De-Wowsering Jakarta? Ahok, Alkohol and Anti-Miras!

Wowser.

In Australia, it is a derogatory word denoting a person who saps all the fun out of any given situation. Derived from the temperance movement….

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Wowser Wasters! Islamists pouring perfectly good beer down the drain

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 Some very confusing media reports floating around our fine city, with WNJ What’s New Jakarta | Jakarta Events Calendar, Expats & Guide saying that soon a new golden age will dawn with beer once more on sale in mini-marts after long boring months, a year or so, I guess, of petty prohibition.

Yet other people are warning Governor Ahok that he lacks the legal power to implement such a common sense reform.

The Guv has his faults….

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•  Ahok

• ” But if you go to a party dressed in a bikini, it’s outrageous.” 
• ”Outrageous” Activity in Jakarta Pools? OMG – BIKINIS! 

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…but when he averred that beer should be sold in minimarts…Ahok: Seharusnya Bir Bisa Dijual di Minimarket …surely most sane Jakartans cheered.

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Yet I think What’s New Jakarta is jumping the gun.

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Ahok has been accused of not understanding the law ( in which case he’s not alone – very few rational people understood why such a mean-spirited crack-down was ever imposed on the cheerful capital)

But PosMetro.com quotes that noisy lady, Fahira Idris, an anti-booze activist who chairs Genam – that’s the National Movement Anti Miras (miras is short for minuman keras – strong drink, a category in which she apparently includes beer!)

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 Ms. Fahira Idris, the Anti-Alcohol Gal. She’s kinda cute, but not my type, nor I hers, I’ll bet!

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Fahira reckons Ahok erred on the facts because he has a lot of problems and is therefore unfocused.
She added that “Regulation 06/2015 is still in force. This means that in every mini-market in Indonesia it’s illegal to sell alcohol.”

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Now, despite her headscarf, I believe that Fahira is not motivated by the intolerant sectarian arrogance behind certain other elements that have long wanted to outlaw amber nectar.

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Enjoy A Night Out? How Dare You, Say IslamoNazis! 

IslamoNazis, for instance, appear to think that because they are religiously obliged to stay dry, all the rest of us else have to sling that abstinence albatross around our necks too.

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‘Okay, guys, let’s start swigging, fast!’

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Fahira, in contrast, comes across as genuinely convinced that drinking is just bad, for you, for me, for society.

But her logic seems faulty. .

Fahira revealed that Article 46 states “any person or entity is prohibited from distributing, storing and selling alcoholic beverages without the permission of the competent authority in accordance with the provisions of the legislation.’

If that’s the case, then Ahok, as Jakarta’s Governor, the competent authority, may bring the city back to its senses.

Or maybe not – he has no majority on the city council, which has an awful array of fanatics among its ranks. ‘You’re Only An Adult! It’s Past Your Bedtime!’ Jakarta Rules, OK? 

Fahira seems to think Ahok’s musings make people anxious.

Actually, the long trek to big shopping ccntres since mini-marts stopped selling what I want has made me anxious from time to time. She also has a strange notion that the ban was imposed because minimarts are all located in settlements..

By that, I guess, she means residential areas. 

Which is where beer is required. Otherwise we need to make those long journeys. But there’s no end to the lady’s belly-aching.

Bellicose belly-aching, at that. .

“If you still insist, we’ll fight. So do not try… “

http://www.pos-metro.com/2016/05/ahok-gagal-paham-fahira-saya-minta-ahok.html

But Jakarta’s IslamoNazis are also up in arms over the issue. http://megapolitan.harianterbit.com/megapol/2016/05/24/62307/28/18/Miras-Dijual-Bebas-FPI-Siap-Lawan-Ahok

Those intolerants want beer to vanish from the shelves of the big supermarkets too!

Where the heck would we go then?

Shoe-shops? Barber-shops?

Actually, that latter is no bad idea – a frosty lager while the tukang ramput is giving you a short-back-and-sides? 

Or how about department stores?

Those delightful assistants are at least as fetching as the bar-maids who were pouring for me last night!

But we can look at the white-shirt gangster group’s take on the problem later today, or tomorrow….

Last word to the Jakarta Post, which proclaims the Ahok reform as a done deal – http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/05/27/consumers-vendors-applaud-relaxing-of-alcohol-rules.html …

…but then breaks our hearts by adding that the mini-marts have not acted on it yet! Their excuse is that management hasn’t sent out instructions.

Or perhaps somebody at head office is scared that IslamoNazi gangsters will resort to their usual cowardly ‘sweeping’ – mob invasions – to intimidate their staff.

