Playing Music Playing Politics, Free And Responsible: Another Story Behind The Noise Of Giring
JAKARTA - Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) politician Giring Ganesha is in the spotlight. His statement said that the Governor of DKI Jakarta, Anies Baswedan, was criticized by netizens for being a liar. This is not the first highlight of Giring's political life. Former vocalist Nidji re-examines the unique relationship between the world of music and politics, which is free but should be responsible.
So, PSI has just uploaded a video featuring Giring as the Acting Chairman of PSI. In the description of the Instagram upload, PSI wrote the title Anies the Liar. The video shows Giring with his explanation about Anies, the pandemic, and the Formula E budget.
Briefly, Giring criticized Anies, who he considered wasting money in the midst of the pandemic crisis. According to Giring, the Formula E project is Anies' selfish decision to use public money to help move forward as president in the 2024 election.
"The huge Jakarta budget he (Anies) spent for the benefit of his personal ego to run as president in 2024. He ignored the people's pressure who asked him to cancel the Formula E car race plan and spend Rp1 trillion, Rp1 trillion public money for this useless event," said Giring in the video, quoted by VOI, Tuesday, September 21.
Giring also stated that he did not want Anies to become president with all the facts he called lies. The video went viral in the contra sentiment. "Giring has not become president, he has been accusing him carelessly, especially when he is president," tweeted the Twitter account, @MrYudha_.
This is not the first spotlight for Giring since he decided to leave his band, Nidji, and become a politician. Previously, Giring was also highlighted because of his exposure to his plan to run for president. This spotlight brings back the old narrative about why many musicians enter politics? What is the unique relationship between these two realms?
List of other musicians swerve into politics
Ahmad Dhani Prasetyo
Ahmad Dhani's name appeared in the constellation of the 2017 Bekasi Regency Election. He stepped forward as deputy regent to accompany Sa'dudin. Advancing from the Gerindra Party, Dhani failed and only finished second to the winning candidate, Neneng Hasanah Yasin, and Eka Supria Atmaja.
The Dewa 19 frontman also briefly registered himself as a candidate for members of the Indonesian House of Representatives in the East Java Regional Elections 1, Surabaya-Sidoarjo. As a musician, Ahmad Dhani's works are known to be close to political themes. The most obvious is the album Ideology Attitude Brain (ISO) which he released with Ahmad Band.
In the ISO album, Danny created most of the songs containing criticism that highlighted the social and political conditions of the 1998 era. Together with Pay, Bongky, and former Netral drummer, Bimo, Dhani managed to create a different image from his presence in Dewa 19.
Anang Hermansyah
Anang Hermansyah now sits on Commission X DPR RI. Advancing as a cadre of the National Mandate Party (PAN) in the East Java electoral district, Anang managed to win 53,559 votes in the 2014-2019 elections. Anang's musical career was long and evolutive.
Anang started his career from Potlot. Frequent visits to Potlot, Anang formed a band called Kidnap with a number of his colleagues. Four years with Kidnap, Anang continued his solo career.
In 1993, he released the album "Katrina". Anang's solo path is brighter. Anang himself released a number of albums, including "Let it be", "Lepas", and "Melayang". All of these albums were released in the span of two years: 1994-1996.
Pasha's music career is widely known as the vocalist of Purple. He joined Ungu in 1998, replacing Michael, Ungu's first vocalist who left in 1997. Ungu's first album was produced in 2000 under the label Warner Music Indonesia.
As a result, the album titled "Laguku" was released on July 6, 2002. Since the release of the first album, Pasha and Ungu have been known as the band that created hits soundtracks. Later, starting with the 2006 album "Surga-Mu", Ungu became known as a band with religious nuances.
Rhoma Irama
Rhoma Irama is a dangdut composer and singer. He even has the title 'king' in that line. The man whose full name is Raden Haji Oma Irama started his career as a child film star called Djendal Kantjil around 1958.
His musical career began at the age of eleven. Before becoming a successful soloist, Rhoma Irama had formed a band called Gayhand in 1963. After that he moved to the Chandra Leka Orchestra, before finally forming his own band, Sonneta on October 13, 1973.
Together with Sonnet, Rhoma Irama recorded eleven Golden Records from his tapes. Calculated from data on cassette sales and the number of viewers of the films he starred in until 1984, Rhoma Irama counts as having a mass of up to 15 million or 10 percent of Indonesia's population.
Enough reason for the fate line to drag Rhoma Irama into politics. The name Rhoma Irama has been tantalizing since the New Order. He was recruited by the United Development Party (PPP). Rhoma Irama became a role model for other Indonesian celebrities who recently entered politics.
