The key findings and analysis of artistic freedom in Indonesia from the Southeast Asia Artistic Freedom RADAR, 2023 – 2024.
‘The boys are back in town’
How Indonesia may be revisiting its dictatorial past
Artistic freedom in Indonesia is intimately tied to the nation’s quality of democracy, which has taken a sharp plunge toward the deep end in the recent succession of power. After ruling for a decade, Joko Widodo—the first civilian president and once considered a fresh breakthrough—left behind a democracy severely sabotaged by his attempts to stay in power beyond his two terms. Prabowo Subianto, Widodo’s successor and former rival, offers barely any redemption. Elected in November 2024, Subianto is perceived by many civil society groups as a continuation of the democracy-dismantling trend, mainly because of the former war general’s close links to Suharto’s military dictatorship and his alleged role in the abduction of political activists in the 1990s. True enough, one of Subianto’s first decisions after coming into power was to ratify a law that allows the military to occupy a bigger role in government, mimicking the military’s dual role during Suharto’s tyranny from 1967 to 1998. Next on the agenda: a similar law that proposes expanded powers for the police.
This repressive trend is encapsulated in a highly public case of arts violation earlier this year. In February 2025, Sukatani—a punk band that exclusively performs with masks on stage—revealed their faces in a video and issued a public apology to the national police chief after months of being allegedly surveilled and pressured by the police. The target was “Bayar Bayar Bayar” (Pay Pay Pay)—one of Sukatani’s more popular songs that criticize rogue police officers who abuse their authority. In the video, the band stated that the song would be removed from streaming services. However, contrary to the intended effect of the withdrawal, the song became even more popular and frequently played. People even sang the song on the streets as a theme for mass protests against the proposed military law.
The Sukatani case serves as a useful starting point to make sense of the latest outlook on artistic freedom in Indonesia, especially as the last two years show a comparable trend of the state’s intrusive presence in civil life. Of the 67 arts violation cases recorded by ArtsEquator—30 in 2023 and 37 in 2024—48 are led by state agents or approximately 70% of the total cases. 29 of those involve enforcement agencies, mostly the police, while 14 encompass non-arts authorities, mostly local government agencies. One could argue that the repressive pattern started earlier during the pandemic from 2020 to 2022, in which there were 36 cases driven by regulatory bodies, namely the COVID-19 Task Force that often worked in tandem with the military and local police. It was also during the same period that supporters and loyalists of then President Widodo publicly pushed the cause for a possible third term, which was unconstitutional and ultimately unsuccessful but effective enough to defang opposition forces and distribute more power to enforcement agencies.
Nevertheless, the proliferation of state agents is a novel development. Outside the pandemic cases, there were 92 cases recorded by ArtsEquator from 2010 to 2022. 50 of these cases involved at least one civil society group as the challenging agent–13 cases were chiefly driven by civil society groups, while 37 cases involved both civil society groups and state institutions or regulatory bodies as the key players. These represent more than half of the cases in Indonesia in that period. In contrast, in 2023 and 2024, there were 13 cases involving civil society groups in any capacity, which only make up 20% of the total cases in the last two years.
The Sukatani case also informs another important shift as music was the most targeted form in the last two years—19 in 2023, 25 in 2024. Previously, from 2010 to 2022, film occupied the spot as the foremost target—27 of 128 cases—but followed closely by other forms—24 cases from visual arts, 24 from performing arts, and 21 from music. The landscape is far more pronounced in the last two years, as music is the only form that racked up more than ten cases—the closest being film and heritage or cultural practices, each with 7 cases. Music is far high up with 44 cases.
The reason for such dynamics is South Sumatra. The province was responsible for 23 cases or more than half of music-related incidents in the last two years—12 in 2023, 11 in 2024. All of these could be traced back to a circular letter issued by the regional police chief on the banning of remix and electronic music, stating that both genres tend to encourage criminal conduct such as drug use and violence. While not legally binding, the directive emboldened the regional police to hunt down any gathering or public event that involved such music, be it a regular concert, a wedding, or a circumcision ceremony.
In a local context, the regional banning is explainable by the fact that South Sumatra has the second-highest rate of narcotics abuse among the provinces in Indonesia. The fact formed the basis of a key public statement by the regional police chief and anti-narcotics agency, which predated the circular letter. In other words, art and cultural practice becomes a collateral target in the war on drugs. However, in a broader context, such a pattern of criminalization could be found in other regions. In Lampung, for example, there were two remix music shows being forcefully disbanded by the local police in 2024 due to two cases of stabbings in the province in the previous year. Similarly, in South Sulawesi, a punk music concert in Bone was stopped mid-way by the police, simply to anticipate possible crimes even though nothing unlawful had happened on the premises.