Since many mini-mart staff are slightly-built young ladies, that’s exactly the kind of target these kind of thugs prefer. 

 

 

Minol Dilarang? Bright Morning Here But Dark Age Looms!

It’s a fine morning out there, and in here breakfast is being prepared.

Later I must get going and find a computer store, to install my latest Kapersky anti-virus. These modern computers don’t have a slot into which the disk fits, so I need the assistance of somebody who knows his (or preferably her!) way around technology.

However, before heading out, a word on some news spotted in Republika.com.

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Although I’m sure there are some sensible people among the ranks of Indonesia’s PPP  – United Development Party  – (the current Minister of Religious Affairs, Lukman, is a member and he’s a vast improvement on his predecessor, the unspeakable Suryadharma Ali, who was and is also PPP) its followers rarely say things which meet with my approval.

Thus no surprise to read the outburst from Arwani Thomafi, who sits on the House of Representatives Commission V.

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Arwani

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Arwani has just declared that the introduction of nationwide prohibition is the responsibility of the public and law enforcement officials.

Infantilising the population, denying that they are mature enough to decide for themseleves what they wish to drink, is, alas, only to be expected from the political establishment here.

We have, even in Jakarta, civic leaders who reckon all good little boys and girls, including adults, should be tucked up in their cosy wee beds by midnight! 

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‘You’re Only An Adult! It’s Past Your Bedtime!’ Jakarta Rules, OK? 

But Arwani did surprise me by denying that the Prohibition Bill, now reaching its final stage in committee, is sectarian.

The principle of the prohibition of minol by Parliament is not because of the religious aspect, but in of health, social and economic terms.

( minol  = minuman alkohol = alcoholic beverages)

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• “The impact of these negative effects, in the field of criminality, that is what concerns us, not a matter of Islam and non-Islam... 

‘Larangan Minol Itu Bukan Islam dan tidak Islam’

Well, that’s like banning cars because some drivers are reckless!

So that’s not how others see this pending legislation.

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Creeping Shariah is one alternative perception, dragooning grown-ups by a Big Brother state which perceives a glass of cold beer on a hot day as haram – and is not satisfied with the normal age-restrictions on beer-sales and the already draconian restrictions on where we can buy such appealing products.

‘Creeping Shariah,’ Warns Prof. Muhammed, As Jakarta Dims! 

And thanks to Arwani, we learn that it’s not so ‘creeping.’ He boasts that there are numerous regencies (local government areas) all over the archipelago that have introduced such intolerant diktats, including Papua Manokwari,  South Jogjakarta, Sleman, South Kalimantan Banjarbaru…and provinces...

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The Sharia Hell of Aceh!

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…and of course let’s not forget the focus of brutal bigotry in Indonesia, Aceh, where the joys of shariah law are displayed to perfection in our photograph of a cowardly masked fanatic beating a young girl before an audience of baying savages. 

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

I’ve posted on Kali Jodo before, more than once. 

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Aduh! Adieu Kali Jodo? 

It’s a relatively short stretch of waterside road in Northwest Jakarta, which – as you can see from the night-time photo – is visually impressive.

From a distance! At night! By day, not so impressive, but it has potential, and has always struck me as slightly reminiscent of the promenade in Nice!.

Its demise has been declared imminent for more than a year, so nice to know it’s still there. But maybe not for long, and this acceleration towards destruction has been ‘justified’ in a most illogical manner.

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Kali Jodo,Northwest Jakarta

Nice, South of France

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According to Rancah Post, Jakarta’s Governor Ahok has chosen to use a fatal accident on nearby Daan Mogot, a main road down which I passed only yesterday, as his excuse to speed up plans to ‘crack down.’

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 Ahok

…..

The driver is said to have been ‘downing beers in Kali Jodo.‘

That may be true, but are the bars, never mind the entertainment areas, where someone has consumed too many drinks, instantly targetted for total devastation, every time a drunk causes a fat-acc?

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Were that so, there’d be precious few taverns in the town, any town anywhere.

Ahok is usually a cornucopia of common sense, a good governor, but this time I can’t go along with his reasoning. Alas, Kali Jodo’s reputation as an area of ​​gambling and prostitution means that few folk will spring to its defence.  
The report describes the small area as having at least 60 buildings used as a karaoke home to about 15 to 20 prostitutes in each of the cafes.

Again, to declare war on bars that have 15 to 20 hookers hanging about would logically mean shutting down quite a lot of the five-star hotels in Jakarta. 

