East Java Promises End to Prostitution

[kingwilly]

East Java Deputy Governor Saifullah Yusuf vowed on Thursday to close down all red-light districts in the province but warned it could only be done in steps.

Speaking at an Islamic boarding school in Pasuruan, Saifullah said his administration would work with the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) to close down all brothels across the province.

He said the administration would deal with the economic fallout of shutting down an entire industry and find new jobs for sex workers, while the MUI would handle “moral aspects” of the campaign.

Surabaya, the provincial capital, is home to the Dolly red-light district, said to be the biggest in Southeast Asia. City authorities have already restricted its opening hours and prohibited the hiring of new sex workers in a bid to slowly phase it out. 

Antara
East Java Promises End to Prostitution | The Jakarta Globe

[good2bhappy]

Surabaya, the provincial capital, is home to the Dolly red-light district, said to be the biggest in Southeast Asia.

Thanks for the info
bigger than Angeles?

[Iceburg Slim]

How can they call themselves a Muslim country when there are whores all over the shop?

[zygote1]

How can they call themselves a Muslim country when there are whores all over the shop?

They have a legal way to address it. Temporary marriage of convenience.

[harrybarracuda]

Surabaya, the provincial capital, is home to the Dolly red-light district, said to be the biggest in Southeast Asia.

Thanks for the info
bigger than Angeles?

Get away, Angeles isn't that big.

There's more hookers in Dubai than Angeles.

[kingwilly]

Hence them wanting to close it down... ?

[Iceburg Slim]

Why have they allowed it to flourish for all these years if they're so into all that Muslim shite?

They should have beheaded all the Roger Moores.

[FarangRed]

[kingwilly]

Surabaya. The recent closure of half of Surabaya’s red light districts has prompted worries about the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout the city, as sex workers will no longer be confined to certain areas, an official said on Tuesday.

Nurul Laila, the head of the Dupak Bangunsari Community Health Center in Surabaya, said two out of four red light districts in the city were closed down last year. She said safe sex advocates and health care professionals were now having difficulty in conducting outreach, such as distributing free condoms and information about sexually transmitted diseases, because sex workers and their clients were now spread throughout Surabaya.

In 2010 the local government reported there were at least 3,500 women working as sex workers in Dupak Bangunsari, an area known to have contained a red light district before the government cracked down on prostitution there last year.

“We heard that all red light districts will be closed down this year for a political reason. The impact will be tremendous,” Nurul said during a visit with Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi.

Nurul said concentrating prostitution to certain areas helped the health workers conduct intervention, fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS and treat those who were infected. She added that since the closure of red light districts, efforts to reach out to sex workers and their clients became elusive.

Low public awareness about HIV/AIDS has also hampered efforts to curb its spread, she said, adding that many who were infected rarely came to clinics for treatment because they believed that everybody infected with the virus would die.

Nafsiah echoed Nurul’s concerns about public ignorance regarding HIV/AIDS, saying that just 21 percent of Indonesians have comprehensive knowledge about the infection. Nafsiah added that 35.7 percent of Indonesian men said they wear condoms when engaging in risky sexual behaviors.

At the Dupak Community Health Center, Nurul said, there were 19 new HIV cases in 2012, and four of the patients were pregnant women. So far this year, five people have been diagnosed with the infection.

“If we knew where they [sex workers] live, we could easily monitor the spread of HIV by distributing condoms and conducting regular blood tests, or treatment for those who have been infected, but after the red light districts were closed down, we lost contact with them,” Nurul said.

Nafsiah said the spread of HIV has been increasing in most districts across Indonesia.

“In all areas the number of new infections is increasing, with no exception, this is why our target to achieve zero infection for Millennium Development Goal is very unlikely to be achieved,” she said.

Red Light District Closures in Surabaya Prompt Fear of HIV/AIDS Infections | The Jakarta Globe

[sabang]

Surabaya is Indon's major port. Ban sluts? Bah humbug.

[reddog]

Surabaya is Indon's major port. Ban sluts? Bah humbug.

time for some aussie farmers to sell a shipload of goats there,
because the live cattle trade is about finished, a new market

[kingwilly]

push it underground more like.

[BKKBanger]

Surabaya has gone to the dogs in the last ten years. Much of the South of the city is now under a sea of volcanic mud and the rest is rife with prostitutes.

No wonder Malang has become so popular.

