A number of non-governmental organizations have announced that roughly 1,000 people will stage a rally on Thursday afternoon demanding for the closure of the Alexis Hotel in North Jakarta, which is rumoured to host high-class prostitution services.
The demand has gained momentum following the inauguration of Anies Baswedan as Jakarta governor, who in his election campaign had promised to close down the hotel.
The planned protest has been shared on social media and has gone viral, resulting in some members of the public ready to join up with the group of NGOs, calling itself the North Jakarta Community Forum Presidium, in staging the rally on Thursday.
The Jakarta Police, however, said that it had yet to receive the notification letter for the rally.
“We haven’t received the letter of notification. If there is any, we’ll analyze it,” Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said on Tuesday, as quoted by The Jakarta Post.
The Alexis Hotel is allegedly used as a high-class brothel but has managed to remain in business. The prostitution allegation surrounding the Alexis was one of the topics brought up by Anies in one of the election campaign debates against Basuki, in which Anies challenged the former governor’s stance regarding the matter and criticized him for being more concerned about evicting locals than eliminating prostitution.