This brings us to another characteristic highlighted by the Sukatani case: the decentralization of state censorship. While the case ended up getting national attention, Sukatani initially was targeted and forced to release an apology video by a regional police unit in Central Java. A parallel could be found in most violations of artistic rights in 2023 and 2024. In total, there have been 48 cases driven by state agents in the last two years. 45 of them listed a local or regional agent in the first step of the challenge, which represent 94% of the total cases during the period.
In general, this follows the trend of decentralization from previous years. Cases from major cities or provincial capitals only made up one-third of the arts censorship cases from 2010 to 2022. As a context, Indonesian regional governance is generally divided into four levels of administration. The first level is provincial governments, which directly report to the national government. A province is composed of cities and regencies, which make up the second level of the subdivision. Each city and regency has their constellation of districts, which form the third level of regional governance. A district may contain villages, be it in rural or urban areas, which is led by a village chief and a set of elected officials–the ground level of the subdivision. The majority of arts censorship cases from 2010 to 2022 occured on the lower half of regional governance, which is also the case for the last two years.
There is however a notable shift between the two periods, with the pandemic being the turning point. Before the pandemic, power was more concentrated on the upper echelons, with the regencies or city governments being the baseline as empowered by the regional autonomy law. Below that, state authorities are not as ever-present and enforcement agencies are often far more negotiable, if not absent. This enabled artists to work away from the prying eyes of the state yet at the same time it might also embolden any civil society agents to act as judge and executioner, which was primarily the case before 2020. COVID-19 and its rapidly-rising death toll forced the national government to put more scrutiny on the districts and villages through the pandemic task force. Military and police suddenly became the frequent oppressors in those regions, as they often break up arts events in the name of public health.
Initially an emergency measure, the power dynamics resumed and was taken advantage of by the rulers until way beyond the pandemic. The heightened vigilance in President Widodo’s closing chapter required a wider and deeper reach of enforcement, which is reflected in the abundance of cases on local and regional levels. In its early months, Subianto’s government has essentially continued the trend by formalizing some of the precedents set by the previous regime, which means the Sukatani case is both a culmination and an introduction. It summarizes the oppressive tendencies in recent years and possibly anticipates the things to come. Barring any major rupture in the power play, similar cases are to be expected in the near future.
REFERENCE
“Laporan Khusus: Catatan Akhir Tahun 2023, Sumsel Masih Darurat Narkoba”, rmolsumsel.id, 29/12/2023
“Punk band Sukatani removes viral song from streaming services”, thejakartapost.com, 21/2/2025
Amelia Rahima Sari, “Prabowo Says He’ll Closely Scrutinize Police Bill Amid Public Concern”, tempo.co, 8/4/2025
Annisa Febiola, “Bentuk-Bentuk Intimidasi yang Diterima Band Sukatani Sejak Juli 2024”, tempo.co, 2/3/2025
Emma Connors & Natalia Santi, “Why Indonesia’s president is angling for a third term”, afr.com, 11/3/2022
Kelly Ng & Silvano Hajid, “Anger as Indonesia law allows military bigger role in government”, bbc.com, 20/3/2025
Sana Jaffrey & Eve Warburton, “Prabowo’s Indonesia: Inheriting Democracy at Dusk”, carnegieendowment.org, 22/10/2024
About the author(s)
Adrian Jonathan Pasaribu
Adrian Jonathan Pasaribu, born in Pasuruan in 1988, is the chief editor and co-founder of Cinema Poetica—a collective of film critics, activists, and researchers in Indonesia. Over the years, Adrian has contributed writings for a number of national and international outlets, such as Kompas, Tempo, The Jakarta Post, Berlinale Talents, and The Criterion Collection. He has also curated or contributed for several film festivals, including Festival Film Dokumenter, Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. In 2020, as part of Cinema Poetica, Adrian and friends publishedAntarkota Antarlayar: Potret Komunitas Film di Indonesia(Between Cities and Screens: Film Communities in Indonesia) with the support of Jakarta Arts Council. Having earned a Master’s degree in Film Studies from Universiteit van Amsterdam in 2023, Adrian nowadays works as a curator for Jakarta Film Week and a researcher for Arts Equator’s Southeast Asia Artistic Freedom RADAR along with a handful of personal projects.
