’s men snatched Manohara out of the airport.

Manohara’s mother, Daisy Fajarina, held a press conference last Monday, 20 April, in which she said that she has tried to ask the King of Kelantan to persuade his son to free Manohara, but failed. She also said that she has now been banned to enter Malaysia.

Considering the above, Detik reported that the National Human Rights Comission urged the Indonesian government to bring this case to be settled legally according to the Malaysian laws.

It is very sad, especially when we are celebrating Kartini Day, to hear that a girl as young as 16 years old can be allowed to marry someone a lot much older, yet rich & aristocrate, whom she and her mother barely knew.

Rhoma Irama & Marriage

For more than 35 years, Rhoma Irama has been very popularly known in Indonesia as a Malayan Dangdut singer and movie actor.

According to Kapanlagi, this controversial man was born in Tasikmalaya, West Java, on 11 December 1946, was legitimately married based on Marriage Law No.1/1974, but at the same time practiced Sirri i.e a marriage based on the Islamic Law, with several other women.

On Tuesday (14 April) evening, Rhoma Irama appeared as guest speaker in ANTV’s Talk Show 4 LAWAN 1 (4 Against 1), hosted by four ladies i.e Lula Kamal, Meisya Siregar, Fira Basuki and Rahma Aulia.
Various topics were discussed, but the most interesting part was when they discussed about Rhoma's opinion on Marriage. In this case he admitted that he led a polygamous life, but he refused to answer when the ladies asked him how many wives he has today.
He said that Marriage, Divorce and Polygamy are determined by God, and Polygamy does not bring disgrace to women, as a matter of fact it bring honor to women. He explained that before Islam came to this world, men did not honor women. He gave an example that at those times, holy men/kings/ leaders in many countries of the world have many wives, not just tens but also hundreds and even thousands, thus there is no limitation at all.
After Islam came to this world, a man is limited to have not more than 4 wives, on the condition that he must be capable to treat his wives fairly, otherwise he should only have 1 wife.

Further, he said that he sympathize with Syekh Puji, i.e. a 43 years old man who married Ulfa, a 12 years old girl according to Sirri. He said that Syekh Puji is a victim of our society’s unfair treatment. Because Rhoma thinks that Syekh Puji’s marriage was legitimate according to the Islamic Law which defined that an adult female as one who has menstruates, and since Ulfa has already menstruate, therefore their marriage has been legitimate according to Islamic Law.

Furthermore, he said that Sirri Marriage would prevent men from committing adultery.

Rhoma Irama’s above opinion is contradictory to our country’s Marriage Law i.e. a female should be at least 16 to get married; and a married man can only take another wife if his first wife permit him to do so. And as a public figure his words could mislead other people especially his fans into thinking that he is right.
In order to avoid confusion, the government should therefore clarify this by always socializing the principles adopted by our National Marriage Law.

Jupe's controversial marriage

Since the last few weeks, our news media have been reporting about popular Indonesian Dangdut Singer Julia Perez (a.k.a Jupe) every day. Whereby they reported about many of her activities like her giving Condoms to her fans, her sensual appearance and who she's sleeping with now.

The latest news was about her troubled relationship with her French husband Damian Perez whom she married seven years ago in France.
Okezone/T.Tresnadi reported that she has met Artist/Lawyer Gusti Randa to seek legal advice about Divorce, but was explained that she cannot Divorce in Indonesia because her marriage in France was not recognized in Indonesia.
Gusti Randa elabotated that according to our Marriage Law No. 1/1974 Article 56 Paragraphs 1 & 2, a marriage among Indonesians, or Indonesian & foreigner, that is conducted outside Indonesia should be registered with the Indonesian Embassy or Consulate in the country where the marriage took place. After the couple return to Indonesia, they should register it with the local Marriage Registrar within a period of one year.
Considering this fact, Gusti said that if Jupe and her husband want to divorce, they should do it in France.
Although there is no divorce yet, the news media has reported that they are now leading separate love lifes. i.e. Jupe with Soccerplayer Gaston Castano, and Damien with a Malaysian model Aisya.
But inspite of her wish to divorce, the interesting fact is that she plan to keep the name PEREZ with her no matter what, as she told reporters. She argued that it is that name that has made her popular as an artist for the last three years.

This news, as any other news regarding celebrities, is interesting especially when we do not have anything to do during weekends.