An old story but the issue is still relevant...
LINK now dead (Jakarta Globe)
Arab movies good. Punk rock bad.That was the message from the staunchly Islamic province of Aceh, where authorities in the capital scrapped a scheduled punk rock concert but allowed a film festival screening Arabic movies to go ahead as planned.
Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal, the deputy mayor of Banda Aceh, said on Sunday that the reason the concert was canceled was because the organizers had “fooled” the authorities into granting them a permit to hold the event.
“The concert would have been an abomination to Islamic teaching, and they also committed a permit violation,” he said.
Djamal alleged that the concert organizers falsely claimed in their request for a permit from Aceh’s Consultative Assembly of Ulema (MPU) that the concert was a charity event whose proceeds would go to orphanages.
The deputy mayor did not say how or whether the authorities had even been able to disprove the claim.
“We don’t want this kind of mistake happening again. We also call on parents to monitor their children to prevent them from being influenced by these questionable communities,” he said.
“This [punk] group threatens [Islamic] faith and deviates very widely from Islamic teachings, which is why we had to break up the concert.”
People had come from as far as Jakarta and West Java for the event. They were rounded up and arrested on Thursday as they gathered at Taman Budaya park ahead of the scheduled start of the concert.
Sr. Comr. Armensyah Thay, the Banda Aceh Police chief, said the young people would be duly processed and those found in possession of drugs would be charged.
It was a whole different story, however, for the Arab Film Festival, which took place at Ulee Kareng Epicentrum in the capital.
Authorities in Aceh have frequently been criticized for trying to impose Arabic cultural values there, although organizers of the film festival said their event was meant to do the opposite.
Fauzan Santa, rector of the Dokarim Writing School, which organized the festival, said the purpose was to spark a revival of Acehnese culture by showing how far removed it was from Arabic culture.
This, he said, was seen in the festival’s slogan, “Sinoe Aceh sideh Arab, sinoe sideh hana rab,” an Acehnese saying that translates to “Here is Aceh, there is Arabia, here and there are far apart.”
“This film festival isn’t just about entertainment, but through it we hope the people can distinguish between culture and religion,” Fauzan said.
“For so long the Acehnese have assumed that Arabic culture is Islamic culture, when in fact it’s just the culture of one particular group of people.
“Arabic culture is not Islamic culture because the latter is universal. Aceh has its own culture, so let’s not get caught up in adopting Shariah law and stop assuming that everything that comes from Arabic culture is Islamic and hence has to be done here too.”
Aceh ‘Punks’ Arrested for ‘Re-education’ [13 Dec]
LINK now dead (Jakarta Globe)
Dozens of young people were being held and punished by Aceh police on Tuesday for the supposed crime of being “punk,” despite not being charged with any crime nor being brought before a court.
The 64 music lovers, some of whom had come from as far as Jakarta and West Java, were arrested by regular and Shariah police as they held a charity concert in Banda Aceh’s Taman Budaya park on Saturday night.
Banda Aceh police took the arrestees on Tuesday afternoon to the Aceh State Police School for “re-education.” Aceh police chief Ins. Gen. Iskandar Hasan described the punishment awaiting them when they reached the police school in the Seulawah hills, 62 kilometres east of the capital.
“There will be a traditional ceremony. First their hair will be cut. Then they will be tossed into a pool. The women’s hair we’ll cut in the fashion of a female police officer,” Iskander said on Tuesday. “Then we’ll teach them a lesson.”
Iskander denied the punishment constituted a breach of human rights.
“We’ll change their disgusting clothes. We’ll replace them with nice clothes. We’ll give them toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, sandals and prayer gear. It will all be given to them,” he said. “I’ll remind [police] not to breach human rights. We are oriented to educating our community, our nation. This is our country too, right?”
Iskandar said he would invite the Muslim Cleric Council to participate in “restoring their [the arrestees’] right thinking and morals.”
Human rights groups opposed the action.
Evi Narti Zain, executive director of the Aceh Human Rights Coalition, said the police’s action was violent and illegal.
“What is this education? The police’s action is inconsistent because the punks did nothing wrong,” Evi said. “Punk music is their way of expressing themselves. It is normal and is found all around the world. It’s their right to express their freedom. There’s nothing wrong with punk kids.”
Aceh Legal Aid Foundation’s director, Hospinovizal Sabri, said he had tried to get the young people released since their arrest on Saturday night.
“On the night the punks were arrested by the Police and Shariah Police we met with them, and we went again to the police station and spoke to some of them this morning [Tuesday],” Hospinovizal said. “We are working hard to have them released because they have breached no law.”
