Indonesian Punk: Punk’s Not Dead!





KARLI : It’s December 2011 and Indonesian punks are headline news. Powerful images of punks having their heads forcibly shaved go viral. They’ve been stripped of their long hair, mohawks, piercings, black jeans and studded belts. A cultural uniform replaced by a military one. I find out that 64 punks have been arrested in Banda Aceh and are being held without charge; forced to attend a 10-day moral re-education boot camp.

I’m listening when the Deputy Governor of Banda Aceh is telling me, and the world, that punk, punk is the new social disease. And then, then it explodes.

What followed was the collective outcry of human rights groups and international solidarity actions from enraged and passionate punks across the world. This pointed a spotlight on a thriving, politicized, radicalized and massive, and I mean massive punk scene. One of the biggest in the world that most people didn’t even know existed.

But I did. I did know that it existed. This massive Indonesian punk scene. Because I’m a punk.

KARLI :I’m a white queer punk living in Sydney. I’ve played in punk bands for about a decade. In my early twenties I was the drummer in an all girl punk band. It was the first band I’d ever been in and it totally changed my life. In 2008 our band went on tour to South East Asia. Indonesian punk blew my mind. I connected with local punks and experienced some of the wildest and craziest punk shows I’ve ever seen.

Now I was watching my international punk community mobilize and take to the streets: protesting across Indonesia, North America and Europe. Screaming “free the Aceh punks !” I saw punks spray graffiti onto the Indonesian embassy in Russia. The internet exploded with information about the arrests and punks united in solidarity. Punks were letting the world know that punk was not dead and it was indeed fighting back !

I simultaneously watched the worlds wide eyed wonderment as it was exposed to one of the biggest and most politicized underground punk scenes in the world. As a white first world punk whose subcultural life is not subject to government or religious sanctions or punishments. I wanted to know what does it really mean to be a punk in Indonesia?

KARLI : It’s January 2012 and I’m sitting in a bus in Jakarta with my good friend Jarwo. We’re drenched in sweat. It’s so damn hot. We’ve been here an hour, inching our way forward. Surrounded by a sea of other buses, motorbikes, angkots, becaks, bicycles, pedestrians and roaming street vendors. In Jakarta I spend half of my time in traffic, sucking up the pollution..... waiting.

We stand out, me and Jarwo. Not only because of our differences: I’m a white Australian women and Jarwo’s an Indonesian man. And we’re speaking in a mishmash of broken English and Bahasa. But it’s our similarities that keep eyes on us. We’re punks.With our tattoos and piercings, torn black jeans, studded belts and band t-shirts. We stand out.But we’re also not kids.I’m 29 years old and Jarwo’s 26. And we’re dressing how lots of kids in Indonesia dress.

SHOULD WE BE TOO OLD FOR THIS !?

JARWO :Hello. My name is Jarwo. I’m 26. I’m a punk, an anarcho-punk, and I’m proud of that label. I run a food stall with my mum and I make a zine, its called “Insane Chaos Punk”. I’m in a band called Project Babi. I’m married and I have a kid. I’m proud of all of that.

I first found out about punk in 1997 when I was... I might have been in year six. A friend gave me some cassette tapes. The first one was a “Sex Pistols” cassette. Toward the end of the 80s, some rich kids, especially the children of government ministers, generals and very wealthy businesspeople: this was during the Suharto era, went and studied overseas. Some of them just went overseas for holidays, because at the time the exchange rate was only 2000 rupiah to the US dollar. That probably wasn’t a problem for them, but it was for the poor. They bought punk to Indonesia. Especially punk style.

KARLI : So, with some cassette tapes, magazines and punk style, the seeds were sown for what would grow into one of the biggest punk scenes in the world.

Punk is like a gateway drug. A portal to countercultural ideas and radical politics.

In the mid 90’s after 30 years of President Suharto’s brutal dictatorship Indonesia had reached crisis point. The mid 90’s saw the height of open resistance to this repressive regime. Young people took to the streets in mass protest demanding change and were integral to the downfall of Suharto in 1998.

This was the perfect breeding ground for punk.

Kids connected over music. Smuggled tapes of popular Western bands like The Sex Pistols, Ramones and The Dead Kennedy’s were just the beginning. Like so many young punks, 12 year old Jarwo wanted more. He explored this exciting new world and found Crass and Oi Polloi, underground political punk bands whose lyrics spoke of fighting back; against capitalism, against corrupt governments, against oppression.

