Booming sex trade deeply rooted in Jepara

Jepara has always been associated with prosperous woodcarving businesses, with no indication of red-light districts, glittering pubs or nightclubs.

However, this northernmost regency in Central Java has gained another reputation -- as a center for high-class prostitutes and commercial sex workers.

Koentjoro, a psychologist from Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, has, since 1987, put his time and energy into carrying out comprehensive studies and advocacy on the social phenomenon in Pati and Jepara regencies.

In 2001, he set up a nonprofit organization, Kusuma Bangsa, to register sex clusters in these two regencies. The organization is now actively registering houses and villages that become prostitution centers to find the precise sex cluster mapping.

According to Koentjoro's study, prostitution in Jepara has dated from 1870. At that time, Jepara was a plantation area where the Dutch colonial administration carried out a cultuurstelsel (forced planting) policy on local owners. The policy resulted in a flood of migrants, which later encouraged prostitution.

Koentjoro said prostitution had long been embedded in this community for more than 132 years; therefore, it would be hard to eliminate easily this deeply rooted tradition. Moreover, the community did not seem to really be paying serious attention to the phenomenon.

In his opinion, poverty was not the sole reason why women plunged themselves into the world of commercial sex. The major underlying reason, he thought, was the booming trend toward materialism and consumerism, especially among the younger generation.

Giving an example, Koentjoro said that a person, for instance, could only afford to buy inexpensive and unbranded linting (rolled) cigarettes, but if he wanted to be seen as a "cool" guy, he should buy more expensive, branded clove cigarettes, like Dji Sam Soe. "He will do anything to get Dji Sam Soe, even if he has to steal them," Koentjoro explained.

Similarly, he also found that despite the presence of many Muslim clerics and Islamic boarding schools in almost every village in Jepara, prostitution was still prolific.

For this, he saw a close relationship between several factors, including morality and socioeconomic issues. "It (prostitution in Jepara) is a multidimensional social problem," Koentjoro said.

Local people, he said, saw prostitution as the villages' economic breadwinner. Most commercial migrant sex workers donated part of their income to various development programs, as well as social activities. Koentjoro said sex workers still thought about sin and guilt.

"To reduce their feelings of guilt, they become rather generous," Koentjoro said. "To achieve a spiritual balance, the sex workers never forget their daily obligatory prayers. Many of them have also performed the annual haj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia."

Koentjoro said he once met a sex worker and asked her why she kept on praying while at the same time getting involved in illicit sex that was against her religious teachings.

"I have done something sinful. If I didn't pray and donate part of my income, I would feel even more sinful," a sex worker replied, as quoted by Koentjoro.

Koentjoro also said that genetic reasons might be one of the causes.

Historically, Jepara, one of Central Java's most prolific coastal areas, was known as an ancient harbor where people traveling around the world anchored their ships in the harbor for various trading purposes. At that time, people from China, Portugal, the Netherlands and Middle East countries visited Jepara, and some even lived there, marrying local girls and producing beautiful, mix-race children.

At present, Koentjoro is afraid the now rich and prosperous sex workers are suffering from financial debt. He indicated a close relationship between the girls and their pimps. To buy houses or other consumer goods, the girls quite often borrowed money from their pimps.

"The pimps give them a lot of money, so as to attract other girls into the profession," he said. In the end there would be no winner -- if no action were taken -- as more women might end up as sex workers and Jepara might become notorious as a prostitution center.

-- Singgir Kartana