Two elections, the name Rhoma Irama succeeded in boosting PPP. In the 1977 general election, PPP's seat in Jakarta defeated Golkar. Even in the 1982 General Election. Even though it could no longer compete with Golkar, the PPP's vote that year was not bad.
Rhoma Irama briefly joined Golkar, before returning to PPP in 2008. Rhoma Irama was not satisfied. He later founded the Idaman Party. The Idaman Party was famous, even though its political pace had stalled. The KPU rejected the participation of the Ideal Party in the 2019 Election contestation. The Ideal Party's lawsuit against the KPU's decision was also rejected by the Jakarta Administrative Court.
Music and politics
Music is a political force. History records. We're not that far away this time. We will see what happened to the steps of Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and Jusuf Kalla (JK) in the 2014 election. The Jokowi-JK camp found a significant turning point when a number of musicians who were members of the Harmoni Revolution group declared their support on June 11, 2014.
Slank is the most prominent among the musicians. Abdee Negara, guitarist for Slank who is now a Commissioner of PT Telkom, stated that he had high hopes for a better and bigger Indonesia through Jokowi and his slogan Mental Revolution. "Because we see that there is hope in the future for Indonesia to be better and bigger as it should be," Abdee, quoted by Antara.
Jokowi's electability trend had declined at that time. According to the survey results of Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) in December 2013 to April 2014, Jokowi-JK's electability declined, from 51 percent in December 2013 to 39 percent in February 2014. Then, in March, Jokowi's electability began to climb to 52 percent.
After the legislative elections (pileg) on April 9, Jokowi-JK's electability fell back to 47 percent. Jokowi-JK at that time was under the shadow of Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa. However, a change occurred after the declaration of the Harmonious Revolution community. Slank's role is clearly important. We know Slank has millions of fans all over the country.
Not only Slank. The support of other musicians, such as Opie Andaresta, God Bless, Erwin Gutawa, Addie MS, and many others gave extraordinary additional strength. As reported by Tirto, a survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) on July 2-5 2014 showed an increase in Jokowi-JK support at 47.80 percent. Meanwhile, Prabowo-Hatta got 44.20 percent.
Support for Jokowi-JK grew after the Two Finger Salam Concert at Gelora Bung Karno on July 5, 2014. As reported by Antara, a survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute in early July showed that Jokowi-JK's electability had skyrocketed to 47.80 percent. The story of Jokowi-JK and his supporting musicians is one illustration of the important relationship between music and politics.
In the context of more personal practical politics, the relationship between music and politics is no less interesting. According to LIPI political observer Aisah Putri Budiarti, this relationship occurs because of the political system and elections implemented in Indonesia, where anyone can enter politics. And with the social and financial capital that celebrities, including musicians, have, everything becomes necessary.
"But actually it's a common phenomenon that artists become politicians in my opinion. And this is the effect of the political system and elections that are implemented," said Puput - her familiar greeting - to VOI, Tuesday, September 21.
From a music perspective, Denny MR has a similar view. Although it is not a special case about musicians who have turned their backs on the world of politics, there is one thing to note: responsibility. Generally, many musicians, especially in Indonesia, go to politics with the excuse of building a music ecosystem. The problem is, there is no significant evidence from them.
"Now I ask for example the people who used to shout by voting for me, I promised to improve the music ecosystem in Indonesia, but what is happening now is that our ecosystem is in disarray. Until now, the fate of songwriters is not clear. What rights they have distributed should not be clear," said Denny MR to VOI.
Music and politics go hand in hand. The relationship between the two is always relevant as long as passion and political passion live in musicians. But, after all this world is different. There are significant things that ideally a politician has and are usually mastered by a musician.
"The problem is how much capability they have when they enter politics. If it is related to the conditions in us, it's no longer a secret when he enters politics and gets a certain position, his name disappears," added Denny.
With all the skeptical facts that exist, Denny invites us to see other political contributions that musicians can make without having to go to the Palace or to Senayan. "Say you want to fight for the Indonesian music industry so that the ecosystem is clear. It doesn't have to be a DPR. There are many. I take the example of Chandra Darusman."
"He and the Karya Cipta Indonesia Foundation are very persistent in fighting for royalty rights for musicians. He is even in an institution like KCI which is based abroad. This means that he has been recognized internationally. Then he was transferred to Singapore and returned to Indonesia. He fought for points. without having to be a politician," said Denny.
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