Surakarta nightspot owners want mayoralty to be consistent

Surakarta nightspot owners want mayoralty to be consistent

Kartika Bagus C., The Jakarta Post, Surakarta

Entertainment center owners in Surakarta are to abide by the
mayoralty instruction to close their businesses in the first and
last week of the fasting month of Ramadhan, but have threatened
to sue the mayor if any parties seek to disrupt their businesses
during the second and third week of the fasting period.

The businessmen, grouped in the Association of Entertainment
Center Owners of Surakarta (IPHS) stated their position at a
meeting with mayoralty officials at the Sriwedari entertainment
complex here on Friday.

Heni Nogogini, chairperson of IPHS, said that the businessmen
would sue the mayor if the mayoralty failed to protect
entertainment centers during the two-week portion of Ramadhan in
which their businesses were legitimately allowed to function.

According to the mayoralty instruction, all entertainment
centers must close from Nov. 15 to Nov. 22, and from Dec. 11 to
Dec. 17.

The government has decided that the start of the Ramadhan
fasting month will fall on Nov. 17.

Eleven IPHS members, the deputy mayor of Surakarta J.
Soeprapto, and the head of the Surakarta Tourism Office Novembri
Roekmi Evi were present at the meeting.

"We will abide by the (official) regulations set by the
mayoralty, not by any parties outside the official circles,"
Heni said. "If any groups of people later force us to bow to
their own ruling and disrupt our businesses during our two-week
operating period, we will ask the mayoralty to compensate us,"
Heni said, reading from an IPHS statement.

"We will oppose any anarchic actions against us should the
mayoralty fail to protect us, and thus, we will not be
responsible for anything resulting from our retaliation," the
statement said.

The owners' statement referred to the fact that Muslim
hardliners in Surakarta had been very tough in demanding that all
types of entertainment center had be closed during the fasting
month.

An incident last year in which two cafes were destroyed by
groups of Muslim hardliners during the fasting month in Surakarta
has apparently haunted the business people.