Punk hit Indonesia before there was an internet. Before there was a free press. Punk hit Indonesia when the dictator President Suharto was still in power. Punk said to disenfranchised, angry and rebellious Indonesian youth living under an oppressive, corrupt, violent and authoritarian regime: you have power and autonomy.

Punk said fight back. Punk said revolution is possible.

KARLI :I first met Jarwo in 2008 when my punk band went on tour to Indonesia. He was a cheeky baby faced punk with a mass of thick black wavy hair that ended at his waist. Jarwo was always filled with laughter and we became quick friends during the hectic ride that is a punk rock tour.

Jarwo and I meet up again in Jakarta after the big crackdown on punks in Banda Aceh. He’s cut off his long hair. But he’s still a cheeky baby faced punk. We sit down on some tiny plastic chairs in his warung; one of the makeshift restaurants that line the crowded Jakarta streets, and we talk about family.

JARWO : Being a punk parent is really different from the mainstream because most people only make their children think about growing up, going to school, going to uni, getting a job, making money, getting married, having kids, then dying.And that just continues ... it’s a vicious cycle.

For me, becoming a father in the punk scene is giving motivation to my kids.You have to see the world with your eyes wide open and with intelligence. You have to have a strategy for resisting this system that gives you the shits.

I don’t work in a corporation. I hate working in corporations and I really hate bosses. I really hate the term “boss”. I run my food stall with my mum, just the two of us, because we both really hate working in corporations. I think my mum has taught me to become a good parent to my kids and provide for my kids by running the food stall. For me, that’s a political choice. For me, that’s more anarchic and more political that those who talk about politics but then sell themselves to corporations and bow down to their boss.Being a punk and being a parent is not as easy as it looks.

KARLI :Jarwo and I are back on the bus with in Jakarta. Some kids jump on.One’s about 9 or 10 and the other maybe 12? They’re both wearing black jeans and sneakers and carrying 2 small, battered, but well loved ukuleles with stickers of punk band’s on them.The younger one is wearing a Ramones T-shirt and the older one, a Marjinal T-shirt. Marjinal is one of Indonesia’s most popular underground punk bands.

There are mini revolutions happening in Jakarta's streets and school yards. 30 kids sit cross legged on the ground. Curious eyes gaze up at the man conducting their school yard choir. Dressed in plain grey pants and a short sleeve button up shirt this teacher stands out. It’s not everyday you see a tattooed punk teaching kindy. Or hear rowdy 5 year olds singing anarchist punk rock anthems. Mike; Marjinal’s guitarist, is teaching these kids the lyrics to Marjinal’s most popular song Negeri Negri. A song about the brutalities of poverty, corruption and environmental destruction in contemporary Indonesia.

Marjinal isn’t just a punk band. For them; it’s not only about the music. Marjinal and their activist art collective Taring Babi collaborate with local communities, schools, farmers, workers collectives and activist campaigns to create real and meaningful change. However big or small.They’ve run thousands of free workshops all over Indonesia teaching street kids how to sing and play the ukulele. Marjinal’s music has become the soundtrack to this generation of street kids, the ‘anak merdeka’; the ‘free children’. Empowered by Marjinal’s music and what they learn, the ‘anak merdeka’ hit the streets with their ukuleles. Busking becomes a way to maintain independence and more importantly a way to survive.

Driven by punk’s radical ethos of D.I.Y, or do it yourself, politicized punk bands and autonomous punk collectives have created a strong independant punk scene. One that is distinctly Indonesian; responding to their own political, social and economic realities.

MIKE :I’m Mike from Marjinal. We live in Taring Babi community in here in South Jakarta middle village.We started out in 1997, so we’ve been going for 15 years now. Then we began to make a choice about how we live, to build a grassroots base and live among the community. It was a need that had to be fulfilled because we wanted to be in contact with real and tangible issues.

KARLI : The first time I met Mike, was with Jarwo. I hadn’t been able to get in touch with him before I got to Indonesia. But in a world where punks know punks, it wasn’t hard to find him. Jarwo said “no worries we’ll just go to their house”. So we did. Three hours and five buses later we turn up unannounced.

A bunch of smiling punks are sitting on the verandah drinking ice tea and chain smoking cigarettes. Bobbi, Marjinal’s bass player, is there with his baby son. Kids are running in and out making total chaos. Punks are making woodcut artworks on the floor. The smell of deep fried tempeh pours in from the kitchen. This is nongkrong: hanging out. This sprawling collective house and community named Taring Babi is the centre of one of many thriving punk movements in Indonesia.