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I once took a girl-friend to a very posh hotel to celebrate my birthday. We got there at around 7pm, ordered a couple of very expensive drinks in an almost empty bar, and were mildly amazed when, shortly after 8pm, it was suddenly inundated by about a hundred kupu2 malam – night butterflies, as the euphemism here goes!

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The thing is, those ladies were hoping to cater to rich people, affluent tourists or local businessmen. Kalijodo’s little watering-holes are patronised by humble folk, off-duty ojeks, the motor-bike-cabbies, or equally off-duty satpams, the ubiquitous security guards, working men for whom the prices are kept sane, a bottle of Bintang costing not mucn more than you pay in a supermarket.

Knock those little cafes down, you’ll not stop prostitution, just shift it, and you’ll deprive the poorest section of Jakarta’s working population of bars they can afford to drink in. And there aren’t very many of those.

Among the many who will not speak up for the putative dispossessed are Jakarta’s IslamoNazis, the FPI (Islamic Defenders Front)

Far from it!

 …according to Chairman of the Islamic Defenders Front, Ahmad Shobri Lubis. “As community members we are ready to support the government. As long it’s for a good cause, we have no problem if asked to help the police and the military.”

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 Lubis

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ITMA again!

Lubis’ idea of a good cause was exemplified when he exhorted a rabid pack of primitive fanatics to ‘kill, kill, kill’ members of the peaceful Ahmadiyah minority. Watch the brute’s hate-rant here- . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7RLCXNdKF4

And the brutal Lubis’s gangster group have made violent threats against Kali Jodo in the past. 

Jakarta’s IslamoNazis Threaten More Thuggery 

 However, back to the report. 

But it seems the effort to police Kalijodo will not run smoothly – thugs and the people in the vicinity are rumored to be against Ahok’s plan to curb the place.

Funny that the report only uses the word thugs once they have already finished covering the FPI aspect.

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Thugs perfectly sums up the FPI!

But let not the IslamoNazis get away with telling the media they are motivated by ‘good causes.’

There’s at least some element of revenge in there too. The report offers insight into why they won’t try one of their all-too-frequent amok-runs against fellow-citizens…

IslamoNazis V Freedom-Fighters? – Some Chicken, Some Neck! 

FPI in West Java – ‘Let’s Burn Out the Orphans!’ 

…not without a powerful police escort.  

According to the Commissioner Krishna Murti in his book entitled ‘Geger Kalijodo’, Kalijodo is guarded by thugs known as Tiger Cubs, whose duty is to maintain and supervise the practice of gambling and prostitution in Kalijodo.

Chaps not to antagonise, clearly. But sit back and enjoy the next extract, which is ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL!

The toughness of this group was previously tested when they repulsed an FPI invasion… At that time, the FPI plunged headlong onto the motorway after being overwhelmed by forces armed with sharp weapons.

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 ‘FPI. Noble Life or Martyr’s Death’ – or scuttle across the road, sharpish!

.WOW!

That episode deserves to be immortalised, not just in the Commissioner’s book but in a movie.

It would be watched avidly and repeatedly in many communities across the archipelago which have been the scene of white-shirt thug depradations.

http://www.rancahpost.co.id/20160250728/dijaga-anak-macan-fpi-dan-ahok-siap-serbu-kalijodo/

Another report adds to the yummy yarn. 

It didn’t stop there, according to Krishna, the  Cubs had infiltrated their men in among the FPI to monitor their movements….

So these guys are not just muscle. According to Krishna, the Tiger Cubs have a neat organizational structure..  http://wartakota.tribunnews.com/2016/02/12/geng-anak-macan-bikin-fpi-terbirit-birit-dari-kalijodo

Givn the FPI’s record of cowardice, notably in Sukorejo or Purwakarta, you can see why they haven’t been back to Kali Jodo, and won’t, unless they go skulking along in the shadow of a major police operation.

Wet Season Comes Back To Jakarta – But Do We hear Cheers?

Rain came beating down suddenly last night, no big deal at that time of day, since I was safely indoors with one of my frequent pleasant visitors!

But rain is not welcome, as the weather here in Jakarta has been positively brilliant for weeks, sun-bathing out front whenever I had time to do so – at least once a day!

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But hot air recently too, from the kill-joy element, which abhors anything like fun, and especially if that fun includes beer!

(Just wait till they have a majority in Munich – no more Oktoberfest! Oktoberfest Arabesque – Munich’s New Look? )

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Last week there was a report that the IslamoNazi gangster group, the FPI (Islam Defenders Front) were ranting against a possible roll-back of that damnable decree which forbade the sale of alcohol at minimarts.

