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Governor rejects City Council's call to cut nightspots' operational hours
Jakarta Governor Basuki âAhokâ Tjahaja Purnama has said he would close down any night entertainment facilities involved in the circulation of narcotics, but he rejected the call made by City Council speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi to cut operational hours of law-abiding nightclubs
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akarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama has said he would close down any night entertainment facilities involved in the circulation of narcotics, but he rejected the call made by City Council speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi to cut operational hours of law-abiding nightclubs.
'To regulate their operation, we need to issue a bylaw on tourism. What is wrong with the discotheques? If we find that two times in a row they were involved in drug circulation, we just close them down,' he said in response to the call to reduce the nightspots' operational hours as reported by kompas.com on Saturday
Prasetio expressed concerns over the lengthy operational hours of nightspots in the capital. He called on the city administration to reduce the operational hours up to the middle of the night only. He observed that a number of nightspots operated until 2 a.m. and even 3 a.m.
'As a businessman, I know how the nightspots operate in Central Jakarta and West Jakarta. There are many among them that become places to circulate narcotics,' he said during a hearing with officials of the city administration to discuss tourism at the City Council building on Friday.
According to Ahok, he had an agreement with head of the National Narcotics Body (BNN) Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso to close down any night entertainment facilities that became a place to circulate any kind of narcotics.
The governor said that he did not see any negative impacts from discotheques and other evening entertainment facilities as long as they abide by regulations. 'I do not like visiting discotheque, but we should not be hypocrites,' he added.
He also rejected an idea to relocate all evening entertainment facilities to the Thousand Islands regency. (bbn)(++++)
