Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The closing of Karaoke in Depok

Since the University of Indonesia moved from Jakarta to Depok, West Java, in 1987, the town has developed very rapidly, especially after it became a municipality in 1999.

The existence of one of the largest university in Indonesia has made the town flourished with places for young students to stay and enjoy, such as room & house rentals, shopping and entertainment places including Karaoke Places.

Although the town's 2003 by-law did not mentioned any permit for Karaoke Places, but somehow many Karaoke Places, including big ones like Inul Vista and Nav, have been opened. After several years, the municipality suddenly realized about this mistake and decided to suddenly close them down this Sunday.

For detailed media reports on the above, please click here and here.

I felt so sad at the decision of the Depok municipality to suddenly close down the Karaoke Places without considering the fact that such action would cause many workers to lose their jobs. If the Karaoke Places are really against the by-law, why were they allowed to exist for several years?

6 comments:

pj said...

Hi Harry

One of your links is to a different issue.

I find it strange that this places were shut down. Did they not have licenses to operate in the first place? I can't think of a better way to discourage investment in Depok than to continue the actions of the present government.

Unknown said...

Hi Pj,
Thank you for reminding me about the link difference. I have revised it.

According to the local government owners of the Karaoke do not have licenses to operate karaoke. They only have license to operate restaurants & other entertainment places. Because in Depok there is no license for Karaoke.
The problem is that the government seemingly closed their eyes and let this situation go on for several years.

I agree that this kind of incidents will discourage investment in Depok.

Rob Baiton said...

Harry...

One would think that the government of Depok has more pressing concerns than shutting down businesses.

Has the government been deriving taxes from these establishments?

I wonder if any members of government have frequented these establishments and, heaven forbid, had a good time?

Then again...

Unknown said...

Rob,

Depok has lots of problems a.o. terrible traffic due to very limited roads but so many shopping malls (all located in one road), high crime rate, etc.

The karaoke places are registered as entertainment places, therefore they should be paying tax.

There is a possibility that this is part of an effort to win votes in next year's Pilkada.

fajar said...

i like it

Unknown said...

Fajar,
Which one do you liked, closing down of karaoke?