Entertainment centers in West Java to close on religious holidays
Entertainment centers in West Java to close on religious holidays
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
Following a month-long polemic between the owners of
entertainment venues and local Muslim organizations, the West
Java provincial legislative council passed a bill on the closure
of entertainment centers, restaurants and nightspots during
certain religious events into a bylaw that came into effect as of
Nov. 20.
The bylaw regulates that all kinds of entertainment centers,
restaurants and nightspots are to close every year during the
fasting month of Ramadhan (Muslim), Christmas (Christians),
Enlightenment Day (Hinduism) and Waisak Day (Buddhism).
The bylaw was endorsed in the legislature's plenary session
here on Tuesday which was also attended by many Muslim students
and workers of entertainment venues in the city.
Muslim students and workers of several entertainment venues
have separately demonstrated several times outside the
legislative council to relate their conflicting aspirations.
Muslim students have demanded that the legislature and the
provincial administration close all entertainment venues during
the fasting month while the workers have protested the move,
saying it would put them out of work temporarily.
Budiana Kosasih, chairman of the legislature's special
committee which deliberated the bill, hailed the bylaw, saying it
gives fair treatment to all religious communities in the
province.
"The bylaw gives equal treatment and opportunities for
religious communities to uphold their own faiths in line with
their religious teaching," he said.
The workers, mostly employed at billiard halls, protested the
bylaw, saying billiard halls should be allowed to continue
operation during the fasting month because billiards was a sport.
"We are not prostitutes, and billiard halls are not parlors,"
said one women worker.
Budiana admitted that the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle Party (PDI Perjuangan) faction had objected to the
closure of entertainment venues during the fasting month because
it would cause massive, temporary lay-offs.
Herry May Oloan, a member of the PDI Perjuangan faction, said
his faction had grudgingly accepted the bylaw's endorsement as it
gained a majority of legislators' approval.
Gugum Gumbira, chief of the city administration's fee
collection unit, said the one-month closure of restaurants and
entertainment centers and nightspots during the fasting month
would not overly affect the city administration's income because
many entertainment centers had not paid their taxes.
"With the bylaw, the city administration is expected to lose
only around Rp 600 million in taxes and levies from the
entertainment sector," he said.