City bans alcohol during Ramadhan

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.