Mike is tall, lean, and covered in tattoos. His long mohawk tapers into dreadlocks that reach his waist. In a group, he’s the loudest, with a distinct explosive laugh. A passionate punk with alot to say.

MIKE: In Indonesia we have the crisis political in here you know? Everybody is victim for the fucking system!

KARLI :In a mix of English and Indonesian Mike tells us what it’s like being the only punks in the village and the long road it’s taken to become accepted by this small community of regular working class people living in South Jakarta.

MIKE : Every time, every day, we spend our time living with the people. We walk together, we learn together, we asking together and everything is together. This is why they can accept us, because we feel they are our family.

KARLI : Curious neighbours swing by while we’re hanging out at the Taring Babi house. I even meet Mike’s mum, which is totally wild. He says she’s the most punk person he knows.

MIKE : Yeah, my mum is more punk. See my teachers too. My father and Bobbi’s father, they have the spirit, very, very punk. They say in the 1940’s they already become punk. And they try to support us to take care about freedom. When you want to be yourself - this is punk, because punk is freedom. It’s no matter not don’t have the uniform….

KARLI : Mike and Bobbi’s parents with their punk spirit and radical politics don’t look like punks. They belong to a generation where if you had tattoos you could’ve been killed. This villages wholehearted acceptance of the Marjinal punks is a radical, amazing and significant act. For many reasons. It was in 2003 that Marjinal and their activist art collective Taring Babi moved into the kampung - Setiabudi, in Srengsenawah on the outskirts of South Jakarta.

Jakarta is this massive and hectic city. The largest city in South East Asia and the 12th largest city in the world with 12 million people. It’s estimated that at least a quarter of Jakarta’s people; predominantly the working poor, live in kampungs. Urban kampungs like the one where Marjinal live, are hidden away off major city roads. If you didn’t know they were there you’d never find them. These neighborhoods are made up of a maze of narrow winding alleyways just big enough for motorbikes to scrape through.

Jakarta's kampungs exist inside the belly of the beast that is the kota, the city, yet in stark contrast to it. The kota is made up of high rise buildings, government infrastructure, shopping malls, apartment complexes, hotels, scurrying business people, endless highways, chaotic traffic and the houses of Jakarta's middle and upper classes. In contrast urban kampungs are in many ways like traditional villages, small tight knit communities based on family, mutual support, close relationships and trust. Self governed and largely self sustaining, kampungs elect their own neighbourhood heads.

KARLI : So when the heavily tattooed, long haired, scruffy punks from Marjinal moved into one of these kampungs, they were met with immediate suspicion and fear. Gossip and rumours ran rampant. The kampung head called a community meeting they decided to kick out “the tattooed criminal youths.”Because in the eyes of the kampung residents Mike and Bobis tattoos marked them as criminals.

KARLI : Tattoos hold a heavy and complicated history in Indonesia. In the early to mid 80's a campaign of terror ripped through the country. Thousands of people were kidnapped, tortured and executed. Their bullet ridden corpses dumped in the streets. It was a warning and the message was clear. The notorious Petrus campaign, commonly known as the “mysterious shootings,”was a covert Government operation in response to an alarming rise in violent crime. Suharto secretly ordered the military to systematically assassinate known & suspected criminals.

As a white first world punk I was struggling to imagine living with that level of absolute fear. That someone could be assaulted or killed by their own Government just for

looking the way I do. To try to understand I phoned my friend Aris; an artist, activist and punk, who lived through this time of ruthless state violence.

ARIS : I grew up with this. I’ve seen a couple of dead bodies on the street when I was in primary school.

KARLI : The association of tattoos with criminality, now had life and death implications.

If you fitted the description of a Petrus target, you were a target.

ARIS : They scared and paranoid. My uncle had to iron the skin to remove the tattoo.

KARLI :Razor blades, hot irons and caustic soda were used by terrorfied young men like Aris’s uncle to remove their tattoos. It didn’t matter if they were criminals or not. This brutal method of social control communicated the unlimited power of the New Order regime. Suharto later called it shock therapy.

ARIS : We grew up in this military regime. Every day we see military around us. There's a lot of unwritten history of the Suharto regime. And woah this is scary you know, when military or police are kidnapping people. They start kidnapping people in 97.

KARLI :Petrus was like the gruesome communist purge of the 1960’s where a corrupt Indonesian government, the army and paramilitary death squads murdered around a million known and suspected communists.This history of state sanctioned violence made it’s mark on Indonesian culture.

KARLI :Despite their tattoos, over time, the stereotypes and fear dissolved. Marjinal became a well loved, integral and respected part of their kampung. The kampung accepted the Taring Babi community, as a different, but equally important type of family.

