Nightspot workers rally to keep their doors open
JAKARTA (JP): Some 4,000 nightspots operators and their employees staged a counter protest at City Hall on Tuesday following a rally a day earlier at the same place which strongly called for the closure of the businesses.
Unlike the previous protesters who were attired in uniforms and armed with long wooden sticks and occupied the building for almost nine hours from 5 a.m., participants of Tuesday's rally voiced their demands in a peaceful way at the City Hall compound by carrying banners and submitting their wishes to Governor Sutiyoso and other officials.
The nightlife workers and their bosses asked the Jakarta authorities to allow them to work during the ongoing Ramadhan holy month.
"There are some 300,000 people working in or related to the nightspot sector," the chairman of the Indonesian Association of Entertainment Centers (Aspehindo), Affendi Sastra, said, citing parking attendants, street vendors and taxi drivers as those related to the sector.
During the meeting with the officials, Affendi also wanted the security authorities in the capital to help protect their businesses from mushrooming threats from certain groups.
A day earlier, activists of the Defenders of Islam Front (FPI) broke into City Hall with a similar number of personnel and blocked the entrance of the building in a measure to press the governor to close all nightspots.
Their move, which began by performing the subuh (predawn) prayer at the building, totally paralyzed the city administration's activities for the entire day.
It, however, remained unclear why the security authorities did not take stiff measures against the occupation of such a government building.
In a statement, FPI implicitly stated that they might have to resort to physical action if Governor Sutiyoso refused to close down all nightspots in the capital soon.
"Our members' emotions might get out of control, resulting in the destruction and burning of such places," it warned.
Tuesday's rally by the nightspot workers and businessmen began at 9 a.m. and lasted for three hours, before it dispersed peacefully. The protesters then marched to the nearby city council's building.
Promise
During the meeting with the protesters, Sutiyoso reminded them of his position as governor in which he had to stand proportionally among all city residents and take into account all aspirations.
"All parties must also respect the Ramadhan fasting month," the governor told the protesters.
He also reiterated his promise to impose strict sanctions against any nightspots that were red-handedly found breaking his instructions on the limitation of the tolerable operating time during the Muslim holy month.
During the meeting with the councilors, the workers and owners of the entertainment places, such as discotheques, pubs, massage parlors and karaoke clubs, received support from the officials.
The councilors supported their right to work at such places as long as they did not breach any of the existing regulations.
"They have to support their families by working at such places," said deputy speaker Tarmidi.
"Beside, we all need entertainment once in a while. We go to a restaurant or a karaoke club to relax," Tarmidi, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction, added.
Councilor Ahmad Heryawan of the Justice Party (PK) faction admitted that the public still had a lack of vision about the terms 'entertainment' and 'vice activities.'
"Some people consider a discotheque as merely an entertainment spot, wile some others see them as places of 'vice' activities."
An official of the city tourism agency, R. Suparlan, revealed that the city was currently home to a total of 1,366 amusement centers, including 235 movie theaters, 139 discotheques, 151 karaoke clubs, eight night clubs, 10 saunas, 224 live music venues and 196 massage parlors.
"The number is slightly lower from last year's figure of 1,495 centers. Most of them at the time were closed down because of the prolonged monetary crisis," Suparlan said.
Data from the city revenue agency revealed that until November, contributions from the entertainment sector reached about Rp 30 billion (US$4.3 million).
For the fiscal year 1998/1999, the entertainment sector contributed some Rp 40 billion or 3.29 percent of total city revenue and contributions in the year 1997/1998 were some Rp 46.2 billion, or 2.5 percent of the revenue. (05)