Punkasila
06' 10"
Publicity: | There's nothing punk musicians like more than provoking controversy. Remember The Sex Pistols and their attack on the Queen - and her ‘fascist regime'? |
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| But in Indonesia an attack on cultural core values and institutions can be dangerous. |
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| The ABC's Jakarta correspondent, Geoff Thomson, met a group of young musicians in Jogjakarta willing to take that risk. |
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| "If we play in front of the wrong audience .... Aaarrrghhh... maybe we could be killed or we could be in trouble," says Punkasila band member Wimo Ambala |
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| Punkasila pokes fun at some of Indonesia's sacred cows, from the military to the ideological principles of the nation. Foreign Correspondent hangs out with the band. |
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Indonesian coat of arms | Music | 00:00 |
Youth gather for Punkasila gig | THOMPSON: To Indonesians, Jogjakarta is the archipelago's university town - the country's centre of learning, art and sudden cultural surprises - like PUNKASILA. | 00:08 |
Montage of stills of band | Music | 00:21 |
Band prepare for gig | THOMPSON: It's album launch day for Punkasila, a band of art student musicians brought together by the Melbourne-based artist Danius Kesminas. | 00:33 |
| DANIUS: "Punkasila" means "Pancasila", "Punk Principles" but of course it's a riff, it's a joke, it's ironic. | 00:43 |
| DANIUS: What is he doing dressing up as a zombie? I don't know? Why? | 00:50 |
| Music | 00:54 |
Punkasila perform | THOMPSON: In a country where another rock band is currently before the courts for insulting the police, Punkasila's mock military theme is a risky choice. | 01:03 |
| The band's first album "Acronym Wars" features songs poking fun at the Indonesian military's acronym TNI and its special forces branch KOPASSUS. | 01:17 |
| The songs shift the Indonesian words around so that TNI stands for "Poor but Adorable" and KOPASSUS become "Lovers of Breast Milk". | 01:35 |
| Political parties and Islamic conservatives also cop a ribbing. For Punkasila, the often rowdy FPI or Islamic Defenders Front become ‘defenders of their mothers'. | 01:49 |
Danius. Super: | Danius: It's a celebration I think, not so much a rebellion, it's more a celebration of the new openness here. | 02:08 |
| THOMPSON: But so far it's an openness played out before a safe and select crowd. That may be why Punkasila's brazenness has survived -- so far at least. | 02:18 |
| WIMO: If we play in front of the wrong audience | 02:35 |
Super: Wimo Ambala Bayang band member | ...we could be killed or we could be in trouble. | 02:40 |
Danius at workshop | THOMPSON: Punkasila was formed last year when Danius Kesminas came to Jogjakarta on an artists' scholarship. | 02:48 |
| Since then, he and his recruits have spent their days in a workshop behind a mosque, plotting Punkasila's assault on Indonesia's sacred cows. | 02:58 |
Painting Garuda | The band has taken Indonesia's coat of arms as its own symbol and replaced the national motto of "unity in diversity" with a machine-gun guitar clenched in the Garuda's claws. | 03:10 |
| DANIUS: It is a bit scary, like the Garuda, when the boys had to take it to the exhibition they wrapped it in newspaper because they didn't want people to | 03:23 |
Danius | see them on the motorbike with this thing, like it was some provocation. | 03:30 |
Machinegun guitar in case | THOMPSON: Not just provocative, but potentially illegal, under an old Indonesian law against misusing the coat of arms. | 03:37 |
Jamming in workshop | No known restrictions apply however to the band's home-made guitars, shaped as they are like M16s and AK47s. | 03:48 |
Video clip | Music | 04:03 |
| THOMPSON: A look at Punkasila's film clips makes it clear the band's dig at Indonesia's military and other institutions is not meant to be taken seriously. | 04:07 |
| But the targets of their parody are still hot to touch. | 04:21 |
| Punkasila couldn't find anyone who'd dare press their CD in Indonesia. It had to be done in Australia. | 04:29 |
Exhibition in gallery | Music | 04:48 |
| THOMPSON: Punkasila art has already made it to Australia with the opening of the "embedded with Punkasila" show in Sydney... and the band is expected to follow soon. | 04:51 |
Women at Exhibition | GALLERY VISITOR: I think it's really energetic and really fantastic. | 05:06 |
| GALLERY VISITOR 2: These guys coming together they've done a lot of great stuff and we shouldn't necessarily be scared of it, we should watch out for it, though. | 05:10 |
Punkasila art | DARREN: What it does is show a different side to Indonesian culture that perhaps we don't see that often publicised, which is | 05:18 |
Darren. Super: Darren Knight | young and cool and hip and funny and can laugh at itself. | 05:25 |
Punkasila perform | Music | 05:36 |
| HAHAN: We want to tour but not in Indonesia. Another country, maybe Australia. | 05:40 |
Hahan. Super: "Hahan" ( Uji Handoko Eko Saputro) Band member | We can get some groupies and blah, blah, blah. Yeah -- like rock star! | 05:48 |
| Music | 05:54 |
Credits: | Reporter: Geoff Thompson Camera: David Anderson Editor: Simon Brynjolffssen |
06:10 |