'Alcohol ban won't be enforced'

'Alcohol ban won't be enforced'

The Jakarta trade agency has decided to prohibit the sales of
liquor with more than 5 percent alcohol (wine and spirits) by all
but the duty-free shops and put the age limit for at 21. The
Jakarta Post asked some local people what they thought of the new
regulation.

Wuri, 38, is a civil servant at the Ministry of Home Affairs.
She lives with her husband and children in Tebet, South Jakarta:

Basically, I agree very much with the decision to ban liquor,
but I doubt that the authorities are serious.

We can always see high school and junior high school students
in uniform drinking cheap liquor in the alleys.

This shows that the city administration and police fail to
crack down on the shops that sell those drinks. We all know that
we have clear regulations prohibiting people to sell liquor to
minors.

Vira, 26, is an employee of a property management company in
Central Jakarta. She lives with her family in Ciputat, South
Jakarta:

I believe that we already had good regulations on liquor
before this.

I've noticed that several liquor shops had really enforced the
regulations as they would not sell liquor to anyone. I even saw
my friend rejected by a liquor shop because he failed to show his
ID.

The problem is that the police or government fail to stop the
sales of illegal home-made spirits or smuggled booze.

-- The Jakarta Post