As if to keep up with other regions in the campaign for moral values, the Tangerang municipality is promoting what it calls "morality building" by enforcing anti-alcohol and anti-prostitution regulations through a series of raids.

The first target was sellers of alcoholic drinks. Five people have been arrested and put on trial. Two of the suspects were managers of Carrefour and Hyper Market located in the municipality. The Carrefour manager was fined Rp 6 million (US$645) and the Hyper Market manager Rp 3 million because of the alcoholic drinks on their shelves.

It was the turn of lades of the night Monday, and the public order officers arrested at least 30 women, who they decided were prostitutes. All of them now stand accused of violating Bylaw No.8/2005, which prohibits anyone from doing "suspicious things", which will be construed by the public order officers as prostitution.

Witnessed by thousands of people at the courthouse, several of the defendants pled innocent. The judge, however, fined them Rp 1,000 each and let them go. While those who admitted to suspicious behavior were fined between Rp 150,000 and Rp 550,000, or between three and eight days in jail if they did not pay the fines.

The Tangerang authorities may have claimed success in their morality building scheme, but there are serious and noteworthy issues that the authorities must handle more seriously in the future.

Some of the women arrested during the raids said they were not prostitutes. One woman, who is pregnant, asked the judge to summon her husband, which the judge adamantly refused. The judge banged his gavel, declared her guilty and ordered her to pay the fine. As she did not have the Rp 300,000 with her, she had no choice but to be taken directly to the women's penitentiary, and her husband had no idea where she was. She was later found to be an elementary school teacher and regular housewife.

Another woman, who was waiting for her husband in a hotel lobby, accompanied by a friend of her husband, had another story. She also fell victim to the morality raids and had to suffer through the same treatment as the teacher.

The judge said the women had violated Article 1 Paragraph 4 of Bylaw No.8/2005, which prohibits anyone from hanging around on streets, in hotel lobbies, open fields or squares, boarding houses, entertainment centers, coffee shops or other people's homes. No wonder the elementary school teacher was arrested, after all, she was waiting at a bus stop.

The Tangerang municipality may be proud of these raids to uphold what they assume to be "a responsible, honest and religious vision", which according to Islamic teachings is called akhlakul kharimah. But, from a legal point of view, the bylaw is discriminative and unfair.

It is not easy to explain suspicious behavior by a woman as decided by public order officers, who jump to the conclusion that she must be a prostitute. And why is the bylaw just targeting women?

Who will be held responsible if the housewives file lawsuits against the authorities for the embarrassment of being accused prostitutes?

What will the authorities do if a man sits in a hotel lounge waiting for a friend for a business meeting? Will he be picked up for violating the bylaw?

What would happen to a woman who has to commute from her office alone at night? The nation's Constitution guarantees freedom for all citizens to travel everywhere in this country at any time.

Instead of answering those questions accordingly, Tangerang Mayor Wahidin Halim insists that the society must follow the administration's akhlakul kharimah vision. The next move on the morality agenda, he stated, was greater efforts to uphold moral values, and so the focus will now be on schoolgirls' thighs and knees.

The mayor said that in the near future, all schoolgirls from elementary to high school would be required to wear skirts that cover the knees. He said female students would have to dress modestly, with longer skirts, without explaining the connection between long skirts and modesty.

There is nothing wrong with the mayor's moves. But, admiration of symbols like long skirts could be misleading. We do hope that the mayor is not of the opinion that schoolgirls who do not wear long skirts are promiscuous. The bylaw on schoolgirls' dress codes seems unnecessary in the first place. Concentrating on good governance and eradicating corruption, collusion and nepotism may be more appropriate and more useful to society.

The "moral municipality" has not been declared free from corruption, while abundant jobs, mostly infrastructure projects like road repair, need more serious attention than elementary schoolgirls' thighs and knees.