[kingwilly]

1000 Surabaya prostitutes protest new major's plan to close down Gang Dolly..... Surabaya Sex Workers Protest Plan to Close Red Light District | The Jakarta Globe

[Bangyai]

Need to crackdown on the weed there too. .........Heavy duty smoke that can land you in big trouble

[Sumocakewalk]

Need to crackdown on the weed there too. .........Heavy duty smoke that can land you in big trouble

As my Thai wife would say "that vid is very cleever"

[peterpan]

The only way to eliminate prostitution is raise the living standards and provide normal jobs. I don't believe that girls lie under sweaty male body for sexual pleasure.
As much as we like to believe we are all, handsome men, we aren't Adonises. well I am, but that's the exception.

[Rainfall]

The only way to eliminate prostitution is raise the living standards and provide normal jobs. I don't believe that girls lie under sweaty male body for sexual pleasure.

Don't talk code if you have to say 'I'm a boring and for women physically unattractive guy'. My compassion for whores is restricted, they don't work hard for 8, 10 or more hours apiece every working day, most of their time on the job is spent with twaddle and listening to twaddle. If the sex starts to hurt after 5 customers or so, call it a day. For Thai-style girlfriend prostitutes, it's no work at all.

[kingwilly]

Yes, because prostitution is a personal choice, Rainfall.

[nidhogg]

Yes, because prostitution is a personal choice, Rainfall.

There was an article in (if i remember correctly) the weekend bangkok post one or two weeks ago. It was the story of some (Thai) lass who got into the game in japan and ended up fairly high in the organization (obvious which one) running the girls.

The part that struck me most of all, was her saying why she got into the game. It ran along the lines of "I found out my husband was cheating on me, so I decided to become a prostitute".

That honestly floored me.

[Waid]

A hard choice, most times - I'd think.

[kingwilly]

The part that struck me most of all, was her saying why she got into the game. It ran along the lines of "I found out my husband was cheating on me, so I decided to become a prostitute".

That honestly floored me.

Damn.

[kingwilly]

Surabaya. Sex workers in skin-tight outfits sit in shop windows, ignoring the call to prayer that blares from mosques across the heart of one of Southeast Asia’s biggest red-light districts.

The series of narrow alleys in Surabaya’s “Dolly” district on Indonesia’s Java island teem with prostitutes touting for business, smiling through the windows and doorways of dingy clubs and bars housed in crumbling buildings.

While foreign tourists may first think of places such as Thailand when it comes to Southeast Asian red-light destinations, one of the largest has been challenging assumptions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country for decades, largely undisturbed by authorities.

But now a crusading mayor — credited with regenerating Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-biggest city after the capital Jakarta — is making a determined push to close down the notorious brothel network despite fierce resistance and warnings that it could push sex workers into destitution.

“We have to lift our people from oppression,” said Tri Rismaharini, a female mayor who wears the Muslim headscarf and whose stewardship of Surabaya has led many to predict she could have a future role in national politics.

While the city says the plan is its own, Islamic leaders are also claiming credit after pressuring authorities for years over Dolly, which is thought to take its name from a Dutch madam who ran a brothel in the city during the Netherlands’s colonial rule of Indonesia.

Now Rismaharini has set a date of June 18 to close the brothels in Dolly and a neighboring area called Jarak, which has a largely local clientele.

Authorities are offering each of the estimated 1,400 prostitutes around Rp 5 million ($420) and training in new professions that are expected to replace prostitution there, such as baking or handicrafts.

While many have welcomed the move, the plan has stirred strong opposition from sex workers and others whose jobs depend on Dolly, such as taxi drivers and street vendors who contribute to the area’s estimated nightly income of between Rp 300 million and 500 million ($25,000 to $42,000).

‘ I really need this work’

Sex workers and residents have been staging protests in recent weeks, with hundreds of prostitutes marching through Dolly earlier this month.

“I am not going to accept the government offer because I really need this work,” said Mawar, who gave only one name, sitting on a faded old sofa in a club in Dolly. “I would never be able to find another job because I did not even finish elementary school.”

The sex worker, who earns between Rp 10 million and 13 million a month, said it would be hard for her to support her two children, aged 5 and 8, if Dolly closes.

On a recent evening, there were crowds of people and hordes of cars and motorbikes thronging the streets, including many prostitutes and pimps. There were also couples out for a stroll and children playing, and the atmosphere was peaceful.

The area appeared to be operating normally in recent days, apart from regular protests during the day time, an AFP reporter said.

According to local reports, the mayor will issue a declaration on Wednesday evening, saying that Dolly and Jarak are closed and police will move in to shut it down.

The prostitutes will have to leave the same day and will receive training for the next seven days, according to officials. Those who came from villages outside Surabaya will have to return to them.

For some members of the public, this will be a welcome move.

“I want Dolly to be closed — this place brings shame on Surabaya,” said Siti, a 46-year-old teacher . “The people who go there for girls are sexually unstable.”

