Commercial sex workers

Nationwide crackdown on prostitution is on the high. The municipal governments of Tangerang, Jakarta and other Indonesian cities are undertaking massive campaigns against prostitution. They round up woman walking alone in the streets after the curfew hours. They also raid the locations that are being suspected or reknown as the centers for such activities. All are done in the name of stopping moral decadence, preventing further erosion of good virtue, and saving the young from vice. The campaigns received massive support from the people.

I acknowledge the need for such movement to rid our country of the cancer that kill the younger generation slowly but surely. However, I have some reservations.

First of all, the fact that prostitution existed since the ancient time suggest that there are both demand and supply for such services. Crakdown on the prositution centers and the sex workers merely take away the supply but do not change the demand. In the midst of economic difficulties, the service providers may still try hard to operate underdround to satisfy the consumer needs. Government can destroy the physical facilities in which they operate, but such destruction may not eliminate the structure and network in the sex industry overall.

One of the most notable example is just my neighbouring apartment complex in Mangga Dua area, Jakarta. The Pesona Bahari apartment housed a sizeable number of commercial sex workers from the China Mainland. They do not have a formal place to offer their services. But there is someone who will ask for their service and send them to their destination. The taxis are parking outside the apartment, waiting for the kupu-kupu malam to go to their customers' residences.

Secondly, such campaigns may have a serious repercussion on the Indonesian society. I believe that not many ladies would prefer to offer their body for monetary exchage, if not for the dsperate need for cash. A proliferation of prostitution, especially local prostitutes, should be seen not only from the moral and social point of view, but also the economic perspective. The country is not doing well. The country cannot provide sufficient employment to the people. The country cannot put the rice on the ricebowl of its people. Tempted by the easy money, the poor woman and students would resort to take part in such activites. Why ? Because they need to eat. They need to study. They need to feed their families. They need to pay for loans.

Furthermore, one need to consider the number of people that are supported by such industry. Take for example, Kramat Tunggak, a former prostitution area designated and approved by Jakarta municipal government in the 1970s. For every customer that come to seek such services, they feed a lot of people: the sex workers, owner of the motels and staffs, the tukang parkir (parking security), the preman (hustlers), the ojek (public transport) driver, security guards and their families. Dont you think that a sudden closure of such places actually caused financial difficulties to many people? The prostitutes can operate underground, but what about those people that indirectly supported by the industry?

I am not saying that we should not clamp down on the industry because of the number of people it supports, but rather the crakdown should be done in stages, systematic, and much more organised.

Thirdly, the municipal governments actually lose a lot of money by outlawing, rather than reorganizing the prostitution. Legalizing and reorganising prostitution is not a neasy tasks, given the public pressure from the Muslim and conservatives Indonesians. However, we should not dismiss the fact that reorganisation and localisation would bring a potentially large amount of income to the government, as well as the ability to control the whole industry.

I have a story about the old Jakarta. One of the national figure whom I respected, Bang Ali Sadikin, was the governor of Jakarta from 1966 to 1977. He saw the proliferation and mushrooming of prostitution in various part of the city had a harmful effect of on the neighbourhood and the children. He localised the prostitutions on the streets, alleys in the various parts of the city to Kramat Tunggak, near the port of Tanjung Priuk. He imposed a heavy taxes on the services and outlawing the practise of prostitution outside that district. That district was isolated from the city popultion. As a result, he was able to generate large amount of money to build various infrastructures, from roads to schools and hospitals. When he retire in 1977, Jakarta was more than 10 times richer in terms of reserve. To the people who against his action, he defended that Kramat Tunggak was a swampy area that is far from the city population. Although many people settle down there lately, they should have known the consequences. That area was never meant to be a residential district. Hence they should not protest to tear down the prostitutio complex. His response to the radical Muslim group was that if it was haram to use the money generated from uang haram, they should not be using the roads in many parts of the city and study at the many government schools for they are built with that money. Cool.

Honestly, I would certainly want them to be romoved if they operate in my neighbourhood. Commercial sex workers who sell their bodies for a few hundred thousand to a few million rupiah are certainly a menace, a threat to the society. But it doenst mean under the name of morality and religion, they should be radically destroyed. We should be aware of the repercusion and take a step by step approach so as to minimise the impact of the crackdown. We need to think, what can their families eat on the following day.