Such Joy, Jakarta, To Have A Caring Governor!

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said on Wednesday that the city administration would not accommodate the needs of Alexis Hotel workers who lost their jobs after the city revoked the hotel’s business permit.

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• Anies wins an adoring smile from ferocious fanatic Habib Rizieq, who had recently suggested the Christian Governor Ahok (Anies’ predecessor)  be slain for unacceptably quoting some Koranic verse –.“We encourage the government to process the death penalty for Ahok as soon as possible,” said Rizieq. 
•  http://www.suara.com/news/2016/10/14/134313/ 
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• Aaah, ITMA.

• We paid some attention to Anies’ rise and rise, notably how he won such a warm smile from one of the most extreme Islamists in Indonesia.

• But one cannot judge a man from the worrying words of one of his supporters.

• Fairer, surely, to take his measure by considering the humanity embodied in his own words now that he’s in power.

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• Alexis Hotel
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• “Don’t act as if the hotel closure has caused them to suffer and they’re the victims of the closure. Everybody that worked there realized that there were violations committed by the business, which means they were all committing the violations together…”

• Aaah, that grand old principle of collective guilt.

• Funnily enough, although the Alexis was shut down because Anies averred there was prostitution going on – although we don’t know if he had ever been there to see for himself -.

  

  Kupu2 malam = Night butterflies!

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• ….we’ve heard not a word about all the big fancy five-star hotels where happy hookers prowl with impunity.

• Here’s my eye-witness account from last year.

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• Alexis Harus Ditutup? Terus Gimana Hotel2 Bintang Lima? 

• ( in English, despite my headline!)
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• He’s a big-hearted guy, our Governor –

• “If they’re really thinking about how they will live their lives, they should have considered that before working at a problematic company…”

• http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/03/28/former-alexis-workers-none-of-our-business-anies.html

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• And off the workers go, to join the teeming ranks of unemployed Jakartans, of all races, creeds and colours – BTW, let’s not forget Anies’ commitment to pluralism.

• http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/new-jakarta-chief-stirs-ethnic-tensions-on-first-day-in-office/news-story/ 

• Meanwhile, Jakarta awaits the advent of the shariah hotels that Anies’ deputy, Sandiaga, has spoken of enthusiastically. Get Your Tickets Soon – Jakarta Shariah Tourism Boom ?. 

• What delights will these splendid edifices, when they open for business, offer tourists that the five-stars don’t?

• Special conditions of employment?

• We hope that any waitresses and maids who don’t do their jobs properly will only suffer unemployment as punishment.

• No way will the sort of brutal penalties meted out to little girls in Indonesia’s shariah province, Aceh, up north…

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  The Sharia Hell of Aceh!

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• …for ‘offences’ like holding hands with a boy-friend are going to be replicated in this once effervescent capital city.

• NOT YET!

Alexis Harus Ditutup? Terus Gimana Hotel2 Bintang Lima?

The Alexis must be shut down? So how about Jakarta’s various 5-star hotels?

That’s my response to the news last month that hit the headlines here, concerning a famous place in the north of the city which is said to be…

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…and I quote The Jakarta Globe’s quoted descripton –

‘A Dreamland for Men!’  – http://jakartaglobe.id/news/jakarta-administration-shuts-infamous-alexis-hotel/

But I’ll stick with the Jakarta Post for the most part, on our brand new Governor,  Anies Baswedan’s refusal to extend the operation permit of Alexis Hotel in North Jakarta, an establishment he explicitly mentioned during his gubernatorial campaign, claiming that he had collected sufficient evidence that it hosts prostitution services.

“We are firm. We don’t want Jakarta to become a city that allows prostitution to take place.”

That’s interesting.

Whatever the Alexis’ faults – and I’ve never been there – they are surely not unique. ANYONE who has been out for an evening in some of our international-standard five-star hotels ( I won’t say all of them, because I haven’t been to all of them!) must be fully aware that it’s not at all unusual to bump into the occasional kupu2 malam.

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Kupu2 malam = Night butterflies!

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I met up with a former colleague a couple of weeks ago in one such splendiferous – and expensive – edifice and we had barely ordered a couple of ‘happy hour’ beers before a delightful lady approached us with an amiable but acquisitive gleam in her eye.

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………

“Hi!”

I responded with my habitual courtesy but promptly assured her that we were retired teachers, not the affluent tourists or foreign businessmen who constituted much of the clientele.

She, with equal courtesy, and promptitude, took her leave of us and went off in search of more acceptable prey.

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I’m sure she advised her colleagues/rivals because although there were quite a few similarly sultry sorts on the prowl, they none of them showed interest in us thereafter.