Jafar Sidiq, described as ‘FPI Secretary General,’ has issued a scarcely veiled threat that if police do not satisfy demands to deny citizens the right to shop for beer, his bigot band foresees vigilante vandalism.

…if the authorities do not crack down on the source of all evil, then the public will take over and seize liquor that’s illicit and then destroy it.http://www.eramuslim.com/berita/nasional/fpi-kecam-ahok-dan-siapapun-yang-ingin-legalkan-kembali-miras-di-indonesia.htm

These jihadist hoodlums always cloak their thuggery in self-righteous slogans. The FPI’s record is particularly deplorable, not just vandalism but violence, as we have oftimes told you. 

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• IslamoNazis V Freedom-Fighters? – Some Chicken, Some Neck! 

FPI in West Java – ‘Let’s Burn Out the Orphans!’ 

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What’s got Jafar in a lather is the fact that the daft diktat looks set to be replaced by a new regulation, giving local governments the right to decide where the demon drink may be retailed.

Hence the headline on the Jafar reaction, which translates to ‘FPI CONDEMN AHOK OR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO LEGALISE ALCOHOL IN INDONESIA’

Meaning?

The white-shirt mob are scared that, while backward areas, like Aceh up north and Tangerang, right next door to Jakarta, would no doubt maintain the booze-ban, more enlightened authorities could restore to their citizens the right to buy a beer in, and even sit down outside, the minimarts, to slake their thirst on a sweltering day.

And arguably the most enlightened local leader in the archipelago is Jakarta’s Governor Ahok!

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 Ahok

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Ahok said that he agreed that liquor sales should continue to be partly limited, and not just sold anywhere. He also expressed concern about rampant sales of bootleg liquor, which, he said, was dangerous for human health.

• http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/16/jakarta-set-regulate-liquor-saleshtml

Good for the Governor! Home-made hooch kills.

A measure of legit lager, on the other hand, invariably revives. Nobody has proposed selling the cool stuff all over the place, in butchers’ or bakers’ or candle-stick makers’ commercial premises.  But a return to the ease and convenience of buying a six-pack at a corner-shop would represent a retreat from the dark road Indonesia has seemed to be treading for some considerable time.

‘Creeping Shariah,’ Warns Prof. Muhammed, As Jakarta Dims! 

If Ahok acts to bring back sanity to the capital, he will get a LOT of support from the common folk, because the original wowser rule, though primarily appeasement of sectarian parties in parliament, also carries a nasty whiff of class distinction.

Selling beer is no problem for posh hotels at present.

But places where the non-affluent hang out? No way! Even big supermarkets have been coerced into sequestering their provision of alcohol in special zones, no longer on the shelves like any other product sought by discerning customers.

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 Tjahjo

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Last word to Interior Minister Tjahjo, who has been reported as talking sense. 

“Drunkenness should not be adduced as an excuse for disallowing the sale of alcohol.” .

http://politik.rmol.co/read/2015/09/16/217512/Aturan-Gobel-Mau-Dicabut,-Regulasi-Miras-Akan-Dikembalikan-ke-Daerah-

 

 

 

IslamoNazis And Cops! Bleak Bekasi – But Bravo Jember!

Thanks to the Jakarta Globe for reporting the admission by a senior cop that Indonesian police are reluctant to crack down on hate speech, including by hard-line Islamic groups, because there are no “rewards” for doing so and they fear a backlash.

http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/police-say-theyre-scared-fight-religious-hard-liners/

The man who confirmed what many Indonesians, not just persecuted Christians, Ahmadis and Shia but also plenty of decent Muslims, have long thought, is Sr. Comr. John Hendri of the National Police’s legal division.

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In something of an understatement, he had to agree there is a widely held public perception that the police were unwilling to take on purveyors of hate speech such as groups hostile to minority religious groups.

“The truth is that police officers who see, hear or experience such incidents can file a report [for subsequent investigation], but tend to be scared to because there’s no reward or guarantee of safety for themselves.”.

One is taught from childhood that one is only sure of getting one’s rightful reward in Heaven, but let that pass. The JG reminds us that some of the worst perpetrators, in particular the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), have long been championed by the police as providing a community policing service.

• 

• Leaked US diplomatic cables dating from 2006 allege that the FPI, responsible for attacks on minority Islamic communities and Christians, receives funding from the police and acts as the force’s “attack dog.”

