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'?

But in Indonesia an attack on cultural core values and institutions can be dangerous.

The ABC's Jakarta correspondent, Geoff Thomson, met a group of young musicians in Jogjakarta willing to take that risk.

"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

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.

Indonesian coat of arms

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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.

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Montage of stills of band

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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.

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DANIUS:   "Punkasila" means "Pancasila", "Punk Principles" but of course it's a riff, it's a joke, it's ironic.

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DANIUS:  What is he doing dressing up as a zombie? I don't know? Why?

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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.

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The band's first album "Acronym Wars" features songs poking fun at the Indonesian military's acronym TNI and its special forces branch KOPASSUS.

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The songs shift the Indonesian words around so that TNI stands for "Poor but Adorable" and KOPASSUS become "Lovers of Breast Milk".

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Political parties and Islamic conservatives also cop a ribbing. For Punkasila, the often rowdy FPI or Islamic Defenders Front become ‘defenders of their mothers'.

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Danius. Super: 
Danius Kesminas
Artist

Danius:  It's a celebration I think, not so much a rebellion, it's more a celebration of the new openness here.

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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.

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WIMO:  If we play in front of the wrong audience

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Super:  Wimo Ambala Bayang

band member

...we could be killed or we could be in trouble.

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Danius at workshop

THOMPSON: Punkasila was formed last year when Danius Kesminas came to Jogjakarta on an artists' scholarship.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Danius

see them on the motorbike with this thing, like it was some provocation.

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Machinegun guitar in case

THOMPSON: Not just provocative, but potentially illegal, under an old Indonesian law against misusing the coat of arms.

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Jamming in workshop

No known restrictions apply however to the band's home-made guitars, shaped as they are like M16s and AK47s.

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Video clip

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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.

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But the targets of their parody are still hot to touch.

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Punkasila couldn't find anyone who'd dare press their CD in Indonesia. It had to be done in Australia.

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Exhibition in gallery

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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.

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Women at Exhibition

GALLERY VISITOR:  I think it's really energetic and really fantastic.

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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.

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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

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Darren. Super: Darren Knight
Gallery owner

young and cool and hip and funny and can laugh at itself.

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Punkasila perform

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HAHAN:  We want to tour but not in Indonesia.  Another country, maybe Australia.

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Hahan. Super:  "Hahan"  ( Uji Handoko Eko Saputro)

Band member

We can get some groupies and blah, blah, blah. Yeah -- like rock star!

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Credits:

Reporter: Geoff Thompson

Camera: David Anderson

Editor: Simon Brynjolffssen

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