For Marjinal, family also includes the street kids and street punks that regularly visit Taring Babi’s communal house in South Jakarta. They call these kids, who are their

audience, their ‘friends’. Community is at the very heart of Marjinal’s world view. They just needed a space to create it. Here’s Bobbi from Marjinal;

BOBBI : Why not make a community straight away? Open a space for our friends who want to learn. Where we have a place for sharing; to make creative work together.

It’s crazy. Our punk friends have learnt a lot from living on the streets by the time they come to create music or a painting. It can provide a voice. Because the punk concept is do it yourself. The smallest thing we have, how can we turn it into its maximum?

KARLI :There’s something totally epic, powerful and joyous about a Marjinal punk show. Chaotic frenzied mosh pits are filled with screaming 10 year old punks. This is Indonesian punk show madness and I love it !

Marjinal’s politics go beyond the stage. For them the personal is political. Marjinal’s music brings a message of hope to these screaming moshing kids whose lives are reflected in the lyrics they know off by heart. Here’s Mike;

MIKE :Our friends learn a lot from our songs. It’s always been our character, not just to play music, but to be more open. To use it as an opportunity for discussion with our audience and the people. And they’re really enthusiastic about our process, compared to a really formal situation where they have tolearn politics or learn from the T.V.

They feel they have the freedom to become themselves…With the music, when they’re there ready to watch it, they want to know more. They listen to the music every day, then when we go on tour, the response from our friends is that it means a lot to them, and that from not knowing, they come to know.





KARLI :In a developing country like Indonesia; without a welfare system and with half the population living in poverty, there’s massive numbers of street kids.

GINA : Lots of countries outside Indonesia provide social security to people who are unemployed or homeless. But in Indonesia, if you don’t have a job or somewhere to live or any money, then you can’t survive.

KARLI :Ginas the lead singer of the all girl punk band Jolloty Joy.Punk’s do it yourself ethic is why Taring Babi directly respond to the harsh realities that the street kids face Here’s Mike again ;

MIKE : Why aren’t they given the opportunity, the chance, where they can finally feel that they have a family? That they have a greater fighting spirit to face the reality of the the future.

KARLI : In the true spirit of punk; anti-capitalist, anti authoritarian, autonomous, and independent, punk doesn’t look to the system for solutions - it creates its own. Street punks defy religious and cultural expectations and the realities of poverty, searching for freedom on the streets. When I arrived in Indonesia I was blown away by these kids. They were everywhere. Before Jarwo grew up, had a baby and cut his hair, he was a street punk.

JARWO : I often talk to friends from overseas and they always ask; “Why are there so many punk kids on the street? Why are there so many punk kids at the traffic lights?”

I think this is the different thing in Indonesia coz street punk in Indo and overseas is really different. In Indonesia you can see street punks who are aged from 10 to normally about 15. Maybe they’re really bored at home. Maybe there are too many rules at home and they want to be free.

Or it could also be that they may really be street kids and they see a gang of punks,

and for them those punks are something really unique, really different from ordinary people. And most street punks will accept homeless kids and let them become punks too. And for me, street punk here is like. If there’s one tree, then they’re like the leaves.

They’ve always been part of punk in Indonesia. Street punk here means: living on the street, surviving on the street, fighting in the street, getting drunk on the street, sometimes having sex on the street.





If you want to see street punk in Indonesia with your own eyes, you can come here and you’ll be sure to see it. You’ll be shocked to see punk in the third world.

KARLI : Gina spends alot of time with young street punks and she is passionate about their future.

GINA :I can see that there’s a younger generation, young punks, young skinheads. I ask them about their experiences, and see how much they know. I ask if they have any questions. If they have questions, maybe I can answer them. I don’t see myself as a mentor or as an older sister or someone older and wiser. It just comes from my heart. If you want to know what it’s like to be a real street punk come to Indonesia. It’s really DIY. If you don’t work, if you have no money, then you don’t eat! It’s hard to be punk in Indonesia.

KARLI : In 2011, in an act of state oppression that mobilised punks around the world, 64 punks were arrested in Banda Aceh and put into a ‘moral re-education’ camp. Many of them, including Jarot, were street punks.

JAROT: The deputy mayor said this event was against Sharia law. The police broke up the concert and were beating people and we opposed. Then there were sounds of gunshots. After that I was arrested and dragged and beaten. I blocked the blows, they hit me with a baton. I was taken to the SPN police-run re-education camp. We all had to get our heads shaved... our clothes were burnt.

