Just stumbled upon an interview with the amazing community-centric, Jakarta punks Marjinal by the excellent Anarch[oi]! site.

Excerpts:

Q: Bagaimana pandangan kalian tentang politik dan punk, apakah bisa berjalan/ seimbang, sedangkan secara obyektif punk yang selama ini merupakan Counter-Culture (budaya perlawanan), sekarang ini telah mengalami dekadensi dan pola gerakan mereka yang cenderung berjalan sendiri-sendiri dan bergerak secara elitis.

Malahan cenderung menciptakan suatu kontradiksi di dalamnya. Contohnya antara apolitikal dan politikal, bagaimana pandangan kalian dalam hal ini……….

Marjinal: Pandangan kami dalam hal ini bahwa politik bisa berjalan seimbang dengan punk, karena punk itu sendiri adalah politik dan politik yang melahirkan punk. Tanpa politik takkan melahirkan punk, dan bila hanya punk hanya itu hanya sebuah kata tidak melahirkan tindakan, karena politik (POLI dan TIK = banyak cara).

Pandangan kami dalam kontradiksi di dalam punk adalah sesuatu yang wajar dan kami melihatnya sebagai proses pendewasaan (kontradiksi melahirkan dialektika).

read more: anarchoi.gudbug.com

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Disneyland is rumoured to be built in Johor in the very near future. According to The Star, Tuesday 30th May 2006, “preliminary meetings have been held to get Disneyland to Johor.” Apparently the Prime Minister has met the Japanese holder of the franchise and plan is afoot to built “the fantasyland at the proposed 9,645ha Nusajaya, a massive new township in the southern Johor corridor.”

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Today, NST published a column by Johan Jaffar bringing to light to ignorants such as me, the other, less favourable side to the recently deceased much respected Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer. I can’t find it on the net to share with you guys and so I scanned and OCR-ed the article.

I find it hard to believe that Pram played a big role in an organisation within Partai Komunis Indonesia (PM) that suppressed and terrorised writers, film makers, musicians etc. back in the day; “banning of books and record labels and initiated the burning of books in Jakarta and Surabaya.”

read on:

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Here’s some statistics as seen on NST April 2nd 2006:

The proverbial tip of the “headstone-shaped” iceberg.

Ricecooker Note: Okay, I found this on the net while doing a bit of research. Aku sendiri tak baca lagi nih! Tapi disebabkan nak masak dan makan, lapar bro!, aku letak dulu lah. Aku masukkan sekali komen-komen dari page dia.

original link: chatzradio.net/forum

Subject: musik underground
Posted on: August 19 2005 @ 09:09 By: tentabizzare

Content: Apa Adanya Dengan Underground?

Mendalami sejarah muzik underground di Malaysia

Dari konotasi perkataan/frasa ‘underground’ ini pasti terwujud pelbagai imejan di dalam minda. Malah jika diterjemah secara terus, ia menghasilkan maksud yang sangat mudah untuk difahami semua. Tetapi yang pastinya konotasi kata ini mungkin lebih bererti sekiranya diajukan kepada anak remaja moden kini. Secara tak langsung, terma underground ini dihubungkan terus dengan muzik. ‘Lifestyle’ anak muda yang punya jiwa protes terhadap arus konvensional muzik semasa. Daripada zaman pencetusan aliran underground hinggalah sekarang, banyak perubahan telah berlaku. Tidak salah juga jika mengatakan sejarah muzik underground di Malaysia ini mewujudkan impak yang signifikan kepada corak pemikiran, gaya hidup malahan identiti budaya anak muda moden Malaysia.

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Petition #01: Reaffirming the supremacy of the Federal Constitution

Excerpts: Liberty and justice for all Malaysians may only effectively be realized through an independent judiciary with full powers of review. Sadly, Malaysians have witnessed the abdication of this power by our judges largely due to an ill-conceived amendment to the Constitution in 1988. In recent cases in the High Courts, judges have declined to adjudicate on pressing issues simply because they involved some elements of Islamic law, leaving litigants without any remedy. This is a most unsatisfactory state of affairs and one which no civil society must endure.

Sign it here

Petition #02: Movement Towards A Better Police Force

Excerpts: …it is imperative that our nation immediately implements all the major recommendations of the 2 Commissions, including, in particular, the setting up of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

Sign it here

from: Food Not Bombs KL, posted on K Komuniti & FnBKL Mailing List

excerpts primo – “Tapi itulah hakikatnya kita ni terutamanya budak-budak scene (yang kononnya anti-rasislah, anti-fasislah, anti-diktatorlah, anti-hirarkilah, anti-autoritilah, anti-polislah, anti-statelah anti-kapitalislah, anti-oppressionlah dan berbagai anti lagilah) – budak-budak scene kaki komplen, kaki rungut nombor satu. Tapi bila diajak untuk join demo kat jalanraya bagi membantah kenaikan harga minyak yang telah membebankan rakyat dan diri sendiri, ramai yang tak join.”

full letter follows:

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Begin forwarded message:

Subject: [malaysian-cinema] AFP: Rebel film-maker defies efforts to silence him

From: malaysiakini.com
(please support independent media. Subscribe to malaysiakini.com)

Rebel film-maker defies efforts to silence him

Ian Timberlake
Mar 29, 06 4:35am

Singapore film-maker Martyn See says police must have been trying to send him a message when they seized his camera last August: Don’t make another political film. He did anyway.