Some of you will recall Timor Pradopo, the National Police Chief who actually welcomed the idea of working hand-in-hand with those IslamoNazi gangsters!

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Here’s our photo, Pradopo having morning coffee with the hoodlums’ leadership. And another, with the Bekasi Gauleiter of the same white-shirt vigilantes.

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And it’s a handy coincidence that this weekend we had proof from Bekasi that the problem of cop collaboration with Islamist bigot bullies hasn’t gone away.

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There really is something rotten in the state of West Java, and in Bekasi in particular.

•  No-Shame Neneng

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The Regent, ‘No-Shame’ Neneng, is a keen enforcer for the nastiest Islamist elements, and during her regime Christians and Ahmadis have seen oppression intensify. Bekasi’s Islamist Regime – ‘We Won’t Allow Religious Liberty If Bigot Thugs Object!’ 

So who can victims turn to?

Certainly not the police, who too often turn a blind eye and deaf ear to jihadist brutes, as we’ve covered more than once. I provide the link to our older post, with the video link that records how a senior Bekasi cop ignored a savage’s death-threat to a Christian pastor.  https://rossrightangle.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/off-with-his-head-jakarta-cops-no-sweat-on-murder-threat/

• And now we read the cops in Bekasi are working hand in glove with the IslamoNazi FPI. These self-styled ‘Defenders of Islam’ are infamous for their vigilante intimidation  – and for their cowardice.

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Nobody’s forgotten Sukorejo, where the craven bigots scurried into a mosque for safety, and skulked there till assured of a police escort out of town after dark. 

IslamoNazis V Freedom-Fighters? – Some Chicken, Some Neck! 

So one sees their logic in strutting round town with armed cops to cover their sorry asses. But what can possess police officers sworn to uphold the law, empowered to act against anti-socials, instead to join hands with hoodlums? That’s what happened last weekend, with a joint ‘sweeping’ swoop.

Not to round up known louts (hardly – the FPI aren’t going to detain each other!) but to harass ‘dimly-lit stalls’ where beer and cuddly cuties might be available.

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 cuddly cuties

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Police West Cikarang, West Java, cooperated with the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) on raids early this morning, Monday (06/07/2015). One of the targets of the operation is the hangouts of commercial sex workers (PSK).

They wasted the time of 150 officers in this kill-joy tour de force, demonstrating yet again the poor priorities of policing and the authorities’ indifference towards naughties for 11 months of every year, then that self-righteous surge in Ramadan.

Police Chief  Lintar Mahardono, of Bekasi’s West Cikarang area, admitted that the action was to anticipate the sweeping unilaterally by certain organizations.                          

http://polisi-gandeng-fpi-razia-tempat-hiburan-malam

OMG!

So because they fear the thugs may go a-raiding on their own, they invite them to join police operations?

These cops are armed! If they see white-shirt goon squads roaming the town, all they need to do is draw their side-arms and order the nasty no-goods to disperse, or else!

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•   FPI in cowardly mask mode

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They’ll scuttle off fast enough!

Of course there’s no real crime in Bekasi, so the under-worked rozzers may as well wander round with white-shirt sticky-beaks picking on harmless hookers. 

• 

• Get real! There’s heaps of REAL crims in Bekasi, who merit the interest of the constabulary FAR more than a gaggle of good-time girls in ‘dimly-lit stalls!’

But let’s not tar every police officer with that tacky Bekasi brush!

Compare and contrast with a responsible copper, in Jember,  East Java,   Police Chief Sabilul Alif. who led his men in public confrontation with a convoy comprising dozens of members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), and stopped them in their tracks.

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Telling off the toe-rags!

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There’s at least two You Tube videos of the scene –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krMKYYs4f1E– the fanatics backing off sharpish as Sabilul lays down the law! The videos  have gone viral, suggesting a LOT of people ( over 200,000!) liked what they saw, an honest policeman doing his job, unafraid of curs who never dare step up unless mob-handed.

“Check and bring all these vehicles to the police station,” said Alif Sabilul to his men. He ordered the layabouts to be checked out and, if need be, reported for crash helmet and vehicular violations, etc., and made clear his professional approach to law and enforcement. 

“I will guarantee security. I will ensure there’s nobody doing anything without authority,” he said. 

http://www.merdeka.com/peristiwa/tegas-kapolres-jember-hentikan-fpi-yang-akan-lakukan-sweeping.html

So why does Jember have proper policing, while Bekasi’s Finest patrol in company with undesirables? 

A community gets the police it deserves?

