Padlock those underpants!

Following on from my post below about criminals in South Africa and the different customs of many of its people, I was amused to read of a controversy currently going on in Indonesia.

According to the Jakarta Post, the administration of Batu in East Java province "recently issued a policy obliging masseurs to install padlocks on their underwear in a move to minimize prostitution in massage parlors and maintain the image of Batu as a popular tourist destination." The Jakarta Tourism Agency subsequently announced that it was considering applying the rule to massage parlors in Indonesia's capital city to "improve the(ir) tarnished image".

Now the State Minister for Women's Empowerment, Ms. Meutia Fardia Hatta Swasono, has come out against these moves.

"It is not the right way to prevent promiscuity. It insults women as if they are the ones in the wrong. It is not that we oppose the administration's effort to uphold morality, but the problem is in their way of treating masseurs as if they're all committing prostitution."

"Obliging women to lock their underwear means the administration considers all massage parlors to be places of prostitution. In fact, many people go to the parlor purely for health reasons, not for sex."

Meutia said the way to minimize prostitution in massage parlors was to strengthen the security system, such as by installing CCTV.

She recently launched the National Action Plan on Anti-Pornography Families. Her office will jointly conduct the action with the Office of the State Minister of Youth and Sports Affairs, the Religious Affairs Ministry, the National Police and the Communication and Information Ministry.

I'm afraid that she (and her colleagues) are doomed to disappointment. No nation in history has ever succeeded in promoting religious-based sexual morality by decrees, laws and regulations. I'm personally opposed to pornography and the sex trade in all its forms, but I have to be realistic and admit that if there's a market, someone will arrange to supply the commodity in demand.

Still, the thought of masseuses in padlocked underwear is rather mind-boggling! I wonder if Victoria's Secret has a suitable product line - perhaps made of reinforced metal mesh?

Peter