JAKARTA, Indonesia - In an unprecedented move, officials in Indonesia's capital will deploy nearly 5,000 officers to enforce a decree that nightclubs and other entertainment venues stay shut during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, media reports said Wednesday.
The government of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, is secular and its constitution theoretically guarantees equal rights to followers of all religions. However, although holy days of other religions are observed, businesses are not ordered to close as can be the case with Muslim holidays.
In past years, the Jakarta city administration has announced decrees to close entertainment venues during Ramadan, but has failed to enforce them. Instead, it has stood by while Muslim militants raided clubs and restaurants to impose Islamic rules.
The Jakarta Post newspaper said security officials will for the first time enforce the government decree to close discos, massage parlors, saunas and pinball parlors. Bars, singing halls and live music halls may open for four hours after dark.
Efforts to obtain comment from the Jakarta governor's office were unsuccessful.
The closures come as many establishments are struggling to attract customers amid terror alerts that have followed the Oct. 12 Bali nightclub bombings that killed more than 180 people in an attack blamed on Muslim militants.
Arguing that these venues provide 250,000 jobs and bring in $US4.3 million in taxes each month, the Entertainment Center Owners Association lobbied unsuccessfully to overturn the decree.
Muslim vigilante groups — led by the Islamic Defenders Front — contend these establishments should remain closed during Ramadan in line with Islamic rules.
Such groups often have operated with impunity. Four days after the Bali bombings, however, police arrested the Islamic Defenders Front leader, Habib Rizieq Shihab, along with nine of his followers.
Rizieq remains under house arrest. An attorney for his group vowed Wednesday that in the future it will use peaceful means to keep the nightspots closed.
"We will ask the government to close those night spots during Ramadan," said Sugito, one of the group's lawyers. "If they are still open, we will take legal action."