Prostitution spoils tourists' image of paradise Bali
By Putu Wirata
DENPASAR (JP): A booming sex industry fueled by the economic crisis is threatening to put in the shade Bali's vaunted "cultural tourism" campaign.
With little fanfare, sex tourism has developed over time, both openly and furtively, promoted by entertainment businesses that are fronts for prostitution.
Kerti Praja Foundation, which deals with social welfare, found 3,112 prostitutes in Badung regency last year. Their haunts were discos and karaoke lounges.
The foundation also noted that hoodlums controlled prostitution practices in the beach town of Kuta.
"Prostitution is a fact here in Bali," said Nyoman Kadra, 27, a tour guide for Japanese tourists in Denpasar. "The authorities will find it increasingly difficult to deal with it because it is disguised by legal businesses."
He claims he often takes Japanese tourists to visit brothels in Sanur, Denpasar, Nusa Dua and Kuta. The prostitution dens are generally disguised as karaoke halls or discotheques.
It is an open secret that a number of karaoke lounges and discotheques employ prostitutes who pose as attendants or entertainers.
In discotheques, the women mingle with visitors on the dance floor.
Sanur and Kuta discotheques are best known as centers for the flesh trade.
"If you need a companion, I can help you," is the typical offer made by a discotheque attendant under the dazzling flashes of lights.
A guest may pick up a woman to accompany him drinking or to have sex with him at his hotel for between Rp 150,000 (about US$16) and Rp 300,000 for a "short session" lasting about two hours.
Kerti Praja said Badung recorded among the most rapid growth in prostitution.
In 1997, there were about 1,200 prostitutes but the number almost tripled last year. Activists say that the actual number could be a lot higher because many "good" housewives and students are known to have worked as prostitutes.
"Many foreigners come to Bali for sex," said a tourist guide. "They think that Bali is just like Thailand where they can easily get women to sleep with them."
Opposition
Although the flesh business is covert in many places, it is not difficult to find "escorts".
"Prostitution here is difficult to eradicate because it is covert and the authorities have to have hard evidence to act against it," says Mohammad S. Gawi, a Nusa Tenggara daily reporter who has done investigative reports on prostitution on the resort island.
Hartono Setiawan, probably the best known pimp in the country who runs high-class brothels in several major cities, is one man believed to have openly conducted prostitution activities in Bali.
A couple of years ago, he stirred controversy by building a glittery amusement center named Planet Bali, with a professed aim to help promote tourism in the province after he publicly declared he would retire from the sex business.
Balinese sensed something fishy when Hartono recruited young women to work at the establishment which consisted of a discotheque, restaurant and bungalows. He also built a VIP room which cost Rp 6 million per night, with the guest served by six young women.
Under pressure from the then governor Ida Bagus Oka, Hindu intellectuals and the public alike, Badung regent Gusti Alit Putra closed Planet Bali only weeks after he dedicated it on the grounds that it was a place of prostitution.
"Bali does not need an amusement center like Planet Bali because it is not compatible with the Balinese values. What sort of amusement is it that costs up to Rp 6 million per night?" said Jelantik, a Balinese intellectual.
Although Planet Bali has been closed down, prostitution appears to be flourishing behind tourism's facade.
On Jl. Kartika Plaza and Jl. Raya Legian in Kuta, prostitutes line up along the streets at night. In broken English, they try to lure customers.
"Mister, sleep with me. Fifty thousand!" is their most common entreaty to passing tourists.
Along Jl. Kartika Plaza, the streetwalkers are literally on the road ready to go. They ride motorcycles with a spare helmet and stop in front of lone male tourists. When the tariff is agreed upon, the woman drives her customer to his hotel.
In some localities, prostitutes base their operations in boardinghouses, bungalows, inns and shopping centers. They are organized by pimps who know how to find customers.
"High-class prostitutes' customers include government officials and businessmen. There are business people who offer women to government officials for business needs," said Gawi.
"Unless the problem is properly addressed, cultural tourism will remain a slogan."
Regular raids on nightspots by the Denpasar administration have brought little success. Many prostitutes have been fined Rp 50,000 in court. Others were sent to rehabilitation centers under the social services ministry before they were sent back to their hometowns.
It does not seem to have deterred the prostitutes. This is obvious from the rising number of ladies of the night swarming to nightspots in major resort centers. Police have complained they often find it difficult to act against amusement spots which are prostitution fronts because they are legally in order.
It is against this background that hoteliers like Ida Bagus Oka Abiana, owner of Abiana Srama in Sanur, once proposed legalized prostitution and gambling.
Abiana argued the negative impact of vice could be controlled through making the activities legal. He pointed out that prostitution and gambling could not be eradicated because the businesses involved collusion between businesspeople and government officials.
The proposal met strong opposition from Hindu intellectuals like Dewa Gede Ngurah Swastha on this overwhelming Hindu island. He said Hinduism forbade both gambling and prostitution. He also rejected the argument that legalizing them would bring more revenues to state coffers.
Ketut Wiana, an executive of the National Hindu Council, has also flatly rejected the idea.
"Prostitution is just another crime which is not allowed by Hindu teaching," he said. He believed that the social ills could be cured through improving the public's religious observance and increasing employment opportunities.
"Remember that Bali's mascot is its culture, not prostitution," he said.