 

Who’s On Da Booze? Mall Brawl Gangsters “Are An Asset!?!”

A most peculiar story in the Jakarta Globe this past weekend, about a brawl in Kelapa Gading, a fairly posh area of North Jakarta, involving the FBR, the Betawi Brotherhood Forum —

– a dozen arrests after a fight in the parking area of Kelapa Gading’s Mall of Indonesia (MoI), in North Jakarta…a group of FBR members wanted to avenge the beating by staging an attack on the security guards later in the day, carrying weapons such as bows and arrows, catapults, machetes and spears..http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/jakarta/12-arrested-fbr-clashes-kelapa-gading-mall-guards/

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MOI, Kelapa Gading

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The JG delicately describes the FBR as a quasi-militant group known to operate protection rackets in the Greater Jakarta area.

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But readers will be aware that they have had friends in high places in our lovely capital city, including Fauzi Bowo, formerly the Governor, who is now Indonesia’s Ambassador in Berlin.

Gangsters in Jakarta – Friends and Foes… 

The FBR are not just a gang that’s frequently involved in violent affray, but also noted for nasty sectarian outbursts too.

https://rossrightangle.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/fbr-bigots-threaten-jakarta-church/

But anyway, the latest…

“This incident started when an FBR member named Iwan Setiawan was beaten with wooden batons by Kelapa Gading Square security guards on Friday at 3 a.m. because he was asking questions about a piece of advertising that had just been put up by MoI management,” Adj. Sr. Comr. Asep Adi Saputra, deputy chief of the North Jakarta Police, said on Saturday.

MoI is the Mall of Indonesia – I’ve been there once or twice, lots of pretty cool chicks, mostly of the moneyed variety,  out shopping, so out of my league, sadly.

One’s initial reaction, of course, is puzzlement and even a smidgin of compassion for poor Iwan. If I asked a mall employee about an ad on their premises, I’d not expect to be duffed up. So what was Iwan’s provocative question?

‘Where can I find the cutest frilly underwear for my girl-friend?’ ‘Are there any good discounts on intoxicating beverages this week?’

Who knows, because the JG certainly doesn’t tell us! But they do have one fascinating sentence!

Police said they also confiscated a bottle of booze at scene…

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• But the Jakarta Post is less reticent, for once.   

Hundreds of FBR members ran amok in the mall premises after reportedly failing to get a cut from an advertising installation…

The police also confiscated 40 bows, four spears, 13 slingshots, two billiard balls, 55 marbles and an empty whisky bottle from an FBR post in Sunter…  http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/05/30/31-arrested-many-weapons-confiscated-fbr-post-kelapa-gading.html

So it’s back to that bottle, empty, drained to the last drop…by whom? Maybe the FBR just found it, a discarded empty bottle, and thought it might be handy in a street-fight?

Maybe?

But no ‘maybe’ about the response of Jakarta administration’s National and Political Unity’s Office – Kesbangpol has decided not to take any steps against the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR)…

“Disbanding the gang is not that easy because they are an asset. In Kesbangpol’s perspective, all organizations must obey the rules and if [they] violate these rules, they will risk sanctions,” Kesbangpol chief Ratiyono

WHAT?

Does Governor Ahok agree with that mealy-mouthed definition? A gang of sectarian hoodlums -an ASSET?

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•  Ahok

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Ahok has qute rightly, and bravely, demanded that the IslamoNazi thug-gang, the FPI, be outlawed.

So what’s the diff with this other lout outfit?

0000000000000000000

PS. I finally found the FBR’s version of that ‘question’ and in the interests of fairness, here it is.

One member of FBR named Benediktur denied the allegation. “We do not ask for thug percentages. FBR in North Jakarta’s got a social function. We just asked whether there was permission to install FBR billboards, because the work is right on public roads.” http://news.liputan6.com/read/2242819/ahok-minta-polisi-ungkap-kasus-jatah-preman-fbr-ke-moi

Terima Kasih, Arif Suryobuwono – Cerita Miras Luar Biasa!

My sincere thanks to Arif Suryobuwono, who gave me the best laugh this week with his article on drinking, mostly a calm look at how people approach that admirable activity.

But his anecdote about some incredibly naive female entrepreneuse’s ‘all-you-can-drink’ scheme from 6pm till 8pm….

…………………..

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• …she calculated that they would be late due to traffic,come at 7pm with a growling stomach, eat at her restaurant and have only one hour left to drink the wine…

Wow! He had me guffawing! 

