Fight to Shutter Notorious Alexis Hotel Could Spill Over to Jakarta's Nightlife

You could call it a bit of bureaucratic mission creep. The administration of Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan declared war on the city's most-infamous (alleged) brothel Alexis Hotel way back on the campaign trail. He successfully shut down the more notorious upper floors of the hotel, KTV, and nightclub, shortly after taking office but was unable to shutter the building's ground-floor nightclub—the not-so-subtlety named 4Play.

Now, in a bid to regain the upper hand in the dispute, the city fired what might be the opening salvo on Jakarta's once-thriving nightlife scene. Anies issued a special decree that extends an unprecedented amount of power to the city government to shut down businesses, including bars, nightclubs, and restaurants, without prior warning. The new decree also allows the city to use anonymous civilian complaints as evidence and to punish multiple establishments that share the same building with the same complaint—a clear measure to target places like Alexis and 4Play.

It's those two establishments at the center of this decision. Anies has been pushing to shut down Alexis since he assumed control of the city hall, and he scored an early win when the establishment's business license was up for renewal in October. The Jakarta administration just didn't renew the license, shutting the place down with a bureaucratic move, but 4Play, the club downstairs, was on a different business license and remained open.

Anies again attempted to shut the whole place down for good last week, but the plan was canceled because of a lack of coordination between the administration and the police. So Anies issued a new special decree to head-off future issues, but experts warn that it opens the door for everyone from religious fundamentalists to annoyed neighbors to get any businesses' license before the shut-down committee.

The city should show evidence of wrongdoing before revoking a business' license, explained Chudry Sitompul, a legal expert at the University of Indonesia. This zero-warnings, anonymous complaints system could lead to unintended blowback for the Anies administration, he warned.

"A warning should be issued first, and that warning has to be preceded by complaints from the public that have been verified with evidence," Chudry told VICE. "But if there hasn't been any evidence of a violation, then to still take action without enough evidence may lead to negative views of the government by the Jakarta tourism sector."

Once a permit has been revoked, it's incredibly difficult for a business to reopen. And these additional regulations will only make that process even harder, said Suroto, the chairman of Strategic Socio-Economy Kader Association (AKSES).

"We need to see where the decree is heading," he told VICE. "The nightlife industry has contributed a large amount of money to the city. But you can't argue that there are still issues with human trafficking, drugs, and prostitution."

And then there's the unintended consequences of shutting down a popular nightlife spot. Typically, other, smaller businesses also depend on the traffic these entertainment centers bring in. Up in North Jakarta, for example, Alexis sat in an otherwise quiet part of town off the highway. Whatever restaurants were open around there likely depended on the Alexis for their traffic.

"But that impact will only be temporary, so don't look at the potential dwindling of profits too much," Suroto told VICE. "On the other hand, there will be an affect on the tourism sector. But in the long run, it's expected that our tourism sector will turn into more of a creative industry, as opposed to just selling night tourism that relies on prostitution."

The industry itself has been mixed on the new decree. Some, like Erick Halauwet, the chairman of Entertainment Entrepreneurs Association (Aspija), worry that a crack down on nightlife establishments will cause a lot of people to lose their jobs. Bars and nightclubs are one of the few service industry places that hire people who only have a high school diploma.

“There should be a discussion about it," he said. "It’s a pity that no investigation was conducted first."

Others were more supportive. Lulu Waluya Hadiman, the spokesperson for the popular South Jakarta nightclub Jenja, told VICE that she wasn't afraid of a campaign to clean-up the city's nightlife. Not all clubs and bars have sex workers on staff, and places that actually follow the law shouldn't have much to fear, Lulu told VICE.

“Nightlife entertainment is also part of tourism,” she said. “We are supportive of the new regulation and ready to work with the government. We can ensure that we only provide entertainment that follows the regulation.”

It's still too early to really see how this will all play out. But if the suggestions of Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno are a sign, then it's enough to leave some people concerned. Last year, Sandi said he wanted more Sharia tourism spots in the city, including "halal hotels" that only rent rooms to married couples. The worry here is that if that's the direction the city is heading in, then decrees like this are an easy stepping stone for sweeping shut downs of bars and nightclubs. So maybe it's time to embrace that FOMO this weekend, just in case your favorite bar is the next to be shut down.