The Jakarta Provincial Government now has much greater legal power in shutting down nightlife establishments believed to be facilitating prostitution and/or the illegal narcotics trade after Governor Anies Baswedan passed a new Gubernatorial Decree (Pergub) in an apparent bid to fulfill his campaign promise to cleanse the city from vice.
As reported by Kompas today, Pergub no. 18/2018, which was passed on March 12, contains new regulations that not only enforce an extreme zero-tolerance policy on offending establishments, but also includes regulations to prevent offenders from reappearing under different guises.
Under Article 54 Verse 1 of the Pergub, the provincial government can now shut down establishments based on their own field findings, media reports, or complaints from citizens.
Furthermore, the government can implement these shutdowns instantly “without the process of first written warning, second written warning, third written warning and temporary shut down of business” as had been required by the law before the new Pergub was passed (one might argue that using media reports or citizen complaints as evidence of a crime violates basic legal principles and opens the possibility of false accusations, but that does not seem to be of any concern to the governor).
Once an accused establishment has been shut down, it will find it difficult to reopen, regardless of whether they were actually guilty or not. Under Article 33 Verse 1, a single establishment can now only have one Tourism Business Certificate (TDUP) that is valid for as long it operates at the location (TDUPs previously had to be renewed annually).
For example, a hotel, its restaurants and bars must now be registered under one TDUP. And if prostitution or drugs are found in any of the venues (or if anybody accuses them of such), then the whole business will be shut down and the TDUP holder will be unable to start a new business at the location.
“Before this, [establishments] operated individual business arms, for example if in one location there are four types and one of them violated [the law], then the other three were safe. Now it’s all one package. So if they want to be safe, don’t violate the law, or the consequence is that all of them will be shut down,” Anies said, as quoted by Kompas.
The new Pergub seems to be a clear response to the convoluted aftermath of the partial shutdown of the infamous Alexis Hotel — long rumored to be Jakarta’s most luxurious brothel. While at first it appeared that Anies fulfilled his campaign promise of shutting down Alexis back in January, it turned out that the provincial government had only refused to renew its expiring hotel and spa license. Afterwards, an exposé by Tempo in January accused Alexis of still facilitating prostitution in its still operational club and karaoke venues. It seems likely that that experience inspired the particulars of Anies’ new Pergub.
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