Hospinovizal said he aimed to take a habeas corpus type action before a judge to have the court force the police to release the young people. “There’s a perception from some quarters in Aceh that they are human rubbish, but it is clear they are innocent and are only expressing their independence in their own way.”
Iskandar said their date of release would “depend on the budget from the regional government.”
Deputy Mayor: Punk Community a ‘New Social Disease’ [14 Dec]
LINK now dead (Jakarta Globe)
Deputy mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal says she doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty in her crusade against the punk community of Banda Aceh, proudly telling of how she has supervised police raids at cafes and city parks in recent months.
“The presence of the punk community is disturbing, and disrupts the life of the Banda Aceh public,” Illiza told the Jakarta Globe.
Sixty-four young people have been held by the Aceh Police since Saturday for the supposed crime of being “punk”. They have not been charged with any crime or brought before a court.
On Tuesday afternoon, police took the detainees to the Aceh State Police camp, located in the hills 62 kilometers outside of the city, to “re-educate” them. Mohawks and dyed hair came off as police shaved the men’s heads and forced them into a lake. The women’s hair was cut short in the fashion of a female police officer.
“This is a new social disease affecting Banda Aceh. If it is allowed to continue, the government will have to spend more money to handle them,” the deputy mayor said, adding that religious scholars were assisting at the camp.
One of the 64 detainees, a punk music fan from Medan, North Sumatra, said he had travelled to Banda Aceh to take part in a concert that aimed to raise money for orphans.
“What is going on here? I work as a contractor for a bank in Medan. I’ll probably be sacked for not coming in to work for a week,” said the man, who asked to remain anonymous.
When his case was put to Illiza, the deputy mayor responded: “He’s part of the punk community and whoever was caught has to go through our re-education so they wake up.”
She said the police would hold people from outside the province of Aceh for 10 days, but that Acehnese natives could be held longer.
“If they join the punks, they will be treated the same as the rest of them,” she added.
“They told us in their permit application that they were Aceh Youth, holding a concert to raise money for orphans, but they didn’t say they were punks. They had marijuana and alcohol and everything at that concert,” Illiza said.
Illiza added that public places in the city such as Taman Sari and the Tsunami Museum were becoming unattractive because young people did not take regular baths and dressed shabbily.
“Their morals are wrong. Men and women gather together, and that is against Islamic Shariah,” she said.
She guessed that the number of punks in the town was around 200.
The punks in custody range from teenagers to people in their thirties. Illiza said that there had been some as young as twelve years old at the concert, but that they had escaped the police raid.
Fuazan, 20, an Acehnese punk whose head is now roughly shaved, said he was not impressed with his treatment at the hands of the police.
“What did we do to deserve arresting?” he asked, looking troubled. “We didn’t steal and we didn’t bother anyone. The punk community in Banda Aceh is not involved with criminality.”
“So what’s the crime that justifies us being brought to this camp? This country hasn’t yet made it illegal to express yourself, right?”
“And what of our livelihoods? Please help us,” Fuazan said. “How are we supposed to support ourselves now that we’ve been brought here?”
Illiza, who claimed she has the support of the public, said the police would continue to hunt for punks in Banda Aceh.
“We will keep conducting raids until they’re all caught, then we’ll bring them for reeducation here.”
“Aceh is a Shariah region,” Illiza added. “Everyone should obey it and the punk community is clearly against Shariah.”
“This training will be an example in Indonesia of the re-education of the punks.”
What do you reckon?
Use the COMMENTS feature to discuss this news story.
This is actually a really interesting thing to discuss. It’s really sad for me to see this kind of news. Deep down inside, maybe they just want to express what they are feel and they decided to have a punk ideology or style in their mind. The thing that makes me sad is they are not socially acceptable. Imagine if you’re being minority and the majority of the people doesn’t even want to hear the reason of your act. I fully understand that Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam is a special province, they have the special rules that only applied there. If we want to discuss this, there is not right or wrong. Everybody have their opinion about this problem especially the locals and the punk group member. Maybe if this kind of event is not happened in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, everything will be just fine. However, this thing is already happened so maybe it’s better for us to seek the solution and maybe sympathy, empathy, anti-stigma movement and also respect each other better is a way to solve this problem. We cannot give stigma neither to punk people nor Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam people and government, so the best solution maybe is to be as neutral as possible and discuss this problem in a family manner.