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/04/14/by-way-either-you-run-alcohol-or-alcohol-runs-you.html

Pak Arif was writing about Jakarta, plainly, but my immediate reaction was to speculate on which of Jupiter’s moons his loopy lassie must have been born.

Talk about off yer rocker!

I have been to one or two ( dozen…hundred..?) time-specific free-flow venues since I came here so many years ago. I like parties, okay? And the guests always include a good mix of locals and foreigners.

Few Indonesians are into booze in a big way, or at least not ostentatiously. Foreigners, Western folk at least, are different.

Often ostentatiously so.

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The drill for afficionados is to leave home or work early that afternoon – in Jakarta, if you wish to be on time, you learn fast to allow an extra hour to what might seem a reasonable expectation of the duration of your journey.

For a free-flow evening, serious people make that 90 minutes earlier. A warning note- these common-sense steps can go awry. On rare days, traffic abates.

Then there’s a clear and present danger of arriving half an hour early – when the bar is not yet free! Nothing for it then but to lurk in the lobby, or the car-park, playing with your hand-phone.

—————

• 
• —————————-

• Or go to the toilet ( at least that makes more room for later intake)
• If not…
• ———————–
• Sad stories have been heard of guys and gals who don’t check their watches, rush in and order a beer, then – shock/horror – get asked to  pay for it!   

On arrival, one joins one’s like-minded cronies (most folks in the know about these knees-ups DO know each other!) at the bar and greet the waiters/waitresses – especially the waitresses – with a cheery smile.

ooooooooooooooooooooooo

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

It’s important to be on their good side, given the madding crowd that will soon be baying in unison for their attention.

–

 ‘What? Free-flow ends in five minutes? OMG!’

———-

Food may indeed be part of the plan.

But that needs to be carefully coordinated with one of said cronies. He – or she, since fun is a unisex pastime – will scuttle off to corral a couple of platefuls while you are ordering two more bevvies.

Such people understand their objective. That knowledge is based on how much entry to the ‘free-flow’ event costs (they are never free!) and from the going rate for the same brand of drink purchased in a downtown bar.

———————————–

• 
• ————————-

• Hence a sound balance of payments demands consumption of at least ten beers or eight glasses of wine.
• Restos and hotels that operate these nights are well aware of the capacity of bule enthusiasts. At first sight you wouldn’t expect business professionals to risk the possibility of immense financial loss.

But Jakarta’s clever catering people understand that when seriously committed thirsts have passed that eight or ten glass mile-stone, yeah, some will slope off, for sure.

But a man ( again, and a woman) who’s having fun? Home? Home’s for sleepy people!

How many will willingly cease and desist from frolic, just because it starts to cost them an arm and a leg? The free-flow may end at 9 pm, but the bar doesn’t close.

It’s still there, with all those friendly bar-maids still waiting to take your orders!

——————

———

• Reverting to the matter of food – when your comrade-in-glass gets back with the first heaping helping, that good turn must be reciprocated in half-an-hour.
• One plateful is no adequate ballast for the voyage through a Jakarta night of revelry.

=–=-

=

Getting home is easy – if you happen to be one of the gilt-edged elite with a personal chauffeur. Otherwise, it’s taxi time.

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• 
• ——————-

• Public transport is perfectly okay by day, but by night, it’s dark outside and anti-social elements thrive in darkness, to whom weary or wobbly travellers may fall easy prey!

Cabbies, please note, do not really like to have to shake the passenger awake more than once in order to pin-point the destination. A decent tip is only fair!

But that’s the price you pay.

Free-flow COSTS!

 

Warem2 Indonesia – Will Prohibition Herald a Land of ‘Dimly-Lit Stalls?’

 

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Here we are folks, one of those ‘dimly-lit stalls’ we keep hearing about. Just insert the phrase in our RRA search box and you’ll find plenty of references to this  phenomenon, which is the bete noire of kill-joy sectarian gangs across this beautiful archipelago.

I’ve gotta hand it to Harian Terbit for that alluring picture.  http://www.harianterbit.com/megapol/read/2015/03/24/23147/29/18/Masyarakat-dan-FPI-Desak-Pemkot-Bekasi-Tertibkan-Warem-di-Jatisampurna 

It was taken in Bekasi, a place not much fun when I lived there ten or more years ago, and increasingly so today, regrettably, given the bigoted regime of the Regent, No-Shame Neneng, whose loathing of religious liberty we have oftimes covered. 

• Bekasi’s Hitlerian Ultimatum to Ahmadis – Update on Golkar Party’s Intolerance 

However today’s post will be confined to more mundane matters, with these dimly lit stalls (warem) paradoxically in the spotlight.