Fighting back

But Lilik Sulistyowati, from nongovernmental organization Yayasan Abdi Asih, which works with prostitutes in the area, warned that the workers were unlikely to go quietly.

“They will fight the closure,” she said, and blamed the government for trying to push through the plan in such a short time, saying authorities should have aimed to shut it within five years after retraining the sex workers.

Despite concerns in some quarters, for local Muslim leaders the closure will be a huge victory after years of campaigning.

“The closure of Dolly must be highly praised,” said Abdusshomad Buchori, local head of the country’s top Muslim clerical body, the Indonesia Ulema Council. “As the world’s most populous Muslim country, it is not too much to demand that Dolly be closed. What they are doing is not a job. Selling one’s body is immoral and inhuman behavior.”

Agence France-Presse

Shutdown on

[kingwilly]

Access denied: A police officer enters a road leading to the infamous Dolly red-light district in Surabaya, East Java, on Wednesday. Local residents, brothel owners and thugs who receive tacit backing from some local politicians opposed to the closure plan, blocked roads to the area. The phrase scribbled on the road says “ready for war”. (JP/Indra Harsaputra)

Scenes of scantily clad women sitting on long sofas behind glass windows in the brothels of Dolly red-light district look set to be a thing of a past, as the Surabaya administration officially closed the area on Wednesday.

Witnessed by Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini, East Java Governor Soekarwo and Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri, 100 residents of Dolly in the Putat Jaya area read the declaration of closure of an area once dubbed Southeast Asia’s largest red-light district.

The declaration stated the residents wanted Dolly to become clean, safe and free from prostitution. The residents also wanted to build their area into an economic center based on their religion and regulations.

Several children living in the red-light district read from the Koran, before residents read the declaration in a ceremony held at the nearby Islamic center in Dukuh Kupang.

According to the data from the city’s social agency, 1,020 sex workers and 311 pimps depended on Dolly for their livelihoods. The area, which consisted of 52 brothels, was first established by a sex worker named Dolly Khavit in 1967.

To overcome the impact of the closure, the Social Affairs Ministry has allocated Rp 8 billion (US$676,859) to be disbursed to sex workers and pimps, with each individual receiving Rp 5 million.

After the announcement, brothel operators said they would resume activities on Thursday evening.

“Dolly is closed today not because we’re afraid of the mayor’s decision, but residents are focused on securing the area and preventing security personnel, as well as members of the FPI [Islam Defenders Front] who threatened to conduct sweeps, from entering,” Buchori, who also operates a brothel and food stall in Dolly, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

“Residents are keeping guard in turns. In every corner of the area, an alarm will be triggered to assemble other residents armed with sharp weapons and clubs,” he said.

Buchori said residents were willing to die to prevent the closure of Dolly, as they were deeply dependent on it for their livelihoods.

Thousands of residents, sex workers and pimps who rejected the closure blocked access to the red-light area. They almost clashed with hundreds of police officers who tried to open the blockades, but calmed down as the police backed off.

In Jakarta, National Police chief Gen. Sutarman said on Wednesday that the force would fully back the Surabaya administration’s endeavors to close Dolly amid resistance from the local residents, sex workers and pimps.

“We must support whatever decision the regional administration has made,” he said in Jakarta.

“In facing protesters, we try not to use arms. We will try a persuasive approach. We have a lot of experience in closing such establishments. If we keep guard of the place, slowly the protesters will disperse,” Sutarman continued.

Separately, Surabaya municipal secretary Hendro Gunawan said despite the closure, the municipality would not come down hard on closing the red-light district.

“We will not act harshly in closing Dolly. The closure of Dolly will not involve blocking access to Jl. Jarak and will not block smaller streets inside Dolly,” said Hendro.

He added that Surabaya municipality would persuade the occupants and sex workers to change their professions in the long run, until Dolly was completely closed.

Closing Dolly

Nov 2010
Surabaya administration installs CCTV cameras at Dolly to deter new sex workers.

June 2011
Surabaya administration imposes restricted operational hours on the red-light complex, from 24 hours to 16 hours a day.

Nov 2011
East Java Governor Soekarwo announces that his administration will close down all 47 red-light districts spread across the province's 33 regencies and municipalities by 2014. He also says an unlimited budget will be allocated to realize the plan.

Nov 2013
Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini declares her intention to permanently close down Dolly.

June 2, 2014
Risma pledges to close down Dolly by June 18, saying that the closure will be in line with Bylaw No. 7/ 1999 banning the use of a building as a place of prostitution.

June 5, 2014
Dolly sex workers stage a rally to protest the plan to shut down the complex.

