City starts to clear red-light district for sports center
City starts to clear red-light district for sports center
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Since November -- the Ramadhan fasting month -- the East Jakarta
municipal administration has been clearing a red-light district
that has been operating for 44 years in Ciracas to make way for
the development of the East Jakarta Sports Center.
The administration has allocated Rp 35 billion (US$4.12
million) to compensate owners of the 1.8 hectare land. The
compensation is to be disbursed in full by Dec. 15.
"The municipality is paying compensation fees at rates above
the sales value of taxed property (NJOP)," Zainal Arifin, a local
resident appointed by the administration to manage the eviction,
told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Arifin, who succeeded in persuading the landowners to give up
their land for the sports center, said he met with several
challenges, including those from a number of military officers
who, he alleged, had side businesses in the red-light district.
"I was able to convince the officers. And now, bar and brothel
owners have left the area," he said.
It was the second red-light district to be cleared by the city
administration. The first was the Kalijodo red-light district in
Penjaringan, West Jakarta, undertaken in March.
Ciracas subdistrict head Tabrani told the Post that most
brothel owners had rented the land from locals.
"When the landowners sold their plots to the government, there
was nothing they could do but leave," he said.
Locals said the red-light district sprouted up in 1959.
"In the beginning, military personnel, who lived in nearby
military complexes, often visited the place. Later, when the
location had been developed, many customers, including those in
luxury cars, also frequented Ciracas on weekends," said Arifin.
He said cars parked along Jl. Raya Bogor on Saturday evenings
used to cause traffic jams in the area.
"The place was also so crowded, one could barely walk."
However, the situation had changed completely in the last 10
years, as less and less people visited the red-light district,
which is now very filthy.
The red-light district used to accommodate 74 buildings,
including 16 bars and nine brothels. The remaining buildings
comprised beverage stalls selling alcohol and several gambling
dens.
Around 500 sex workers, mostly from the northern coast of West
Java and Central Java, made a living in Ciracas, as did around
300 local residents working as waitresses, parking attendants and
cleaners -- not to mention the 100 thugs or so who ensured
security in the area.
After the brothels and bars were demolished, many sex workers
had no idea what to do.
A sex worker from Sukabumi, West Java, who declined to give
her name, told the Post that she would not leave Jakarta.
"I don't know where I'll go, but perhaps I'll try to find a
job at a billiard hall," she said.
The construction of the sports center -- comprising a swimming
pool, an indoor tennis court, a soccer field, a basketball court
and a volleyball court -- will break ground next year.