Letter: Indonesian songs in Malaysia

Mon, 10/13/2008 11:29 AM  |  Reader's Forum

I'm very interested in the opinion of a Dutch NL Peter in reference to limiting Indonesian songs in Malaysia. First of all, I'd like to say hi to Peter. I really like the videos you uploaded to YouTube and I downloaded three videos of yours far before you posted your opinion on reader's forum of The Jakarta Post.

I think that the act of limiting Indonesian songs is a proof that the country's music industry is considerably weak. It indicates how they can't compete healthily with Indonesia's music industry. It's a fact that Indonesia's music industry is far richer than Malaysia's. We are the biggest in Southeast Asia.

As an Indonesian who once lived in KL, I witnessed many Malaysians prefering Indonesian musicians because Indonesian musicians are more creative and original. If we flashback to a few years ago when MTV still fully aired as music channel, the one and only, it showed more than 50 percents English songs (western songs).

However, in line with the growth of Indonesian music industry and lots of new musicians arose, English songs finally disappeared from the glass screen of MTV and only Indonesian songs jazzed up the huge industry of music entertainment in this country.

I would like to say that limiting means nothing. If you can claim batik is your culture heritage and grabbed Sipadan and Ligitan from our hold, you must be able to show us that music industry in your country can vie with our music industry.

RETNO DASAWARDHANA
Jakarta

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