Demolition of Kalijodo red-light area postponed

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration, abruptly postponed on Wednesday the demolition of the remaining 400 buildings in the notorious Kalijodo brothel and gambling complex in North Jakarta. The reprieve was believed to have been caused by pressure from powerful vested interests.

A local official, who asked for anonymity, told The Jakarta Post that as agreed on Tuesday, the Public Order office would conduct further demolition of the remaining buildings in Kalijodo. However, due to mounting pressure from some powerful opponents of the plan, the demolition was canceled.

"I can't tell you who that pressure came from, but we definitely have to postpone the demolition for an unspecified period of time, the mayoralty was later instructed to register all the building owners for compensation," he said.

After the recent brawl between gangsters in the area, which left hundreds of houses burned, the city administration had planned to build low-cost apartments for local people there.

A Public Order officer, Agus, added that the plan to demolish Kalijodo was canceled suddenly on Wednesday morning.

"We were told on Tuesday evening by Tonni (the head of the Public Order office) that we will face serious violence on Wednesday, if we go to Kalijodo to serve eviction notices. But this morning the plan suddenly changed, we were then ordered to go demolish the illegal shanties along the West Flood Canal which we have already done five times," said Agus.

Agus added that the Kalijodo postponement had caused he and his colleagues to lose their morale and fighting spirit, because they did not feel good about evicting poor people along the canal again.

Contacted separately, the head of the North Jakarta Public Order office, Tonni Boediono, denied that the Kalijodo postponement was caused by pressure. On Tuesday morning, Tonni boldly pledged to demolish all the buildings and shut down Kalijodo completely on Wednesday.

The Deputy Mayor of North Jakarta, Pinondang Simanjuntak, who was appointed as operational coordinator for the Kalijodo eviction also denied that there was any pressure.

Earlier Tonni explained that he was instructed to shut down the 30-year-old brothel and gambling complex by demolishing all the buildings.

However, Simanjuntak contradicted Tonni's explanation, saying that the demolition was only a part of efforts to normalize the function of West Flood Canal.

On Monday and Tuesday, the Public Order officers managed to demolish some 180 buildings in the area. The remaining 400 were scheduled to be demolished on Wednesday.

The closure of Kalijodo will bring another problem to the city as at least 5,000 local people, including hoodlums and sex workers, rely on the place for their source of income, and now must find other areas in the city to ply their trade.

Moreover, the place was known also as a source of income for the local police, the military and city administration officials who have reportedly been involved for 30 years in nurturing the place.

According to the subdistrict chief of Pejagalan, W.Budiyono, who oversees Kalijodo, the money generated could reach Rp 2 billion per night.