I can think of at least three of four other grand hotels in the city where I’ve encountered these kinds of slightly avaricious but ever-charming slinkies, operating openly and regularly.

I won’t name them, because I do not wish to be sued –  certain types of business persons here are as litigious as certain types of Americans! – but any male expat who goes out at night will surely confirm my veracity.

Hence my headlined question – how about the 5-stars?

Maybe Governor Anies Baswedan has never entered their bars after dark? Is he truly unaware of what goes on?

Does he plan to refuse to extend their operating permits?

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If some residents or some media tell him, will he seek to shut them down too?

But that leads me to the rest of his statement, as reported in the JP.

We have received reports and complaints from residents as well as media reports [about such a practice]…” Anies, however, refused to elaborate on what kind of evidence he had obtained.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/10/30/anies-firm-to-close-down-alexis-hotel.html

So another question – does Anies have any REAL evidence, like police reports, or is he set to order the Alexis’ closure purely on the basis of just some fretty residents and the ‘media?‘

How come he won’t say?

And that brings us to another question!

Has HE ever been there, in the Dreamland of Men?

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Has HE taken the trouble to use his gubernatorial limousine to travel up to Ancol and have a look, one evening, at the denizens of the Alexis?

Surely that’s the very least that fair play demands, since ‘the Alexis Hotel has not violated any regulations,  according to its legal representative…

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…and please note – the refusal to extend the hotel’s operation permit came after media stories regarding banned activities at the hotel, such as the hotel offering massage services.   http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/10/31/alexis-hotel-wants-solution-to-keep-operating.html

MASSAGE SERVICES!?!

If there’s nothing else on the charge sheet, could there yet be a happy ending?

Oh, but let’s not forget that closing Alexis was one of newly-elected Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan’s campaign promises during the gubernatorial election earlier this year.

SO if he goes ahead, and demonstrates consistency by treating Jakarta’s celebrated international hotels with the same zeal, he will be keeping his word to those who supported him.

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Anies Baswedan wins a smile from FPI ‘grand imam,’ Habib Rizieq

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And let’s ALSO not forget some of those supporters, like the white-shirt vigilante gang, the self-styled Islam Defenders Front – the FPI!

THEY will be beside themselves with glee.

Even more so if the national parliament presses on with their prohibition law.

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Let’s wait and see!

Before we start packing.

Surga Dunia? Jakarta, Pasti!

Surga dunia! Heaven on Earth!

That’s oft been my reply when Indonesians ask me how come I’ve stayed in Jakarta for so many years.

If your previous location was somewhere in one of those chilly countries that border the shores of the North Atlantic, you’d be off yer rocker not to be happy here in this mostly hot and sunny city..

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Even in the current rainy season, few days pass without an hour or two of sunshine when one can sit out front and bask with a book.

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A warteg – hard to spend more than two bucks, unless your appetite is gargantuan! 

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Eating is cheap if you’re not a stuck-up.

Most people are friendly, and many of them are a delight to behold!

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Miss Indonesia candidates a year or two ago, but there are millions more just as cute!

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What’s not to like?

At once a dozen hands will go up, a chorus of ‘The Traffic,’ and yes, that is a major minus, but if you’re retired from serious toil, it is not an insurmoutable burden, especially if you have the sense not to take taxis. Public transport is just as fast as cabs, and a tenth of the price! 

But now I read that Governor Ahok has hi-jacked my term of praise to pin-point just one small corner of the capital city he runs – NB, I mean he runs the city, not the specific place he mentioned! –  the Hotel Alexis’ 7th Floor, where there’s an institution hitherto unknown to yours truly, the Bath House Spa.

• I used Google Translate to interpret the article in Okezone.com, with hilarious results, and offer you some choice extracts.

..In the Hotel Alexis there’s the 7th floor… In the Alexis it is not Heaven at Mother’s feet, but Heaven on the 7th Floor,” Ahok said, at City Hall, Jakarta, Tuesday (16/02/2016)    http://news.okezone.com/read/2016/02/16/338/1313623/ahok-lantai-7-alexis-surga-dunia.

I am sure Ahok was talking tongue in cheek, for his outlook on certain matters has in the past indicated a very prudish mindset, as when he had a hissy fit about a teen bikini party in another hotel 

“No, they can’t hold a bikini party. They could get arrested. There’s a regulation governing that. You can wear bikini at Ancol [beach], as you swim….”

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• ” But if you go to a party dressed in a bikini, it’s outrageous.”
  

  ”Outrageous” Activity in Jakarta Pools? OMG – BIKINIS! 

I’ve generally had nothing but praise for the Guv, but he does have a Victorian streak!

