City authorities seal brothel in Pejompongan
City authorities seal brothel in Pejompongan
JAKARTA (JP): A 300-member security team closed down yesterday a 2,800-square-meter brothel in the Pejompongan area, Central Jakarta, throwing 150 prostitutes and 25 of the brothel's managers out of work.
The red-light district was closed after three warnings from the municipal administration, which is trying to bring down the number of prostitutes in the city.
Yesterday was the deadline for the evacuation and closing of the brothel, which opened in the early 1970s.
However, locals remain skeptic about the closure as similar measures taken in the past lasted only for a few weeks.
According to Yamin Abdullah, head of the Bendungan Hilir Sub- district, the brothel was closed repeatedly in the past, only to be reopened again.
"The owners in the area prefer to lease their buildings to those involved in the prostitution business," he said.
Now, however, the government is offering to help those in the sex business rehabilitate, return home or transmigrate.
"But none of the sex workers have taken up the government's offers yet," Yamin said.
Tugiman Supangkat, head of the city's security and order department said, "a 24-hour patrol team involving various security personnel will monitor the area for one month to make sure that the former brothel will not reopen".
Residents who protested the loss of their living quarters were told by security personnel to take their complaints to the Central Jakarta mayoralty.
"We have been ordered to seal this brothel," one of the security members said.
A plan is afoot to erect a low-cost apartment building on the area where the brothel complex stands.
The city, however, has yet to say when construction will begin.
Mora Tua Simamora told The Jakarta Post yesterday that renovating the former brothel area has been easier since the sex workers agreed to cooperate.
Earlier on Friday, the sex workers said they had accepted the government's plan to close down the Pejompongan Indah brothel since the head of Bendungan Hilir Sub-district told them about the plan last month.
"We accept the reasons why this place has to be closed. We will help the government in the closure," Jakfar, who has spent years in the sex business, told the Post on Friday night.
He said the government is only terminating the prostitution activities and not demolishing the houses as reported by a newspaper.
Jakfar said the government is now determining the amount of land compensation.
"We will soon hold a meeting about the land compensation," he said, adding that the amount of compensation given for land to be used for a low-cost apartment building nearby was Rp 2.5 million (US$1,086) per square meter.
Jakfar said he has yet to decide if he'll relocate. "Kramat Tunggak is expensive. The houses in Kramat Tunggak have certificates," he said in reference to Jakarta's largest brothel center near the Tanjung Priok port.
Some visitors were still seen crowding the relatively cheap brothel on Friday night. They were dancing to dang-dut music coming from one of the dimly-lit houses in the area.
For a visit, clients used to pay between Rp 10,000 to Rp 20,000.
Yuli, 25, a prostitute, was pondering her friend's offer to move to the Kramat Tunggak prostitution complex in North Jakarta.
Cici, 32, another prostitute, has decided to go back to her hometown in Indramayu, West Java. She said she would use her savings to open a little garment retailing operation. (04/14)