Batam to soon launch raids on unwed couples living together

Batam to soon launch raids on unwed couples living together

Fadli, Batam

The Batam municipal government will soon launch a raid against
unmarried couples living together.

The plan will be executed in August this year, following the
recent order by Batam Mayor Nyat Kadir, said Rayanis Aminah, the
spokesman of the Batam social affairs office.

"The raid was supposed to be held in March, but it was delayed
to allow information on the raid to be disseminated," said
Rayanis.

Without prior information, the government is concerned that
the raid would spark public protests, especially from those
unmarried couples.

In anticipation of such a scenario, the social office started
an information drive in April on the planned raid. The social
office informed community and neighborhood units in six out of
eight districts in the municipality of the plan, said Rayanis.

"The neighborhood and the community units are expected to
convey our message to the residents living in their respective
units. We hope that they will inform the residents soon, so that
we can immediately proceed with the raid," said Rayanis, without
saying precisely when the office would conduct the raid.

Rayanis argued that the raids were lawful under local Bylaw
No. 6 on social order.

In the bylaw, couples found living together without a marriage
license face a maximum fine of Rp 5 million (US$590.00) and would
be married off en masse.

The planned raid is aimed at reducing the number of unmarried
couples in Batam, which currently stand at approximately 2,000
couples. Couples living together out of wedlock are regarded as a
disturbance to public order in Batam, which follows Malay and
Islamic cultural norms.

A physician and also a women's rights activist earlier said
that several factors had contributed to the high rate of couples
living together out of wedlock.

Evianora Azwar, the physician at the Nongsa community health
center here, said that most of the couples were between the ages
of 18 and 25 and were sexually active. They usually are migrants
with no parents to monitor them, a situation that has led to
promiscuity, she said.

There were also 2,000 sex workers operating in Batam, she
said. Some of them had become mistresses to Singaporean or
Malaysian nationals living about 40 minutes from the city.

They lived in housing complexes or boarding houses around the
Nagoya area here.

Azhari Abbas, the chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council
(MUI) in Batam, asked the government to be more serious about the
drive. He said that he had heard of the plan about three months
ago, but it never materialized.

"There should be no more delay. The huge number of couples
living out of the wedlock disturb our community," said Azhari.