Closure of brothels 'leads to new plight'

JAKARTA (JP): Closing established prostitution sites would hamper efforts to monitor the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and drive virtually all commercial sex transactions onto the streets, experts and activists said Monday.

Kartono Mohamad, a former head of the Indonesian Medical Association, said "The ability to monitor sexually transmitted diseases benefits all: the prostitutes and their families and also the clients and their families." Of the 706 HIV/AIDS cases reported in the country, 40 percent are women, including "loyal wives" who got the virus from their husbands, Kartono said.

Kartono was talking at a one-day discussion focusing on public demands to close government-sponsored rehabilitation sites, or lokalisasi, which have allowed sex transactions to continue.

Demonstrations in various cities, such as Jakarta, Klaten in Central Java and Ujung Pandang in South Sulawesi, have pressured government officials to close some brothels and nightspots. Red- light districts such as in Purworejo, Central Java and Pontianak, West Kalimantan have been burned down.

The Association of Indonesian Moslem Women (IKWAMI) recently demanded the closure of Kramat Tunggak, North Jakarta, saying the prostitution site set up by the city in the 1970s had led to many cases of divorce. Local residents have also threatened to burn the complex down.

Public health expert Nafsiah Mboi said closing government rehabilitation sites, "which only host about 10 percent of sex transactions", would lead to "100 percent of sex transactions spilling onto the streets". Should the sites be closed, the women turned out would swell the ranks of the country's poor, she said.

Muhammad Khoiron HS, a religious teacher based for more than 20 years in the red-light district of Bojong Sari in Surabaya, East Java, said he was against closing down rehabilitation sites despite the fact that they had failed to "rehabilitate" prostitutes and pimps.

"The government programs are never followed up, including steps to provide spiritual guidance," the teacher said.

While he acknowledged that it was difficult to find another job with as high an income as prostitution, he said spiritual guidance was crucial in helping to build prostitutes' self- confidence to start anew. But people with such skills rarely involve themselves enough in the community, he said.

Muhammad said he did not support demands to close rehabilitation sites and red-light districts because there was no guarantee of other work for the prostitutes.

"The local authorities have said they would provide the necessary costs to transport the women home, and that was it." In response to such poor government-backed plans, Muhammad has founded a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) for those inside and outside the prostitution business. Government closures of rehabilitation sites have so far been carried out for "merely political" reasons to appease public demands, he said.

Ali Sadikin, Jakarta's governor in the early 1970s, said taxes collected from prostitution and gambling had gone to help fund many of the capital's roads and buildings. He argued it was only practical for the government to regulate and take in revenues from such transactions.

A sex worker from Surabaya, Narti, said she and her colleagues had considered holding their own demonstration in response to the heated public demands to close rehabilitation sites and red-light districts. "We decided not to ... If we went to the council, what law would they refer to? There is no law on us. Do we exist?"

Narti also said that the industry took in "millions" of rupiah including security guards who took in Rp 1,500 per guest.

Narti and a former sex worker from Jakarta rejected charges that rehabilitation sites caused many broken marriages.

"If Kramat Tunggak was closed, who could guarantee that husbands would not go to other sites sprawled all over the city?" asked Azizah, who said she was now actively advocating health awareness among sex workers.

The discussion was held by Hotline Surya, a non-governmental organization advocating awareness of HIV/AIDS in East Java.

The International Labor Organization recently reported that the country's sex industry generates between US$1.18 billion and $3.3 billion (with the rupiah at 2,150 to the U.S. dollar), or up to 2.4 percent of the country's gross national product. It also estimated that 230,000 sex workers were employed in the industry. (anr)