Dangerous stuff: A custom officer holds two bottles of liquor seized during an operation in an illegal warehouse in Jakarta. (JP/J. Adiguna)
Feb. 21, p. 20
Banten’s Tangerang administration is holding a search operation on hotels suspected of having illegal prostitution or receiving couples who were not married. Secretary of the Tangerang city administration, Harry Mulya Zein said the city public order agency had held raids on “adulterers” in hotels of the area. “Almost every week, the officers searched for hotel guests who were not husband and wife,” he said, as quoted by Antara.
Your comments:
So the city motto is “good morals”, eh? I seem to remember that 41 councilors of that city were implicated in the misuse of Rp 3.3 billion (US$286,956) worth of community development funds. I also recall in the recent KPK survey of corruption in Indonesia that Tangerang was singled out as one of the three most corrupt places in Indonesia for public services.
It is strange the only places in Tangerang that are raided – in the full glare of publicity – for gambling, prostitution and illegal liquor sales are the low-end establishments. Is this because the high-end operations have the administration in their pockets?
It is also strange when Tangerang Police do one of their raids against pirated DVD sellers those traders who make “gifts” to the local police chiefs seem to have an uncanny foreknowledge of the raids taking place. This is no secret and is plainly visible to anyone in the Tangerang shopping centers on the day of the raid: lots of kiosks locked up with stock hidden away.
David
Jakarta
Perhaps one day in the distant future, these moral crusaders can succeed in wiping out the corruption deeply rooted within the administration itself. Only then can they begin to earn the right to talk to the people about what it means to live a clean life.
Andrew
The sad thing is God sent Islam down to Saudi Arabia ages ago because the people were so dreadful. But unfortunately, once again this noble religion is lost to people with outdated cultures. These days, people can sell any religion – even God’s name itself – for politics and money. I am truly ashamed of these hypocrites.
Ruby Astari
I think this is going overboard, the raids on hotels around the airport, but what would happen if one of them is caught in bed with another woman other than his wife.
I’m an expatriate and I have just married an Indonesian woman. We spend our honeymoon in a hotel in Indonesia, where one attendant who looked after our room there asked my wife for commission, as though she was a prostitute.
Of course, I was offended as I am a Muslim and I complained to the receptionist. Not every expatriate has sex outside of marriage and I could have sued the hotel for the embarrassment it caused.
John Hoffmans
I have a business in Bali, and next week I was going to bring 15 of my staff to Jakarta for a holiday, for shopping, spending money etc.
After reading this, I cancelled the trip to Jakarta. We will go to Singapore instead. It is not that we are looking for alcohol or sex; but that I will not support these narrow-minded people who have nothing better to do than interfere in everyone’s lives.
Let’s see, 15 people spending Rp 1 million a day, plus accommodation and transport costs for five days in Jakarta, you just lost over Rp 200 million
Porky
Denpasar
