Entertainment spots want to open during Ramadhan
Entertainment spots want to open during Ramadhan
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Thousands of demonstrators representing entertainment centers in
the city staged a rally in front of the City Council building and
the City Hall on Monday, demanding that the administration allow
them to remain open during the Ramadhan fasting month for Muslims
in a few weeks.
The secretary of the Entertainment Centers Owners Association
Adrian Maelite urged the administration to allow the centers to
operate after Tarawih prayer (about 9 p.m.) and before the Shubuh
prayer (about 3 a.m).
"Do not close the centers totally during Ramadhan. As a
metropolitan city, Jakarta needs them," Adrian told reporters.
Otherwise, he said, thousands of people would suffer
economically as the centers employ more than 250,000 workers.
He said that in addition to direct employees, thousands of
people, including street traders and parking attendants, also
were financially dependent on the centers.
The city has 2,887 licensed entertainment centers, including
1,228 bars/restaurants, 144 discotheques, 12 night clubs and 263
karaoke halls.
Ramadhan will begin in the first week of November this year.
The demonstrators conducted a peaceful rally while listening
to discotheque-style music pumping out of loud speakers that they
had brought along.
Theresia, one of rally participants, urged the administration
to allow the centers to operate during the Muslim's holy month so
that she could pay her employees.
"My employees desperately need their salaries each and every
month, and especially to celebrate the Muslim Idul Fitri holidays
or Christmas," said Theresia, a mother of two children who works
at the Cleopatra discotheque in Sunter, North Jakarta.
In recent years, the city administration, under pressure from
Muslim fundamentalists, has increasingly curtailed the activities
of entertainment centers, during the fasting month. Several
places which remained open in the last two years were attacked by
the white-robed operatives from the Islam Defender's Front (FPI)
with almost total impunity.
Monday's protesters, who called themselves the Anti-Chaos
Society, also urged the administration to dissolve the FPI as it
had used violence to damage entertainment centers here.
Chairwoman of the Jakarta Women's Communication Forum (FKPJ)
Chairun Nisa, who accompanied the demonstrators, also urged the
authorities to give protection to the employees of the
entertainment centers.
Separately City Governor Sutiyoso said the operational hours
for the centers during Ramadhan was still being discussed by the
administration.
"As for the FPI, let the police handle the case," Sutiyoso
told reporters.
Two weeks ago, several entertainment centers in West Jakarta
were damaged by the militant group, which was reportedly set up
by New Order-linked elements within the police and military over
the past years.
Recently, however, city police officers arrested at least
eight FPI suspects over their most recent attacks.