Dessy Sagita – While a proposal to install condom dispensers in Malang's red-light districts to help prevent the spread of HIV is laudable, it simply won't work in Indonesia, activists and experts said on Tuesday.

Malang district head Rendra Krisna on Monday said that since the repeated issuance of decrees ordering the closure of brothels had not worked, the only way to minimize the spread of the virus in the East Java city was to urge brothel clients to use condoms supplied by the province's AIDS Prevention Commission (KPA) and the local health office.

"The idea is not to legalize prostitution but merely to prevent HIV/AIDS," Rendra said, according to state news agency Antara.

Prostitution in Malang is widespread and not confined to any one neighborhood. Official data from the city showed that there are brothels in each of the town's 33 subdistricts.

In China, Thailand, India and elsewhere in Asia, machines that provide condoms free or for a nominal fee in red-light areas are increasingly common. But in Indonesia, the concept isn't applicable, experts said, mostly because of opposition from fundamentalists.

In fact, the government installed condom vending machines in 2006, according to Sudibyo Alimoeso, the main secretary of the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN).

"But the opposition was too strong," he said, adding that BKKBN's office in West Nusa Tenggara was even attacked at one point by people who rejected the idea. "So in 2008, we decided to stop the project. There were too many controversies, we needed to cool down a bit."

Mar'uf Amin, chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), summed up its stance by saying condom dispensers would only make prostitution spread even faster.

"Providing condom dispensers is like declaring that prostitution is legal," he said. "It will only make more people think that prostitution is okay because they are now safe and protected."

Mar'uf said that the best solution to prevent HIV/AIDS was by restricting or even totally prohibiting prostitution in Indonesia.

Aditya Wardhana, program manager at the Stigma Foundation, an organization that advocates for the rights of drug users, said while condom dispensers were not the solution, the proposal at least was an indication that the government was willing to go against the conservative mind-set.

"We have been conducting various method to fight HIV/AIDS spread since 1994, but we are not making great progress, so unless we do something like this, we are not going to be able to achieve the target of Millennium Development Goals," he said.

Hartoyo, general secretary of Ourvoice, a Jakarta-based gay rights group, said it would be wiser if the government just distributed free condoms at private places inside the red-light districts.

"Just put the boxes of condom in the rooms, to minimize the controversy," he said. "Given the circumstances, I don't think many people will have the courage to withdraw the condom from the dispenser, certainly not in public places," he said.