Contain prostitution if it is impossible to eradicate it

By Th. Sumartana

SALATIGA, Central Java (JP): Lately, many issues have surfaced to become major topics of conversation in many circles.

Labor disputes, the muzzling of the press, the Batak Protestant Church controversy, the drought, the Bapindo bank scandal, inflation, foreign loans and high-class prostitution all have people talking.

Inundated with this flood of controversy, the public has sometimes seemed overwhelmed. After all, surely the government, with its undoubted competence in taking on sticky issues, could take the lead on dealing with a number of these matters.

As for the rest, an expression of our common concern seems to be in order.

One of the rather interesting cases to catch the public's attention recently was the exposure of a high-class prostitution ring, allegedly run by Hartono Setyawan. He was reportedly caught red-handed by two police women.

The question is: What wrong did Hartono commit?

Now, this may sound like a defense of Hartono. But as will become clear later in this discourse, if it is, indeed, a defense, it is not based solely on pragmatic considerations.

With considerable imagination and skill Hartono transformed a number of plain kampung ducks into urban swans. What was cheap before now became expensive. Value, as it were, was added. Isn't that undiluted business?

Whatever the stance one wishes to take, or the reasons for it, the question of prostitution deserves to be discussed with a deeper sense of perception.

Of course, it is quite correct for people to be against prostitution. It has not been labeled a sin by all of the major religions for nothing. Many diseases and excesses result from prostitution. In essence, however, prostitution constitutes a business transaction and in such a process there are always those who profit and those who lose.

Often diseases spread unchecked, pimps rake in too much profit and the women suffer exploitation and extortion, not to mention degradation. In the eyes of the public, prostitutes are never respectable people.

And yet, doesn't prostitution fulfill an existing demand? Any reasonably healthy society needs prostitution to remain so. At the very least there must be a substitute. One might ask at this point: "Who can point out an example of a truly healthy society?" Probably there is none. But by any means, we can work toward eliminating or controlling the diseases that plague our own.

Admitting that there is a problem is the first step in that direction.

Most people would say that it is nonsense to assert that tourism is never associated with this particular branch of business. Sex, after all, is one of the pleasures that can be sold to tourists. It is a reality, albeit embarrassing to some, that many big, expensive hotels, or at least individuals in those organizations, seek to maintain good relations with sex peddlers.

For those reasons many people are skeptical about the objectives and the sincerity of operations on the part of the authorities to intervene in and put an end to this business.

Hartono, for all his unsavory reputation, is a rational person. He added quality to the business. He upgraded its resources. He did this carefully, in a low key manner, without offending the public's sensitivities. Only a handful of people knew about the Prapanca place in Kebayoran and the telephone number that led to the dubious transactions.

As for the general issue of prostitution, surely nobody would deny it is impossible to eradicate entirely, no matter how many raids the authorities undertake. So it seems to me that there is no need to work so hard at flushing prostitution out of society. It seems more rational to expend our energies in containing and controlling it.

The market will determine the rate of turnover, even without too much intervention from the government. The supply should be just adequate, not inordinate, but in accordance with the market demand. And care should be taken that the quality of both the service and the commodity sold remain properly sound under the guardianship of honest government officials of impeccable moral and ethical standards. It should be their job to assure good health standards, safety and fair transactions between the sellers and buyers of the service.

The state of a society's fitness is indicated by the prevailing demand for sex transactions. A tense society that exists in conditions of stress has a greater need for the release sex provides. Granted, any deviations in sexual practices could raise new tensions, but by and large peddlers of sexual pleasures provide a service for society. An outlet is needed to suppress aggressiveness. Prostitution should be recognized as a profession.

Clearly this would be a profession without tokens of merit and retirement funds, but the women could be required to pay taxes. Prostitutes are like unknown soldiers. They live, they serve a purpose and their significance of their services goes unrecognized.

In the face of such realities, we do not have too many options. We must opt for the more-or-less acceptable. A total purge is not possible.

It was said that prostitution did not exist in the socialist countries of the world. However, "free sex" was rife and the rate of marriages and divorces was very high. Without prostitution, cases of rape and violence would probably increase in number. Prostitution is like the gutters necessary to containing household waste. It functions to contain the residue of passions and tensions existing in society.

Most probably we would be hard set to find anyone who would approve of the practice of prostitution. In this world, however, there are many things that contradict our morality ideals. And there is not much that even religious leaders can do. The world is still as we have always known it.

This is not an expression of pessimism. It is a fact that containing the ill effects of prostitution (until we can eradicate it, if ever) is the best possible step we can take.

Hartono was only one of the many people who are engaged in this business. The rationality of his attitude in the conducting of this business deserves our admiration even though we know that he "sold human beings as if they were cattle".

But because the trade is ubiquitous, is there any reason why we should regard Hartono as so despicable a person? He acted no more than as a rationally thinking merchant. He not only dressed his women in the latest fashions and accessories, he also taught them the arts of social etiquette and conversation.

Perhaps we could say: It is a shame that what he sold was people. Still, if he taught unfortunate women good manners, compassion, safe sex techniques, frugality and how to increase their incomes, besides providing them with health insurance, what was there about Hartono that was lacking? Isn't it the "value added" factor that was on his mind?

Why was he, in particular, hunted? Hartono was one of the best among the bad.

The writer teaches in the postgraduate studies department at the Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.