City bans alcohol during Ramadhan

Ahmad Junaidi and Annastashya Emmanuelle, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Officials in Jakarta announced on Tuesday they would ban all cafes, bars and restaurants from selling alcoholic drinks during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan.

Speaking in a meeting between local officials and Muslim leaders, Governor Sutiyoso said the ban would be stipulated in a gubernatorial decree on the operations of entertainment centers and restaurants during Ramadhan.

"I will sign the decree next week," Sutiyoso said after the meeting, which was also attended by City Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Jacoeb and Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Bibit Waluyo at City Hall.

Sutiyoso added that the decree would also sharply limit the operations of night clubs, discotheques, amusement centers and massage parlors, except those parlors with blind masseurs, during the fasting month.

He said however that the various entertainment spots would be allowed to open their doors from 8:30 p.m. until 1 a.m. during Ramadhan to sell food and soft drinks. But those places will not be allowed to operate whatsoever in the first and second days of Idul Fitri and the 17th day of Ramadhan, which is considered the revelation day of the Koran, he said.

He also added that luxury hotels would have an exemption from the ban.

"Luxury hotels, including their entertainment facilities, will be allowed to operate since most of them serve non-Muslims and foreigners," Sutiyoso said.

He noted that the administration would revoke operation permits of those who violating the decree and asked the public to join in the monitoring of the entertainment centers. But he urged the public not to take the law into their own hands if they found the entertainment centers violated the regulations. "Just report to us if you see violations," Sutiyoso said.

He said public order officers would cooperate with police and military officers to safeguard places which were allowed to operate during Ramadhan.

Most Islamic organizations which attended the meeting are known as hard-line groups, such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), took issue with the very existence of the bars, live music spots and karaoke halls.

"For us, all of those places are the same. The administration should close all of them," Ali Alawi, a representative from FPI, demanded.

But no representatives of the country's largest and second largest Muslim organizations, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah were in attendance at the meeting.

The executives of the two organizations could not be reached for comment on the administration's decision on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, many bar and restaurant workers consider the plan to be absurd, especially for bars who rely on selling alcoholic drinks.

"That's irrational," said Ivy Yolanda, the public relations officer of the Hazara New Age bar in Central Jakarta. "I think we could tolerate this if the ban is in effect only until the Ramadhan special evening prayers. But not selling alcohol for about 40 days will damage our business," she told The Jakarta Post.

Ivy said they will try to meet with the city administration officials to clearly state their objections as she calculated the bar's revenue will drop by about 70 percent should the administration proceed with the regulation.

While the manager of the Paprika restaurant at Jl. K.H Wahid Hasyim, said the regulation would impact negatively on the restaurant's image as well as cutting about 40 percent of its revenue.

"How are we going to explain to our clientele, who are mostly (non-Muslim) expatriates about this ruling?," said the restaurant's manager Sonny Kartawijaya. However, if it has been decided by the administration, Sonny said they have no option but to comply. "But we still consider the regulation inappropriate," he added.