However, let’s look at the report.

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Sex workers in the Hotel Alexis, said Ahok, originate from various countries. However, such imported strumpets are smart about covering their identity.

Strumpets!

What a splendidly old-fashioned word! But the man’s no doubt correct.

What amazes me though is why – when Indonesian women must rank as among the loveliest on Earth (don’t know about Heaven!) there’s any perceived need to import foreign chicks.

Yet the grass is always greener, so I guess local customers regard Slavonic gals as agreeably exotic! 

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I met a Russian lady in the late lamented Tanamur disco once.Let’s Re-Open TANAMUR, She was very charming, and appreciated my attempts to converse in her language.

‘Morozhenye,’ I said. ‘Ice Cream!’  

She laughed out loud, perhaps imagining I wanted her to engage in some outlandish use of that substance.

Alas, apart from ‘hello’ and ‘thanks,’ that’s about the limit of my Russian vocab. So we got no further than that!

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The Okezone writer has a much more appealing range of vocabulary, or at least that’s how Google renders his words.

Bath House Spa. Here are provided various facilities to ease tensions on the sidelines…

That’s in the Alexis, it seems –  but all over Jakarta…

…undeniably, during this time, many businesses satisfying lust are cloaked in various enterprises, such as massage parlors, karaoke parlors and nightclubs….with a varied fare, from hundreds of thousands to millions of rupiah.

As UK bus conductors used to shout, ‘FARES PLEASE!’

Kasihan Hotel Alexis! Dimana Keadilan Jakarta?

As the sorry saga of Kali Jodo has unfolded, I’ve more than once alluded to the seeming hypocrisy of hounding a small kampung in North West Jakarta for the presence there, in workingmen’s watering-holes, of kupu2 malam, i.e. ‘night-butterflies,’ i.e.hookers, when night after night the bars of numerous posh hotels downtown positively teem with prostitutes.

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Kali Jodo – Think Again, Ahok! Why Delight IslamoNazis? 

The only difference is that the prices they seek to extort from horny rich guys is ten times that requested politely by the disadvantaged slappers in poor neighbourhoods.

If you drop into Hotel ++++++++++ or Hotel ######### on Jalan Sudirman, on what are delicately termed “ladies’ nights,” you can watch the gals shimmying in, having travelled up from Blok M’s dimly lit dives on those little white mini-buses.

 

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They are NOT there just for the discounted drinks (s0me hotels offer FREE drinks for females – there have long been rumours of similar “gents’ nights” but I’ve yet to find them!) 

Now it seems some of Jakarta’s city fathers have taken notice of the double-standards involved in the proposed extirpation of Kali Jodo. But far from targetting the fancy five-stars, they’ve turned the spotlight on the Hotel Alexis!

It’s a modest three-star way up near the Ancol shore.

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ri

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I must be truthful and admit I’ve never entered the Alexis, though I once picked up a taxi at the car park there, after getting lost in Angke and walking round a dark kampung for an hour or more! But I know many people who have been inside and they say it’s a darn fine place for a fun night out!

Or if you Google it, using ‘Photos,’ you can get an idea of its numerous delights.

However, ‘delight’ is not the reported reaction of the ever-so-righteous members of Jakarta’s DPRD (City Council)

Their august Vice-Chairman. a certain Abraham Lunggana, who has appeared not only in our blog before but also in the Jakarta Post…

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Lunggana

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/10/01/idul-adha-livestock-merchants-brawl-with-officers-tanah-abang.html  -do read that story!

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…is said to have named the Alexis as a place demanding attention.

But why hasn’t he, or some other councillor, thought to name and shame the big fish rather than the middling minnows?

Personally, I see no reason to interfere with the Alexis. I agree with what Governor Ahok Why Has Ahok Given Kali Jodo An Islamic Deadline?  said on the subject, before he changed his mind.

Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama is recommending that the city administration legalize prostitution in certain areas…

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“Legalizing a prostitution site would be a solution because no matter how hard we try, we will never be able to eradicate prostitution. It will always exist as long as humans exist.”    Pelacuran Dimana? One Law for the Rich! 

And after all, there are so many real social cancers in Jakarta!

l won’t talk tonight about day-to-day crime and corruption, but I would suggest that shutting down sectarian thug gangs like the FPI would be a far worthier cause for councillors ( and the capital city’s police  Twenty Officers Injured – So JakartaCops ‘Negotiate’ With islamist Thug Gang?) to champion.     

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PS If you want to see for yourself, before any kill-joys make it less interesting, here’s the info.

Jl. R.E. Martadinata No. 1, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 14430

Telepon:(021) 69833333