JAKARTA: While many young Indonesians have taken to the streets to press their concerns on the government, others are choosing decentralised movements, making their politics known through alternative spaces such as cultural outlets, amid a shrinking civic space.
Dongker, a punk band from Bandung, West Java, is one of the loudest examples. Formed by students of the Bandung Institute of Technology’s School of Art and Design, the band has spent years including anti-institutional material in its performances.
For example, on stage the band’s vocalist and guitarist Delpi Suhariyanto often urges audiences not to pay taxes to a government that he regards as corrupt, using very strong language to drive his point home.
One of Dongker’s recent shows was on Oct. 10 at Plaza Kalibaru in Cilincing, North Jakarta, marking the band’s third performance in a run of gigs in public spaces. Entry to the performance cost two kilogrammes of rice and a book.
When a generator caught fire mid-set, the crowd of thousands remained and turned on their phone flashlights, illuminating the band as it continued to perform acoustically.
By the end of the night, 4,000 books were collected to be distributed to the local community, while the rice went to communities with a waste bank to be exchanged for plastic waste.
Jim Alberka, a member of the Dago Elos Resistance Forum who helped design the gig format, said the band wanted to avoid the “Santa Claus trap”, where the giver is seen as nobler than the receiver.
Sociologist Pusairi from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) described the actions by Dongker as part of the “rhizomatic” movement. This refers to fluid and leaderless activism that has become a channel for young people to express themselves as democracy in Indonesia is widely seen as regressing.
Indonesia's score on the latest Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index fell from 6.53 in 2023 to 6.37 in 2025. While political articulation aims at “the expression of a political voice”, which pushes for specific policy changes, Pusairi explained that the rhizomatic movement in cultural spaces leaned toward “the expression of identity” and general ideology.
Rhizomatic movements also extend beyond the punk scene. A group called UNIQUEER offers mentoring, third spaces and pro bono legal consultations for queer workers, with its current collective lead Tiara A. describing the movement as one node in an ecosystem.
Such a scheme is picked rather than a centralised advocacy, she explained, as the latter often faces regulatory hurdles and public pushback. “Decentralisation is our strength,” Tiara said. “It lets us operate safely and flexibly without rigid institutional constraints.”
To overcome such constraints, Lizzie Chan of Jakarta Poetry Slam opened her open mic sessions without any restrictions on topics, such as gender equality, race and new terms for sexual identity. Such an approach allowed her to find “the safest yet impactful way to still deliver the message”.
These alternative spaces provide young people with “another entry point” into political life, said PH, a volunteer who spoke to the Post on condition that he only be identified by his initials. He added that seeing so many things going wrong in the world can be overwhelming, but being around people who share similar concerns provides hope and a reminder that he is not alone.
While cultural spaces can sustain public attention, they may be deemed as insufficiently threatening to elites to incite change, according to political scientist Muhammad Fajar, who studies youth movements. He added that cultural movements could be good for “recruiting” people into an ideology, but may need an extra push into real action to make it work.
But such movements seem to work for some people. Creative industry worker Anggi, 29, went to his first May Day march this year after being invited by people from such communities. He also plans to join a women’s march in November.
While saying not all spaces are inclusive due to economic barriers, he argued that cultural movements are still positive in pushing the middle class to “take part because they have the resources to drive change”.
Alberka, who worked with Dongker, acknowledged that a gig and some sacks of rice are small steps that fall far short of instant revolution. However, he believed that “not all alternative infrastructure has to wait for a bigger system to collapse before it can work”. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