ReplyDeleteForcing someone to do or follow the order that they don’t want to order is not allowed. But we need to express our identity in the appropriate place. Seeing in both point of view of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, there is a message that we can learn form this “tragedy”. We, as a human have a rights to do anything and everything that we want but sadly we live in a system so we just can’t do everything freely. There are many norms that we need to follow because every people have the same level of human rights. Maybe in the future, people will eventually learn to plan everything in a very detail including the demographical aspect so that this kind of thing will not happened in the future. I believe that Indonesian can be a better citizen who can respect each other so that we will eventually live in peace. Amen.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know about Sharia law in Aceh, it has always been punitive against every single form of opposition against Islamic values and norms. It’s not everywhere and everytime in Indonesia that you may witness whippings of convicts charged with punishment of their crimes, or any misbehaviours such as adultery, and even something that is perceived as a common behaviour in most of Indonesia, and that is going out on a date. Only Aceh, so far, that has been keeping up with the practice of a unique law system under the Indonesian regime.
ReplyDeleteThis case of members of punk communities getting rounded up and re-educated during a cancelled concert for literally no charges of crime was rather a very crude and harsh generalization made by Acehnese authority that every punks are drug addicts and the persona non grata of the nation. The authorities had made allegations that punks were distributing and keeping drugs as they were about to attend the concert; though it might have had been true that some are actually keeping them, the Sharia police didn’t actually have to round up those who didn’t keep any. Also, if the authorities had alleged every punks to be unwanted members of society, I think they should have had done a background check on the punks ; the fact is there were several members of the punk who is “civilized” (working for an institution or a firm) unlike their assumptions of savagery in the punks (unemployed, drug addicted, etc.).
The concert organizer’s decision to pick Aceh, of all places they could have had set their concert up, is also questionable. They were very well aware of the existence of the Sharia law that will absolutely condemn any values that are against Islam. They won’t be letting anyone out for a date without whippings, let alone having a punk concert with a possibility of the attendees getting drunk for the night.
These punk communities have every right to do what ever they want, everyone including you and me have every right to do whatever we want. As long as we follow the laws that are set in the area. Punks have a notorious background in disturbing the peace, getting high or drunk, and sometimes have fights. Due to these stereotypes, they have been looked down upon in today's society. In Aceh of all places where they implemented Syaria Law, where it is much more strict against any form of threat towards Islam or Islamic teachings. The sad thing is that some of these punks have done no wrong, some even done good deeds such as the punk from Medan, North Sumatra that raised money for orphans. I have had a fair share of punks in my city in RIau, most of the time when they gather in big groups is to raise funds to help people that are hit by natural disasters. Some of them are very nice, it is just that their appearance is very intimidating and parents tell their children to stay away from these so called punks. This is basically just another case of "don't judge a book by it's cover"
ReplyDeletePunk came to Indonesia in the 90s during Soeharto’s dictatorship-like regime. Before there was no internet or free press, these punks expressed their ideas of social justice, individuality and rebellion through punk rock music where they channel their frustrations and protests against the corrupt politicians as well as an escape from strict families and social conventions. In Aceh, a tropical province governed by Sharia law (law derived from the religious percepts of Islam) being a member of the punk subculture is considered as a crime and social disease. While it still remains unofficial, Aceh’s ulama, a council of Muslim scholars, have suggested a qanun, or holy law, that would forbid the “punk-rock lifestyle” officially. According to the deputy mayor of Banda Aceh, Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal, the existence of the punk community is disturbing and detrimental to the lives of Muslims in Aceh as it is normally associated with anarchy, tight and ripped clothing, body modifications like tattoos and piercings as well as drugs and alcohol abuse. These, are deviations from the Islamic perceptions of an ideal personality and the Sharia law in Aceh is very pertinacious and to an extent, irrefutable. Those who rebel against it will be punished severely. However, it was said in the article above that punks in Aceh are not involved with criminality, nor do they steal or bother anyone. I think that they should be treated the way normal people are treated and be left the way they are as they also deserve the freedom of choice, speech and expression. From another perspective, I do believe that the political authorities and religious fundamentalists sees the punk community as a threat because they voice out critics against corruption, the environment as well as religious oppressions in Aceh. It’s a threat to those who are hungry for power as it means that cannot exert complete control over the people as well as brainwashing them into believing the corrupt government.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the prosecution of punks in Aceh is not a new issue. In the past I have know several people which are in punk bands and have deep sympathies for their brothers and sisters in Aceh. They even made an entire album dedicated for them. The main problem about Aceh’s punk community is not their action but their existence in the first place. The norms which governs their society does not accept certain kind of behavior. Though, they claim that no involvement in crime doesn’t really mean that no illegal activities has been committed. We have to understand that Aceh is an autonomous region which govern their own selves: the syariah law. It means that activities which are perfectly legal in other region such as alcohol for instance may not be permitted by the law. And since the government there are authorized to enforce them, being a punk in Aceh is just not an option I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI think the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” suits the situation that the punk kids in Aceh are having. I have watched some documentary films on these punk kids. As long as I know, these punk kids’ main goal is to spread peace. It is a shame that the police department arrested them even when they did not do any criminal acts. These police only judge these punk kids by their cover, by their dirty clothes, hairstyle, tattoos and piercings that they have. I know that the police department have good initiatives of educating them but, they are doing it the wrong way. There are good ways of educating these people. They are not brutal, you could socialize, talk to them, etc. The government should provide space for these kids to express their thoughts, to express themselves as these kids just want to be heard. There is always a good way to solve something, the government could start their movement by socializing to these kids not by directly banning their movement.
