Tangerang regent revokes permits of Transelindo hotel

JAKARTA (JP): While the government is struggling hard to lure investors to Indonesia to restimulate the country's paralyzed economy, the Tangerang regency administration has revoked the operating permits of a hotel which was damaged by mobs in last month's rioting.

Regent Agus Djunara issued the order against Hotel Transelindo in Kadu village, Curug district, on Saturday for reasons of public order and security.

"We asked the hotel's management to halt their planned operations and the renovation work," administration spokeswoman Ena Karlina said Sunday.

The revocation of the permits for the hotel, which has almost completed a Rp 10 billion (US$690,000) refurbishment, was stated in a letter addressed to the hotel's president, Rudy Yulianto Halim, the regent was quoted as saying the same day.

According to Ena, the letter also said that all licenses obtained by the hotel -- located near the Bitung gate on the Jakarta-Merak toll road -- would be revoked because the management had violated their terms.

She, however, refused to disclose the hotel's violations in detail.

None of the hotel's management could be reached for comment yesterday.

On June 17, 200 people claiming to be Kadu villagers, stormed the Transelindo, protesting the management's plan to reopen the hotel.

The protesters, who destroyed the hotel's security post and pulled down its name board, objected to the hotel having a bar and karaoke hall. They demanded the owners build a supermarket on the site instead.

The hotel owners decided to renovate the damaged hotel even though they had suffered losses of about Rp 2 billion in the riot.

A similar protest against the hotel's existence and operation occurred again on Saturday. The protesters demanded the regency authorities convert the hotel into a supermarket or a hospital, which would be of more use for the local people.

They said the hotel's bar and karaoke facilities would only provoke anger and unrest.

During the mid-May violence, banks, cars, offices, shops, hotels and supermarkets were burned and looted in Tangerang, leaving thousands of people unemployed.

Transelindo has some 100 employees.

An executive of the hotel, Wibisono, was quoted by Antara as saying Sunday that the Transelindo management had left the resolution of the dispute to the local authorities, hoping that they could provide a suitable win-win solution.

When asked whether the hotel would sue the regency administration for issuing and then canceling the permits, Wibisono said the management was still assessing the situation. (bsr)