June 12, 2014
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) urges the Surabaya administration not to forcibly close down Dolly. Komnas HAM commissioner Dianto Bachriadi says the local administration needs to protect its residents whatever their profession, adding that the closure had the potential to cause financial losses.

June 18, 2014
Surabaya administration officially closes down Dolly.

Facts about Dolly:

- According to the Surabaya Social Agency, at least 1,020 sex workers and 311 pimps worked in the Dolly complex, most of them hailing from outside Surabaya. Dolly was known as the biggest red-light district in Southeast Asia.

- To date, the Surabaya administration has closed down six red-light districts. Tambak Asri, Klakah Rejo and Dupak Bangunsari were followed in December 2013 by the Sememi red-light district and then Jarak and Dolly in 2014.

Surabaya bids farewell to Dolly | The Jakarta Post

[kingwilly]

In this photograph taken on May 3, 2014, Indonesian sex workers cover their faces as military police accompanied by journalists conduct patrols to prevent soldiers and police from patronizing Surabaya city’s red light district, which had been largely been left alone by authorities for decades. (AFP Photo/Juni Kriswanto)

Authorities in Bogor, West Java, said they will launch street patrols and raids in the district over the next few weeks to prevent an influx of commercial sex workers from Southeast Asia’s biggest red-light districts, Dolly and Jarak in Surabaya, East Java, which were closed down on Wednesday night.

Luthfi Syam, head of the Public Order Agency (Satpol) in Bogor, said patrols and raids will be conducted in the area regularly.

“We will carry out raids and patrols in areas such as Parung, Limusnunggal and Cisarua-Puncak to prevent an influx of sex workers leaving the Dolly red light district in Surabaya after its closure,” he said.

Luthfi said monitoring will take place twice a week and that he will deploy around 60 Satpol officers to check residents and carry out medical tests.

“We will check citizen’s identity cards to detect newcomers who rented rooms and also carry out medical examinations in those areas,” he said.

The Bogor administration dismantled dozens of permanent and semi-permanent buildings home to hundreds of sex workers in Limusnunggal last February.

Even though Limusnunggal, Parung and Cisarua-Puncak have been cleared of prostitution, Luthfi acknowledged that several sex workers were still operating in the area discreetly.

Batam

Riki Syolihin, chairman of Commission IV of the Batam Regional Council in the Riau Islands province, also warned the city administration to anticipate an influx of sex workers and pimps from Surabaya to Batam.

“Based on information the Surabaya Social Agency received from pimps, Batam will be the next destination for former Dolly sex workers. Aside from Batam, Jakarta and Bali will be targeted,” Riki was quoted as saying by Antara News on Wednesday.

“The Batam city administration has to take preventative measures similar to what Bali has done. Bali has carried out raids to stop former Dolly residents from entering the province,” he said.

Batam also has several red light districts, with brothels operating openly in some, while others operate under cover of being legitimate businesses.

Riki said the increasing number of sex workers in the area is not just a moral issue but that it would also increase the risk of communicable diseases and the dreaded virus that causes HIV/AIDS.

Last year, the Batam AIDS Prevention Commission (KPA) recorded 54 AIDS deaths on the island. The total number of people who suffered from HIV/AIDS increased to 198 last year, comprising 106 females and 92 males.

The number of new HIV carriers in Batam reach 577 people, consisting of 287 females and 290 males.

The Surabaya city administration officially closed the Dolly and Jarak red-light districts on Wednesday night in a ceremony attended by Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri, East Java Governor Soekarwo, Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini, members of the Surabaya Legislative Council, the East Java Police chief, sex workers, pimps, and Dolly residents.

“We only have to maintain something positive, if it’s not positive, then there’s no need to keep it,” the social affairs minister said.

Salim expressed his appreciation to officials who made the closure of Dolly and Jarak possible and said the ministry will work with the city administration to overcome the problem.

Governor Soekarwo said people have to look for decent jobs to make a living.

“This is a humanity program, that’s why we approved the mayor’s request to [close down] Dolly. The government will not ignore its people. It’s true that their income used to be bigger and it’s lesser now because of the closure,” he said.

Sex workers will be returned to their respective hometowns and the East Java administration has coordinated with the district heads and mayors in the province.

The provincial government has also allocated a regional budget to help the sex workers get a new job or to start up a small business.

The Ministry of Social Affairs offered social aid of Rp 7 billion ($580,000) and the East Java governor offered Rp 1.5 billion to be distributed to the sex workers and local residents affected by the closure of the red-light districts.

The city reportedly provided 650 sex workers with training in cooking, hairdressing and other skills between 2010 and 2013. Some even received capital of Rp 3 million to start small business.

Bogor Plans to Stop Influx of Sex Workers | The Jakarta Globe