Contain prostitution if it is impossible to eradicate it

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.