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| Little Arabia: Stores on Jl. Raya Puncak, one of the main roads in the resort city of Puncak, put up signs in Arabic to attract tourists from the Middle East, who flock to the area all year round. According to locals, many tourists have engaged in contract marriages with locals, who have enjoyed windfall profits from the arrangements. |
The
laughter of two attractive young women in party dresses could be heard across
the hotel parking lot in the Puncak resort area in Bogor, West Java.
The pair
joined another woman waiting in a Suzuki minivan and disappeared into the
night.
“They are
prostitutes like me. They are heading to villas where tourists from the Middle
East stay,” a woman who asked to be identified as N., 24, told The Jakarta
Post. “The woman in the front seat was their pimp.”
Similar vehicles
go from villa to villa in Puncak throughout the night, transporting prostitutes
in search of customers. Tourists pay Rp 400,000 (US$45) per hour for the
women’s services, or Rp 1.2 million for the
entire
evening.
For
decades, Puncak has been a magnet for foreign tourists, particularly from the
Middle East, due to its fresh air, cool weather and mountain views.
One
village, Warung Kaleng, has even been dubbed “kampung Arab”, due to its large
number of Middle Eastern tourists.
Stores in
the village sport signs in both Indonesian and Arabic. Many cater to Middle
Eastern clientele, offering items such as water pipes, flavored tobacco, olive
oil and pita bread.
The area
has also been infamous as a hub for so-called “contract marriages” between
foreign tourists and local women.
However,
local residents said that the practice has been declining in recent years due
to frequent raids led by the police and public order officers and village
authorities.
Rusli
Doelbari, head of South Tugu village in Cisarua district, said that the
crackdown, which began in 2007, was aimed at restoring the village’s
reputation.
“Numerous
news reports labeled this village a den of debauchery, saying it was offering
young women to foreign tourists — when in fact the girls did not actually come
from here,” Rusli said.
The
prostitutes in Puncak mostly came from nearby towns in West Java, such as
Sukabumi, Cianjur, Indramayu, Kadipaten, he said. Some came from big cities,
including Jakarta and Bandung.
“It’s just
because they are having their so-called honeymoons here with their newlywed
Mideast husbands that this place got a bad image,” Rusli said.
“All the
girls who are natives of Cisarua are well-behaved, and would not offer
themselves to tourists just for money,” he added.
N.,
however, said that she was born in the area and lived there all her life,
although her mother came from Cianjur.
A local
security guard who declined to be named said things had been looking up over
the past few years.
The situation
had been out of control before the crackdown, he said.
“Tourists
often had parties with loud music, fireworks and women dancing at the villas.
These garden parties could go on from eight at night until three or four in the
morning,” he said.
Contract marriages
were also rampant then, with prices for brides reaching Rp 50 million, split
between the bride, her middleman and her pimp, although prices have dropped to
Rp 3 million following the increased scrutiny.
The women
found ways around Islamic marriage rituals.
Taxi and
motorbike taxi drivers often served as witnesses or pretended to be members of
a prospective bride’s family, N. said. “Those foreigners couldn’t possibly tell
the difference, whereas the cleric was usually an off-duty marriage registrar
from the local office of the Religious Affairs Ministry. Once the deal was
done, the marriage would last for a week.”
N.
described three types of police raids. First were joint operations, directed at
all types of prostitution.
“If you are
caught in this type of operation, there’s nothing you can do but pray. You
can’t pay them to release you,” N. said.
“The second
type is the ‘Arab operation’, which only targets foreign tourists who keep
local prostitutes in their villas. If the tourists want the officers to release
the women, they have to pay Rp 3 million per girl.”
The third
and most common type of raid was the “payable operation”, N. said, which meant
you could bribe the arresting officers to let you go.
“They ask
for Rp 3 million, with the [pimp] and the girl splitting the costs.”
Rusli said
foreign tourists contributed to local economic growth, despite contract
marriages.
“Many
motorbike taxi drivers say that, while local tourists will only pay Rp 5,000 to
Rp 10,000, foreign tourists will give them Rp 50,000 to Rp 100,000,” he said.
Local
traders, grocery store owners, housemaids, and tour guides also benefited from
tourists.
“I’m not
saying that tourists shouldn’t be allowed to come here. I urge them all to come
and bring their families and friends,” Rusli said.
“However,
they have to respect local customs and traditions while they’re here.” (mim)
Related Article:
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| Ready
to go: Several drivers sit in a car rental shop in North Tugu village. They are on standby, ready to take Arab tourists around or pick them up from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. |
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