ReplyDeletePunk in Indonesia has become really popular in the late 90’s. In the era of the new order that is lead by Soeharto, Punk is something forbidden that can lead us to jail or even being shot by the police or army and also in that era there’s call “Petrus” or “Penembak Misterius” which have a task to shot Punk or Someone who declare that they are don’t like or give bad impact to the government. Back to the topic, Punk is not always a crime. Like my parents, they always think that people who dresses up like that are always connected to crimes. On the other side, Punk that happen in Aceh is surely an against to the society because we all know that Aceh and the area have a really strong believe to their religion and for sure against the culture that has been going on with Aceh for decades.
ReplyDeletePunk in my opinion is just one of many path of life which some people choose to follow. All humans have their own path of life, and their own rights to choose. Humans have human rights that we can’t take away from them. It can’t be denied that a lot of punks back in the ‘Orde Baru’ era were doing some bad things, such as making riots, stealing, doing drugs, etc. Back when i was just a child, my parents told me to stay away from the punks, as they thought that punks are bad, doing drugs, doing crimes, and many other bad things. Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, or we simply called it Aceh, is a special region who uses the Sharia law. As what i’ve seen before this, Aceh always punishes people who are defying their sharia law, and often they punishes some people who made small mistakes, such as a man and a woman sitting together in a quiet place, and in this case, punks. They assumed that punks are defying the sharia law, and they decided to ‘discipline’ the punks. In my opinion, you can’t arrest someone without a clear charge and also from my point of view, the punks didn’t do anything which against the law, and they were just expressing themselves in a way they like.
ReplyDeleteAfter the great flood in Aceh (2004), Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam started to implement Islamic law to their society also known as the Syari’ah law. This is done because they viewed the 2004 great flood as a punishment from God for breaking Islamic law. After the great flood had destroyed most buildings in Aceh and also causing mass death victim, more and more people became orphans. Some of these orphans joined the punk communities with other orphans; they see the community as their home and family. Sadly, Aceh had banned such communities as a lot of people reported them to the officials for being a bad influence on the society. People perceive these communities as a disruption to the Islamic law for promoting excessive freedom. But in my opinion, it is not possible to generalize a bunch of individuals based on their appearances. Even though they came from the same community it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the same “kind” of person who does the same “kind” of things. So it is not justifiable to impose punishment on all punks in Aceh without explicit proof of their actions. Rather than banning them and seeing them as a bunch misfits, I think it would be so much better if these communities are given a space or some kind of education to prevent them from developing bad habits which are commonly associated to them.
ReplyDeletePunk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, fashion, and other forms of expression, visual art, dance, literature and film. It is largely characterised by anti-establishment views and the promotion of individual freedom, and is centred on a loud, aggressive genre of rock music called punk rock. In Indonesia, punk bands started to emerge in the 1990s. Between 1996 and 2001, the underground music scenes in Java, Sumatera and Bali became an important centre for radical left activism. Meanwhile, Islamic punks started to emerge after the fall of Soeharto’s dictatorship in the 1998. Punk Muslim represents the new face of the punk movement in Indonesia. Punk Muslim works to empower street kids in the slum areas of Jakarta by providing religious education and social protection, and making them participate in social activism. They also fight against punks’ negative stereotypes through religious activities to help their members reintegrate into mainstream society.
