Raid on pub

On Friday evening (Sept. 6) a couple of friends and I were celebrating a birthday party at the Acacia Hotel. After an excellent meal in the restaurant there, we all descended to the bar in the basement, intending to have a quiet drink before going home. It was shortly after midnight. There were perhaps 30 people enjoying themselves in an orderly fashion in the pub. No one there appeared to fit the image of a demented Ecstasy taker, and nothing in anyone's behavior suggested that any illegal activities were taking place.

Suddenly, a swarm of policemen, military personnel and other uniformed individuals burst in, searching people at random and demanding that everyone produce identity papers. One woman in our party, a guest at the hotel, produced a photocopy of her papers, and explained that the original was being renewed. Despite this explanation, she and a pregnant friend were made to leave the hotel with the police. Neither woman was given the opportunity to tell her husband where she was being taken. It would seem that this raid was exactly what it appeared to be: a random check on the identity papers of restaurant and pub goers, and not part of a search for some dangerous criminal.

As foreigners living in Indonesia, we must, of course, accept laws that are different from those in our own countries. However, while the women were technically in breach of a regulation, and the police and other officials appeared to be acting within the law, such a rigid and severe enforcement of regulations, involving arrest and detention in the middle of the night of two women having dinner with their husbands, for a minor breach of the rules seems to me to be frankly outrageous, and entirely at odds with the Indonesian government's stated intention of encouraging business and tourism in this country. I can only hope that this raid was an isolated incident, and not part of some larger program whereby Jakarta's legitimate entertainment industry is prohibited from operating.

TIM KORTSCHAK

Jakarta