Kramat Tunggak still busy despite relocation plans<\/p>\n
By Ati Nurbaiti<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Tinah, not her real name, has lived barely two
\nweeks in the red-light complex in Kramat Tunggak, North Jakarta,
\nleaving her seven-year-old son with her mother in Gunung Kidul,
\nYogyakarta.<\/p>\n
With her sunken cheeks, she is more withdrawn than the other
\nwomen. She looks too old for a beginner.<\/p>\n
Tinah says she has never \"worked\" before, but was forced to
\nwhen her husband left her.<\/p>\n
\"Coming from that area, your name must be Sri something,
\nright?\" a visitor says. And Sri, or Tinah, or whoever she is,
\nnods.<\/p>\n
Tinah has a few days to adjust before braving her first man.<\/p>\n
She dares not venture outside the complex as she has no idea
\nwhere in Jakarta she is.<\/p>\n
\"The bus number 6 outside leads straight to the Tanjung Priok
\nterminal,\" another visitor says, trying to sound helpful.<\/p>\n
\"The girls here don't want to go anywhere, they are well taken
\ncare of,\" snaps one suspicious oyster vendor.<\/p>\n
Tinah says she feels surrounded by friends in her new
\nresidence, one of the 250 'guesthouses' in the complex.<\/p>\n
\"You must think I've been here for a long time, we look so
\nclose,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Friendships grow between the girls in these houses. There is a
\nbar, dancing rooms and bedrooms with small windows.<\/p>\n
Tinah arrived on the day the news broke that the city wants to
\nmove the complex, officially a rehabilitation center, to the
\ndistant Seribu Islands.<\/p>\n
A dozen of her new friends have assured her the plan is
\nnonsense. \"It's an old story,\" one woman said.<\/p>\n
The women had a few more idle hours of chatting, nibbling
\nsnacks and dancing to loud dangdut music before heading for the
\nbathroom.<\/p>\n
Since the early 1970s, Kramat Tunggak has been home to women
\nof poor families, mostly from villages near Indramayu, West Java.
\nThousands have come and gone. The official age of inhabitants is
\n18 to 35.<\/p>\n
Around 1800 women live here but newcomers and those who return
\nare unlikely to be recorded.<\/p>\n
Shy young men selling underwear and sexy tops, water and the
\nnoodle vendors, and public transport drivers depend on the 11.5-
\nhectare area.<\/p>\n
\"It's where the most passengers are heading,\" one driver said.<\/p>\n
Men seek 16-year-old girls like confident-looking Lisa. With a
\npurple love-bite on her neck, Lisa said she would go home rather
\nthan move to the Seribu Islands. \"I've saved enough during my
\nnine months here,\" she said.<\/p>\n
But one girl who returned home to set up a warung, lost it and
\ncame back.<\/p>\n
The villagers, she said, didn't pay up.<\/p>\n
Others who leave may end up as prostitutes in lower-class
\nbrothels. Pleasuring a man who may give one a tip on top of the
\ncharge of Rp 35,000 is much easier than spending the day at a
\ngarment factory for Rp 5,000.<\/p>\n
Being a Kramat Tunggak prostitute is prestigious. It is
\nvirtually legitimate and no one chases them around.<\/p>\n
Street walkers, who are paid up to Rp 20,000, say they would
\nlike to join the rehabilitation program, which involves Koran
\nrecitals, sewing, and medical check-ups, says Charles Surjadi, a
\nresearcher in a community-based AIDS awareness project in North
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
The women in the streets or shacks along the railroad know
\nthat those who end up in the complex are the most beautiful, or
\nhave the best connections to the recruiters who comb the
\nvillages.<\/p>\n
The complex looks well cared for. It seems buildings are
\nrenovated every time there is a rumor that the complex will be
\nmoved.<\/p>\n
The narrow roads are plastered, and there are plenty of
\nparking spaces. The money is pouring in, so no one cares about
\nthe flies.<\/p>\n
With land alone reported to cost Rp 300,000 per square meter,
\nowners and pimps can look forward to making a fortune when a
\nprivate developer is found to take over the site.<\/p>\n
Then new brothels will crop up, say experienced residents and
\nresearchers.<\/p>\n
Those brothels which were supposed to have been eliminated in
\nthe 1970 drive to centralize prostitutes are still around. Many
\nof these sites have existed for a long time, when the women
\ncatered to the men working on the railroads and the sailors
\npassing through North Jakarta's ports.<\/p>\n
Even the poorer sites, Kalibaru, Rawabebek, and Penjaringan,
\nto name but a few, are big business, a researcher said.<\/p>\n
The Rp 20,000 charge per visitor pays for the pimp, the rent,
\nand for security fees to the organized crime syndicates. The pimp
\nwill pay the preman besar, who is also paid by the agent
\ndistributing the beer and other drinks.<\/p>\n
Pimps also pay a monthly fee to the neighborhood chief, and to
\nthe police and military -- they all profit from the 2000-odd
\nillegal prostitutes in North Jakarta alone.<\/p>\n
Legislator Nafsiah Mboi's call for dialog between sex workers
\nand the authorities on the plans to move Kramat Tunggak sounds
\nunrealistic. The women are too weak.<\/p>\n
To sit down with sex workers would mean recognizing the needs
\nof prostitutes, dubbed \"women without morals\" wanita tuna susila.<\/p>\n
\"Talks between equals\" would highlight the importance of the
\nbusiness. The public also seems to expect politicians to back up
\ndecent people who do not want to live near prostitutes.<\/p>\n
But Nafsiah's idea might be worth trying.<\/p>\n
For as long as the city's men need them, the women will keep
\non coming. We might as well hear what they have to say.<\/p>",
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