We just pushed back with words. We spoke up against it. If we resisted with force we’d just be beaten again right. For 10 days we were instructed at SPN, learning to get up early at 5am to pray. Why must you feel scared? We didn’t do anything wrong. What was our fault?

KARLI : Jarot and I are sitting in the park where the Banda Aceh punks hang out. They eat here, sleep here and make music here. A pile of bracelets is sitting on the grass between us. He hands me one.

JAROT : See this rubbish? This is like what Marjinal makes in Jakarta. We're inspired by them to make these bracelets from recycled garbage.

KARLI :Hospi is a human rights lawyer in Banda Aceh. He was one of the few people who actively supported the punks when they were detained.

HOSPI : In this current situation where the people of Aceh are very fanatical about their Sharia law, Sharia issues are very easy for politicians to sell, to increase the popularity of the government candidate. When someone is arrested because they think differently to us, act differently to our way of behaving, that’s dangerous for me. Because these are the characteristics of a highly authoritarian government. To arrest people because they have a different appearance. Because they don’t think like us. Because they’re not like us.

KARLI :Jarots fearful eyes are constantly scanning the street for Sharia police. He hides a small plastic bag filled with alcohol, which is illegal in Aceh. Tears are rolling down his cheeks. This is a quiet moment of intimacy in a public park. 2 punks who live in different worlds are sharing their lives. We trust each other, we connect, we understand each other. Community has been hard for Jarot to find since the arrests.

JAROT :My friends are no longer here. They’ve all left, just gone. They don’t want to stay on here. I still want Banda Aceh to have punks, even if it’s only one or two people. You don’t need a lot. To friends outside why don’t you try and visit here. Don’t all be scared. Welcome to Banda Aceh.

KARLI : Punks not history. Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot dragged it back onto the world stage when they challenged the Russian government and ended up in prison. Punks around the world rose up in solidarity with them.

In Indonesia today Marjinal are bigger than ever. They continue spreading their message of hope and revolution all across the country. Never the less punk raids and arrests continue. In February 2014 there was a mass arrest of punks in Bali.

In a country of 250 million people with the worlds largest Muslim population, Indonesia is caught between tradition and globalization, old and new. the immediate future is unknown. In October 2014 Indonesia swore in its first truly democratically elected president in years. His name is Joko Widodo. Known as Jokowi, he’s a humble businessman, who wasn't a member of Suharto’s political or military elite. A metal head wearing a Metallica t shirt with his big smile and his everyman appeal, Jokowi is promising real reform.

KARLI :But it hasn’t happened yet. If Indonesia undergoes a radical transformation will there still be punk? Punk doesn’t loose it’s radicalism in times of stability and peace. By connecting to everyday struggles punk remains a threat to established power, because punk refuses to work within the system when the system isn’t working.

Punk lives and breathes and is a force to be reckoned with.

MIKE : Punk is open mind. And the government and the system don’t like that the human have the open mind. Because it can be a danger for them.The fucking situation in here. When the system is very very fuck off. And when the system is very very corrupt. If we have the solidarity and unite I think we can make a change together. We not alone, you know, and many many people they never surrender, you know? This is not about punk. This is about where the system try to attack the freedom. We are talking about the human rights.

Not just talking about me, or you, no but it’s about us!

KARLI :Punk’s raw frenetic style, idealistic hope and radical politics help me survive in this fucked up world. Punk gives me meaning, identity and community. Alienated and isolated; I don’t fit in and I don’t want to. Punk has saved my life. Now I’m 31 and still a fierce and passionate punk. I’m the lead singer in a totally kick ass queercore band. Continuing to live my dreams. Refusing to give up, give in or grow up.

JAROT: No matter what is changed I remain a punk. Punk is not something to be changed but to be lived and given life in your heart. Once a punk always a punk. Punks will never die. They will never die in my heart.

GINA : Punk is me.Punk is freedom

MIKE : Punk for me is a right, a decision, a choice, which is the right of every person, to have liberty and freedom. Whoever wants to be free, become themselves, then in truth, that is punk.

ARIS : Punk is the spirit to inspire me to be strong and rebel and to be independent and creative. Also brave. Punk is a bit simple. Punk is in my head you know, in my brain.

JARWO : Punk for me is really political. When you think your life is really shit, then think again, because that shit life is a part of the strategy of our enemies, the multinational corporations and capitalism.They make us think that our lives are shit and boring !

Punk is me and I am punk and I’m proud of punk. I don’t care what you say about me.

Who fuck you are? I am punk and fuck you. That’s it !