See is hoping his second self-directed film, “Zahari’s 17 Years”, will be screened at next month’s Singapore International Film Festival but whether it is or not depends on the city-state’s censors.

See’s troubles with the law began last year after he submitted his first film “Singapore Rebel” to the film festival but was asked to withdraw after censors ruled that it was political.

They said the 26-minute documentary about Chee Soon Juan, secretary general of the Singapore Democratic Party, violated the Films Act because of its political content.

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note: press play, let the video fully loaded first and then press play again for smooth video & sound.

Some of you may remember the skinhead poet doing “Willie Whitlaw’s Willie” on Oi! Oi! That’s Yer Lot!, an early Oi! compilation LP or that famous rant “Contributory Negligence”, a punk rock poem savaging a judge’s remark that a rape victim was partly to blame for the crime because of the way she was dressed.

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“maafkan kedua orang tua mu, kalau tak mampu beli susu, BBM naik tinggi, susu tak terbeli, orang pintar tarik subsidi, mungkin bayi kurang gizi”
– Iwan Fals’ “Galang Rambu Anarki” (note: BBM=Bahan Bakar Minyak, Gizi=Zat)

Someone forwarded this email to Ricecooker earlier today:

Harga minyak sepanjang zaman..
(dalam masa 16 tahun - sejak 1990)

sebelum 90 - RM 0.89
tahun 1990 - RM 1.10 (kenaikan RM 0.21)
01/10/2000 - RM 1.20 (kenaikan RM 0.10)
20/10/2001 - RM 1.30 (kenaikan RM 0.10)
01/05/2002 - RM 1.32 (kenaikan RM 0.02)
31/10/2002 - RM 1.33 (kenaikan RM 0.01)
01/03/2003 - RM 1.35 (kenaikan RM 0.02)
01/05/2004 - RM 1.37 (kenaikan RM 0.02)
01/10/2004 - RM 1.42 (kenaikan RM 0.05)
05/05/2005 - RM 1.52 (kenaikan RM 0.10)
31/07/2005 - RM 1..62 (kenaikan RM 0.10)
28/02/2006 - RM 1.92 (kenaikan RM 0.30)

Nota : (ayat2 standard)

1. “Kenaikan minyak masih rendah berbanding mana2 pun negara ASEAN.”
2. “Kerajaan akan pastikan kenaikan tidak membebankan”
3. “Kerajaan tidak mampu lagi menampung subsidi.”
4. “Kerajaan memberi jaminan harga runcit petroleum tidak akan dinaikkan lagi pada TAHUN INI….”

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Another newspaper item, both reported in NST & The Star today, caught my eyes. According to the report, the government launched yesterday a couple of options for the public to “have your own say” via specially set-up public opinion polls addressed to the Public Compaints Bureau. Read it here.

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The Star today ran a rather stern open letter by one Dr Azmi Sharom, an associate professor of the Law Faculty of Universiti Malaya, addressed to the new Higher Education Minister, Datuk Mustapa Mohamed, criticising all that is wrong in the Malaysian Higher Education sector.

Best line, “The number of students in this day and age who really care about matters beyond Akademi Fantasia is very small indeed. Most students just want to graduate and as quickly as possible get into debt to pay for their three-bedroom flat and Proton Waja.”

read it all here: An open letter to Mustapa

or…

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BUT FIRST OF ALL THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE REPORT:

Post Mortem and Call for Action
*******************************

Kudos to you all who lodged police reports!

ALL THOSE WHO WERE DETAINED AND RELEASED ARE BEING URGED TO RETURN TO THE POLICE STATION AND LODGE A POLICE REPORT AND FILE A CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT AGAINST THE BRICKFIELDS POLICE STATION.

What the police did was unlawful and amounts to harassment. One can’t be detained for listening to music (no matter how bad) or wearing black t- shirts and having dinner at a gerai.

Failure to take action NOW will allow for the possibility for this to happen again. I realize it is difficult for some to contemplate lodging a report or complaint due to several factors; parents, concern that you may be further persecuted (which won’t happen) etc.

If enough people get together, it will be possible to organize a class action lawsuit. Edwin Lim & Suresh Advocates and Solicitors contact details below.

I have asked Suren to provide information on how to file a police report and participate in a class action lawsuit for this matter. I shall post that up as soon as I get it.

What can you do:
****************

It is important to ensure that incidents like this do not happen again. The community needs to send a message to the law enforcement agencies and show that they are not little school kids that can be easily intimidated and pushed around. They need to show that they are aware of the law and what their rights as citizens are.

Please do the following:
————————

a) If you haven’t already: GO BACK AND LODGE A REPORT IF YOU WERE DETAINED. For those who weren’t: get your friends who were involved to return to the station and lodge a report. Some don’t feel comfortable doing so as they were made to feel they were guilty when the opposite is true. Support them.

b) Go to your MP, DAP complaints bureau and lodge a complaint.

c) File a class action lawsuit. Suren can assist with this. But he needs LOTS OF YOU TO PARTICIPATE.

read the full report & all contacts mentioned follows:

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