ReplyDeleteAs I know, Aceh is one of the Indonesia’s region that has the strongest religion sense. In this case, the religion that is mostly dominant is Islam. So at the first place, seeing this article is kind a confuse me; because all I know is that Aceh’s rule about everything is very sensitive and always have to be related to the religion (Islam’s) perspective. But after I read the entire article, my opinion is that these people are actually having their rights to choose their own style, taste, and interest as long as their community or what their doing does not interrupting other people. Yet since they are living in that region, I think its an inevitable affect that each one of them should receive. But hopefully they don’t see that re-education program as a punishment, because I can really see the purpose of the program is to educate them in order to be more tolerance to other Muslim people in their region.
ReplyDeleteThe punk scene and culture, with its crazy and spiky hairstyles, dark-styled clothing, and loud rock music, is merely a form of expression. It is one of the many ways that individuality and groups can take form in. To see people having their heads shaven and cut off and being thrown into the lake simply for expressing themselves in a different way than everyone else is sad. While it is true that the word ‘punk’ is defined as a young troublemaker and there are some bad people in the punk scene who do illegal stuff, it is wrong to generalize the rest of the punks with the same mindset. The punk concert that was held to raise money for orphans, for example, is proof that not all of them are bad as they are portrayed to be. They had good intentions of raising money for a good cause and through a standard way of fundraising. And while I understand that Aceh follows their own set of rules and conducts that differs from Indonesia’s, I think they should only arrest and punish those whom actually do illegal activities.
ReplyDeleteFreedom of expression is something the country lacks, and it has probably been ongoing like this since the Soeharto era, where the term freedom even seems fictional. Freedom of expression is the right of every individual to hold opinions without interference, and this article here shows how Indonesia still interferes with how people express themselves. In my opinion, Indonesians still have an issue with detaching culture and religious. I so much agree with the statement “Arabic culture is not Islamic culture because the latter is universal. Aceh has its own culture, so let’s not get caught up in adopting Shariah law and stop assuming that everything that comes from Arabic culture is Islamic and hence has to be done here too.” The stereotypes around how these punks dress are well likely the main reason their actual spirituality is overlooked. These punks in Aceh deserves a place to live, a sense of comfort. Indonesians have to set aside their extremist point of view in order to create harmony between the people. Or else, freedom is just another utopian dream.
ReplyDeleteMany people considered punk is the sound of the youth rebellion in this world. The punk subculture originated out of working class and the frustrations many youth were feeling about economic inequality and the bourgeois hypocrisy and neglect of working people and their struggles, but punks in Aceh usually expressed their ideology by drinking alcohol and getting drunk, disturbing the peace, and some punks have participated in direct action, such as protests, boycotts, squatting, vandalism, or property destruction. Because of these action the aceh government considered these actions as a threat and against the law, islamic norms, and syaria. Since the aceh government implemented islamic law and norms, they think that punks is a crime because of their ideology and way of life. For me everyone have right to do whatever they want as long as its not againts the society norms and law, but if punks in Aceh doing some criminal activity that against the law and society norms, I think the police or government should take action against the punks community.
ReplyDeleteI have always see punks as something that is negative and disturbing like what other citizens see. Punks in Indonesia are minority to other citizens, that is why they are ruled out to other groups. Eventhough, the growth of punks in Indonesia are now decreasing due to my own opinion. Living in Jakarta as the capital city of Indonesia where you can find almost all groups of culture i can say that from time to time the amount of Punks that roam around the city of Jakarta are decreasing. I used to see lots of punks roaming around the road in Jakarta when i was small, but now i don't see punks much like what i used to see back in the old days. They used to roam around the road and sing for money in the red light. Eventhough, i have never seen punks do any disturbance to the citizen. They way they dressed and they way they act can sometimes make a prejudice to the citizen that they are negative.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting topic to discuss about, considering the amount of close minded there are in Indonesia. It is nice reading positive comments on this article, defending the rights of these people. The problem we have in Indonesia is that we tend to turn down these people, disregarding them, frowning down on them and so on. We should be learning from other countries that are far more developed that this is not the best solution when facing things like this. Instead, we should start, or at least try to understand them, cooperate with them and if possible – accept them. This is a very similar case with the LGBT community, as long as these communities and punks etc are harmless towards us, we should be able to condone them. Another example are bike gangs and communities. Some of you might know about the “The Changcuters” movie. It is about a band with the passion of bikes who changed the stereotype of bikers in Indonesia (Bandung to be specific). They showed an example to the world that some bikers can do good. This whole principle applies to everything: not all communities will do harm.
ReplyDelete