Fadli, The Jakarta Post, Batam
More than 3,000 laid-off workers and businesspeople from the entertainment industry on Batam island, Riau, have called on the local administration to lift the closure ruling on entertainment centers and nightclubs during the fasting month of Ramadhan to enable them to survive the economic crisis and celebrate the Idul Fitri holiday.
Titin D., a superintendent at the Formosa gaming center, said all 25 employees had already been laid off and had no alternative but to seek other jobs that could provide supplementary income to celebrate the upcoming Idul Fitri holiday.
""What can we do with the low monthly pay? Our salary is not enough to cover our daily needs. We need additional income to send to our relatives in our home villages,"" she said.
She admitted that many of the women workers laid off were now working in the streets at night as prostitutes, while many others stayed in their rented houses to wait for their Singaporean fiancs.
""Local authorities and ulema should not be hypocrites, but be realistic. We don't need bans or piety, but money to survive the economic hardship and help our parents finance their children's school fees,"" she said.
According to Titin, the closure of their workplace could have both negative and positive impacts on the workers, depending on their economic condition.
""Many workers employed in entertainment centers have not depended on their monthly pay, but on the tips they receive from customers,"" she said, saying that she could earn between Rp 100,000 and Rp 500,000 a week in tips.
Samsul Paloh, chairman of the Association of Entertainment Center Owners in Batam (Ajahib), admitted that more than 60 entertainment centers, nightclubs and parlors had laid off 3,000 workers during the fasting month, causing billions of rupiah in material losses to workers, businesspeople and the local administration.
He said Batam had 30 gaming centers with total transactions of Rp 450 million per day.
Samsul said that Studio 8, which operates 200 jackpot machines, had daily transactions of around Rp 250 million and most customers were Singaporean citizens.
""Entering the fasting month, Batam looks like a dead island because the number of foreigners visiting here has dropped drastically,"" he said.
Adi Layla, operations manager of Mutiara Karaoke House in Nagoya subdistrict, said the business, which employs 100 people, has lost Rp 35 million per day because of the local administration's ruling.
""We hope that the local administration will be wise in enforcing the ruling that has affected more than 3,000 workers and businesspeople on the island,"" he said, explaining that the local administration would also lose income from the entertainment centers during the fasting month.
Netty Herawaty, chairwoman of the local chapter of the Federation of the All-Indonesian Workers Union (FSPSI), said she had received many complaints about the local administration's ruling because, in addition to a sector of the laid-off workers being non-Muslim, the ruling was antiemployment.
""Workers and businesspeople in the entertainment industry should sue the local administration over the ruling and ask the provincial legislative council to press the local government to review it,"" she said.
The ruling bans all kinds of entertainment centers and nightclubs from operating during the fasting month of Ramadhan, which lasts from Nov. 17 through Dec. 15, 2001.
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