If the Dowse family's adoption of Tristan is ruled illegal, the child's Irish citizenship may be revoked, reports John Aglionby in Jakarta
When Indonesian housewife Suryanih became pregnant for the third time in September 2000, she hoped it would lead to a third child for her and her husband Sarkawi in their south Jakarta suburban home in Pondok Cabe.
But then, according to a letter signed by Suryanih in Indonesian court documents obtained by The Irish Times, "the father of this child left me and my first child during the pregnancy", she wrote. "I have no idea of the father's current whereabouts."
What happened next is unclear but during the pregnancy Suryanih, clearly overwhelmed by the expectation of having to raise at least two children - it is not clear what happened to the couple's second child - decided to offer her unborn child for adoption.
One of the people she approached was Rosdiana (50), who worked as a nanny for Joe and Lala Dowse in Pondok Indah, a neighbourhood just north of Pondok Cabe. Rosdiana, the court documents reveal, knew of the Dowses' difficulty in conceiving and so offered the boy to her Irish-Azerbaijani employers.
The court records do not state when this offer was made but if it was not during the pregnancy then it must have been very shortly afterwards because the boy's name in all the court documents, including his birth certificate, is Tristan Joseph. This is a name Suryanih would probably not have chosen alone and Joseph is the name of Joe Dowse's father.
It is not uncommon in Indonesia for rich people who wish to adopt to find a pregnant woman who does not intend to keep her baby and support her financially and nutritionally through the pregnancy to ensure the baby is born as healthily as possible.
The Dowses wanted to expedite the adoption as quickly as possible, as demonstrated by the fact that they wrote their application to the South Jakarta District Court before the boy's birth certificate had been issued. The court authorised the adoption of Tristan in 2001 without, it seems, a recommendation letter from the social services.
What is not clear is why there appears to have been no contact with the department of social affairs or, as it was called at the time, the National Social Health Body. There are no references to the organisation in any of the 50 pages of documents relating to the adoption.
THERE ARE TWO possible answers: they either didn't know they had to go through the NSHB or deliberately avoided it to skip months, if not years, of bureaucratic hassle. The first is unlikely as, if they had consulted any other foreign couple who had gone through the laborious process, they would have learnt about all the legal hoops that have to be jumped through.
These include the baby having to stay for several weeks at the Sayap Ibu orphanage, the fact that as non-Muslims they were not allowed to adopt a Muslim baby and a six-month probation period during which adoptive parents have to demonstrate their love for the child and their ability to care for it.
They also did not meet all the criteria for qualifying for adopting an Indonesian child; they had only been married a year and had lived in Indonesia for less time than that. But foreigners who have adopted Indonesian babies say exemptions can be obtained.
But considering the Dowses were not in a hurry to leave the country, as shown by the fact that they stayed in Indonesia for two years after Tristan was born, makes their reluctance to go through the bureaucracy and so complete the process legally rather puzzling.
"Perhaps Mr Dowse was not confident about his security of employment," says someone familiar with the case. "The reason for them leaving the country in 2003 was, after all, linked to him no longer having a job."
Officials from the social affairs ministry - it was reinstated in 2002 - have told The Irish Times that they are are baffled as to how the adoption was approved by the court but they are not willing to comment publicly until they have completed their investigation, which could take weeks.
TRISTAN'S FATE currently lies with the Indonesian authorities. They could deport him because he is residing in the country illegally - his right to stay expired when his father left the country - but this is unlikely because they don't want to be seen to be inflicting further suffering on him.
The more likely approach is that the social affairs ministry will seek a judicial review of the adoption. If it is declared illegal then the Irish authorities will have to decide whether or not to revoke Tristan's Irish citizenship because its granting was based on the Jakarta court decision authorising the adoption. If the citizenship is revoked then Tristan will technically be stateless, although Indonesian social services have told The Irish Times he would be given Indonesian citizenship. Other couples would then be free to adopt him. At least one - an American couple - is known to be very keen to adopt him. This process could be fast-tracked if the report proves true that Joe Dowse has already obtained an Indonesian high court ruling declaring the adoption null and void.
And what of Tristan during all this bureaucratic wrangling? No one is looking to remove him from the Emmanuel orphanage in Bogor, 25 miles south of Jakarta, although Indonesian social services are investigating why the orphanage is not registered with the ministry's local office.
"We all have the best interests of Tristan at heart," says Afrinaldi, the social affairs ministry official handling the case. "I think we all have the same goal, to resolve this as quickly and with as happy a solution as possible. It's just that we are not quite sure yet what that solution will be."