Archive for the ‘immigration’ tag
INDONESIA’S IMMIGRATION RULES HOLD BACK ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Image source: ilowirawan.wordpress.com
By Evan Jones
It is unfortunate that the Von Heydebreck-Stricker family’s unhappy experience with Padang Immigration last month (JP 21 Jan 2008 – where they were forced into pay Rp1.6 million in questionable overstay fines), is an incident that happens all too often.
Indonesia’s immigration policies are based on outdated laws originally designed to protect Indonesia’s workers from job-stealing foreigners. In today’s reality, the immigration system has been distorted into a cash cow for those that manage it.
The real cost of this inability of the nation’s civil service to reform itself is seen in the nation’s weak economic performance, by the lack of confidence of business to invest in wealth producing industries – of which the ailing tourism sector is only one.
While today’s immigration rules cost the nation billions of dollars in lost business, our near neighbours earn cash windfalls from unwitting (and unwilling) visa-run tourists.
For example, every foreigner’s application for a KITAS (Resident Stay Permit) must be made at an Indonesian Embassy outside the country. So scores of foreigners board daily flights to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to apply for, or to renew their visas.
To avoid days standing in consulate queues, many prefer to use local “visa brokers” whose inside embassy contacts speed up the multi day process.
How big is this business? Take Mr Tan, whose Singapore agency has made a handsome living off this archaic visa process for over 35 years. He started back in the early 70’s, at a folding table outside the old Indonesian Embassy on Orchard Road. Nowadays, his sleek office has a
staff of seven, he drives a new Mercedes, he has a country house in Australia and his lucrative business enabled him educate his children at British universities. Multiply Mr Tan by several dozen and you get an idea of how big this business is.
The opportunities to gouge cash from immigration “services” reaches all the way to Ambassadorial level. Former Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia Hadi A. Wajarabi is facing accusations that he misappropriated a whopping USD2.6 million in visa fees during his term
in Kuala Lumpur.
But a few million dollars in embezzled visa fee revenues misses a larger point. Hard-to-comply-with visa regulations have prevented entire industries from setting up shop in Indonesia.
A classic example exists in ship repair, where global shipyards have set up branch yards in Indonesia, a competitive place to carry out low value metal bashing. But the big ticket value of a modern ship is in the machinery and electronics. This business stays in Singapore and
Malaysia because the cost (and risk of arbitrary arrest) of mobilising specialist foreign technicians within Indonesia is not worth the trouble.
While it is hard to measure lost opportunities in industry, we can more easily see the losses caused by the 2004 Visa On Arrival rules. Of the 40 million tourists who visit Asean each year, a mere 5 million visit Indonesia. Tuk Tuk Lake Toba, for example, is now a ghost town. A dozen world class golf courses in Batam and Bintan struggle to stay solvent as pre 2003 annual arrivals of 1.6 million lie stagnant at under 900,000.
One can measure a country’s level of development by the ease with which it’s residents can understand and comply with government regulations. Indeed, there is a trend is for governments everywhere to improve public service standards – for government departments to
(publicly) benchmark their own service performance.
But Indonesia’s immigration rules are moving in the opposite direction. There are more and more rules and the newest regulations are even harder to understand and comply with, than the old ones. The Von Heydebreck-Stricker family’s recent experience is an example of this trend.
In the past decade, the many calls to reform Immigration’s antiquated rules were sidetracked by vested interests who don’t want to see the Department of Justice and Human Rights lose this cash-bearing Immigration cow.
Mr. Sofyan Wanandi, head of the Indonesian Business Association, explained the difficulty of implementing reform at last week’s APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) APEC meeting. “Too many sectorial interests, including civil servants with unclear motives, obstruct efforts,” he explained.
Sofyan thinks the solution to reform lies in giving the reform job to well paid highly professional talent and keeping it away from the hands of bureaucrats.
Ten years ago the term “reformasi” was a popular catchcry. Could a review of how well today’s Indonesia’s civil service serves it’s public, explain why the word has fallen into disuse?
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Evan Jones is an Australian business analyst, 30 years in SE Asia.
