Kezya Gunawan Wijaya

Elisabeth Pritiwi
Civics 10.1
5 December 2015
Citizenship
I have an uncle from my mom, he is my moms little brother, and
he live in Australia and his name is Alexander Gunawan. My uncle
looses his citizenship in Indonesia, and is an Australian now. He lives in
Australia with his family, he have 2 children, one is Jessica, the oldest
and Jason is the youngest, and his wife too. Sometimes we visit them
to Australia in Brisbane, and spend our holiday by going to Gold Coast
and Sydney. They also like to come over to Indonesia to visit us, or his
wifes family. The process of taking the citizenship in Australia is easy
if you took PR there (permanent resident), although only for few years.
However, my uncle said that there is a test about the Australia and
England history as a requirement to be the citizen of Australia. Long
ago, it is said that if Indonesia is in a war with China, they would
defend Indonesia, but because of discrimination, no one would defend
anyone. The reasons for my uncle to go to Australia because Indonesia
is being racist and they do corruption. He said that he dont want to be
a part of the corruption. He said that if Indonesia didnt corrupt, there
would be no life, because they bribe to live.

When I asked him which country is better to live, he answered

Australia. He said that everything is organized there, the people obey
the rules, not like in Indonesia where cars can just stop anywhere like
Angkot. It is an obligation for Australian to obey the rules. The
Australian government also provides facilities, like a public library. In
the library, Internet is provided and is free. Everything is also clean and
fresh there because there are less people there in compare to
Indonesia, and that also means less cars and motorcycles, because the
gases produce is the cause of pollution. The streets are also clean
since Australian people follow the rules to throw the trash on the right
place. This is because the Australian citizens have the obligation to
obey the law and being allegiance by having commitment to the rule of
law. There is also another advantage there in being a citizen in
Australia, if you are stranded or needed of help, the Australian
government will surely send help right away. For example, my uncle
said when TKW were abandon in Arab; the Indonesian government
didnt send help and let it happen. It is different from Australia; my
uncle said that if the Australian people were trapped in the war, the
government would send a ship to save their citizens. Like the event
that happen in Paris, the Australian government directly create a
hotline to help if their citizens were worried about their relatives in
Paris.

Another example given is when there is bomb in Bali, the

Australian government straightly sends their airplane to save their
citizens who are currently in Bali, and they even skip immigrations and
stamping passports. He said that, what if the bomb was in Malaysia?
Will Indonesia send their airplane to help? Even food supply is difficult,
how about sending an airplane? The lesser the people in Indonesia
would be better because Indonesia is over-populated. So basically the
Australian government have a law that is called Emergency Services
to get help in an emergency or disaster situation.
To get the citizenship is Australia is harder than getting a
citizenship in Indonesia. So my uncle prefers to take the harder chance
first because it is easier for him to take the Indonesian citizenship
again. He believes that the Indonesian government would admit him as
an Indonesian again because he can speak Indonesian, Bahasa Sunda,
and knows Indonesian history. For my uncle, he also said that being an
Australian citizen is easier when you want to travel around the world
because he knew that Indonesia is the place of terrorism and its
majority is Muslim. Based on my uncles experience, Australian people
celebrate Christmas without knowing its meaning. They do buy
presents, but they didnt know why they celebrate Christmas. The
Australian citizens have the obligations to vote in federal and state or
territory elections and in referenda. There elections happen every 4
years but it depends if one of them resigned, we will directly do the

election. These elections include local& state government, and federal.

As a citizen, they have the rights to vote in the election and are a
must, because they are lack of people so when some people did not
contribute their vote it would be a little hard for the government. So, if
they did not vote, they will get a penalty by receiving a letter from
Australian Electoral Commission.
The disadvantage in Australia is that homosexuals are actually
permitted. As the other citizen, we do not have the rights do
discriminate or sue them, we just need to accept the fact that they are
who they are. The problem is not ours and we cant disturb their life.
They even have their own church to bless the homosexual marriages. It
is said that the NSW government has sympathized and legalized
homosexuality in 1984 with the Australian Medical Association.
Queensland had become the last state to decriminalize homosexuality
in 1990. Tasmania have been the leap and become the first state to
introduce the same sexy couples. During the 30th anniversary of the
original Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the Labor government made a
promise that they would promise equality for homosexuals, full
parental rights and also national anti-discrimination laws.
In my opinion, I believe that the Indonesian citizens including
myself should be more responsible starting from throwing trash in its
place to keep everything clean and to obey the rules that the
government has established. There should me more safety in Indonesia

like the polices who have the duty to do it. We also should stop the
corruption because if we dont corrupt, we can use the extra money to
create school or any needs. Indonesia is actually a great nation-state
with varied spices, tribes, cultures and ethnicities, with these we can
be a developed country by following the laws and be an honest citizen.

Work Cited
"Australian Government." Your Rights, Your Responsibility (2014): 1-7.
Print.
Graham Willett. "Australian Homosexual History." Illawara Q Info. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.