Hands Off Jakarta Nightclubs! Can Ahok Thwart Kill-joy Creeps?

I haven’t always agreed with Jakarta’s Governor Ahok, but it’s fair to say such disagreements are rare.

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•  Ahok

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• That’s because he generally talks plain common sense, and has done so again last month, by scorning kill-joy councillors intent on infantilising their fellow-citizens.
• I mean, what’s with this demand for packing people off to bed at a fit and proper bed-time determined by the likes of City Council Speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi.

Ahok has made it clear he’d hammer nightspots guilty of allowing drug abuse, and shown his mettle by shutting the awful Stadium.

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Let’s Re-Open TANAMUR, NOT the Stadium! 

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But he refuses point-blank to contemplate Prasetio’s demand to make law-abiding clubs close early.

“What is wrong with discotheques?” asked Ahok.

Nothing, of course!

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• Young people, and many not so young, enjoy them, revelling till the wee small hours.
• But that seems to be what gets up the wowsers’ noses.

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.

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•  Prasetio

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• Well, hell!
• Heavens to Murgatroyd!
• No rational argument adduced to support his censorious stance, except that some clubs are afflicted by narcotics, which is undoubtedly true, but not in any logical way linked to their hours of opening and closure.

I suppose Prasetio has drained his 9 p.m. mug of cocoa and is well-tucked up in his comfy wee bed by 9.30pm.

But normal folk don’t do that, not in 2015, unless of course they are dead boring deadbeats or work so hard they’re just fit to drop by the time they leave their offices.

Charitably, I assume Prasetio is in the latter category.

But even most hard-working grown-ups understand that ‘work hard, play hard’ makes excellent sense.  Healthy adults and teens don’t behave, nor wish to behave, like octogenarian decrepits. 

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  Get real, Pras!

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But despite Ahok’s cautions, it now transpires the wowser elements on the City Council – and that would certainly include Mohammed Taufik – are going to ram through the idiotic midnight curfew.

Who’s Taufik? Read our previous post –

Ahok and His Enemies – Prabowo’s Jakarta Flunkey Excuses IslamoNazi Rioters 

 -which includes this gem, on how, when the FPI thug gang staged their sectarian protest against Jakarta’s new Governor Ahok, the Jakarta Post noted that City Council Gerindra Party leader, Mohammed Taufik, echoed the louts’ hostility to Ahok.

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• 
• Taufik – man of distinction?
• ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

AND

….though not a notably modest man, he has a lot about which he should be modest – he was fired as the Jakarta General Elections Commission chief in 2006 after committing graft while in office. 

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He also merits mention not just for his wholesome character. As one of Prabowo’s hangers-on, Taufik issued brazen threats against the Chairman of the Election Commission.

Taufik has been reported to the police, for making kidnap threats against the Election Commission Chairman. And the police have assigned protection to the Chairman of the KPU, all its members…  Police provide protection for KPU officials following threat

ooooooo

So it’s never a surprise to find Taufik on the wrong side of any issue.

He’s not just deputy speaker but also currently running Balegda, the City Council’s Legislation Agency – “[The nightclubs] will have to close at midnight. It has been decided [by Balegda] and [we have all] agreed,” said Balegda  head Mohammad Taufik on Friday as quoted by kompas.com. He added that there would be no more bargaining…

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 karaoke bar

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…discussion on the draft bylaws on tourism will also include matters such as karaoke clubs, saunas, massage parlors and live music lounges.

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•  Stomp fun, stomp tourism  – Jakarta City Council’s official policy?
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• “Do remember that rules are made to be obeyed and executed,” said Taufik.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/10/02/nightclubs-will-close-midnight-city-official.html

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Of course this move is imbecilic, but even imbeciles usually have some reason, however odd, for what they do.

Is this curfew inspired by the essential intolerance that characterises Islamist ideology, these damfool councillors displaying a new and noisome aspect of ‘creeping shariah?’

Or is it that they just hate to think of anyone enjoying him/herself?

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For my part, even if I’m home, it’s normally well past midnight before I hit the pit. Few of the city’s nightclubs appeal to me, much of the music being hideous, non-stop, metallic, repetitive jungle garbage.

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But if I make my way to the good dangdut joints up in Pasar Rumput, or the milder versions around Jalan Belora, other patrons would wonder what was amiss were I to leave before 1 or 2 am…or later.

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• ‘BED’S FOR SLEEPY PEOPLE!’
• quote – Gary, Men Behaving Badly.
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• 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 don’t like visiting discotheques, but we should not be hypocrites,” he added.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/26/governor-rejects-city-councils-call-cut-nightspots-operational-hours.html

Ahok’s quote above dates from last month, when Tired-Out Prasetio and Tiresome Taufik were still propelling their grand design to miserabilise Jakara. Now the sad sacks seem to be on the verge of success.

One must hope that our good Governor has the clout to kick the cretinous ‘clock-in-for-bedtime-story-time’ scheme into the Thousand Islands Bay…

…speaking of which, I heard there was an even more hare-brained proposal, to exile all nightlife to one of those little islands off Jakarta’s shore.

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• Is there a concerted strategy to turn this very lively capital city into a hell on earth, or is it just crass stupidity?