Sex workers driven of Tangerang streets

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

The nights in Tangerang municipality have become noticeably quieter over the last two weeks.

The streets, usually lined with sex workers, are now empty, even on weekends.

"This is unusual. We tell people looking for the prostitutes to just go home. The prostitutes are scared ... they will no longer work here," said Agus Mulyadi, an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver at the part under the Cikokol overpass.

The park, as well as Jl. Merdeka, Jl. TMP Taruna and Jl. Daan Mogot, were all popular hangouts for prostitutes.

Although there have yet to be any raids on the prostitutes following the enactment in late November of Bylaw No. 8/2005, which outlaws prostitution and public intimacy in Tangerang municipality, the sex workers have disappeared from the streets.

Endorsed as one package with Bylaw No. 7/2005, which bans the sale of alcoholic beverages, the new bylaw also bans public intimacy, hugging and/or kissing that could arouse sexual excitement in public places and places visible to the public, such as hotels, restaurants and entertainment centers.

Violators can face up to one month in jail or a Rp 15 million fine.

The municipality administration has set itself the target of turning Tangerang into a "religious city".

Joniansyah, a push cart cigarette vendor on Jl. TMP Taruna, complained about the lack of sex workers on the street.

"It's become really quite since they (female and transvestite prostitutes) found out that the new bylaws on liquor and prostitution had been endorsed by the council. I have lost my trade and will have to move somewhere else," he said.

Said, a parking attendant on Jl. Merdeka, also said that the new bylaws had resulted in the disappearance of the sex workers.

"I think they have already moved to other areas in Tangerang regency, which is not affected by the bylaws," he said.

One prostitute who usually worked Jl. Merdeka, said that many of the prostitutes were afraid to go out on the streets at night because of the new bylaws.

"I think Mayor Wahidin Halim is serious about his bylaws and I will not be able to pay the Rp 15 million fine if his officers net me in a raid," the 29-year-old woman said.

She said that she and her friends, whom she shared a rented house with, planned to move to Jakarta if there was no more hope of doing business in Tangerang.

"We now can only serve regular customers who call us up and arrange dates in hotels. And it can't be any more than a one-hour date, as we don't want to be there to long," she added.