 

oooooooooooooo

o=

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All Our Tomorrows – Jakarta Pedestrians Breathalysed? 

I’d noticed it when first published last month, but with the Government’s declaration that ALL consumption of alcohol, not just in Bekasi but across the archipelago (except Bali) is to be outlawed, it offers a glimpse of Indonesia’s potential Prohibitionist future.

It appears that ‘people’ in the Bekasi district of Kranggan Jatisampurna are ‘complaining,’ because ‘although often urged by the public, the city government is reluctant to take any action.’

The Regent is responsible for a wider area, but the actual city is the fief of yet another Golkar Party bigwig, Mayor Rahmat Effendi, also well-known to regular RRA readers.

• Bekasi’s Hitlerian Ultimatum to Ahmadis – Update on Golkar Party’s Intolerance 

=

• i. No-Shame Neneng and Rachmat Effendi

—-

So what’s Rahmat done, or not done, to upset these ‘people?’

One resident of Kranggan, Edi (40) complained that until now the city government has not dared to bring order to the warem area at Jatisampurna, though its existence has an impact on the social life of the surrounding community.

And Edi’s ire is echoed by the War-Lord – a free translation but fair, I think – the head of the Laskars (Warriors) of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) in Greater Bekasi, Ustadz Cecep M Hudzaifah.  Oddly, Google Translate gives his name as Cecelia ( reminds me of the old pop song – ‘you’re breaking’ my heart!’) but I know he’s a fellow, not a female.

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 Cecep – not a happy man

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I am fairly certain the IslamoNazis don’t have women warriors – it would be inappropriate, given the definitive statement by their Jakarta boss (recently sentenced for ring-leading a riot)

• IslamoNazi Gauleiter – “Women Already Have Limitations, Let Alone Non-Muslims!” 

According to his Bekasi comrade, Cecep, the Jatisampurna warem are still in operation, Bekasi city government unfortunately just sealed off the place without any concrete action.

This, he rails, has given rise to immorality – and that comprises adulterated alcohol and alcoholic beverages, as well as the proliferation of naughty rented houses, as well as massage parlors!

http://www.beritaekspres.com/2015/03/21/laskar-pembela-islam-kompleksitas-masalah-sosial-marak-pemkot-bekasi-tutup-mata/

Well, adulterated booze can be damaging to one’s health.

And the risk has surely been exacerbated by the ludicrous anti-alcohol lobby here, which recently enacted an intolerant edict that won’t even let you buy an honest beer to take home from any of the many mini-marts which previously sold it.

Nor can you buy one and sit inside or outside the store to ease the strain of a hot arvo/evening, of which there are also many here. 

Now we face an escalating narrow-minded prohibitionism.

If the patrons of the dimly-lit stalls could get a decent drink for a decent price, would they not do so? Like the working-man in Cambridge’s Clarendon Arms in the UK, or Stratford’s Dominion House, in Ontario, non-affluent Bekasi blokes feel a need to relax over a drink after a long, hard day. 

But the tax on booze makes it expensive even for a mildly prosperous middle-class Indonesian, never mind your average working stiff. 

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The queue at my local dentist? No, if so I’d be eating candy and drinking Pepsi all day long! Actually, it’s a picture illustrating warem nightlife, allegedly. No address supplied by the media links – sorry!

—

Oh, and I just LOVE this photo, prohibitionist charmers in yesteryear USA. As Grandpa used to say  ‘Twould drive ye tae drink!’ 

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Ironically, Cecep continued, it’s not far, only 100 meters, from the police station…where are the security forces and the city authorities..inert, silent, just letting this go on…?

Fair enough, his questions might well deserve an answer, if an illicit retail outlet is in operation as Cecep claims.

But as for the dimly-lit stalls’ other attractions, why whine about the girls?

If you want to crack down on poor slappers trying to get by in a very hard world, why urge the cops to pick on the gals in warem2?   One law for the rich, one for the poor?

Take a walk into any five-star hotel in Jakarta – especially after 10 pm on ladies’ nights, when the Falatehan over-spill arrives! The only difference between their bars and the warem2 is the amount customers pay for a beer – and everything else that’s on offer.

So when did the FPI – or the Police – last raid a glitzy international hotel?

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Speak-Easy slappers, aka flappers,  in Prohibitionist America

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Once prohibition is in place, they’ll have their hands full as ‘dimly-lit stalls’ AKA speak-easies, proliferate across the land.