SYS NS: (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)

JAKARTA: Actor and director Sys NS said he blames the government for not fully supporting the development of the music industry in the country, which has led to expensive ticket prices for concerts.

Sys, who is also the secretary general of the United Regions Party, said it wasn’t’ fair to put the blame solely on the tobacco industry, which usually provided the main sponsorship for music concerts.

“It’s kind of a dilemma. The music industry really needs support but nobody wants to support it, except the cigarette companies,” Sys told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of Rossa’s concert Wednesday night.

Sys lamented that Jakarta, as the country’s capital, had no decent concert hall. “We are supposed to have a concert building with a larger capacity than that of the Jakarta Convention Center, which can only hold about 3,000 people,” said the man who co-founded the Democrat Party in 2001 but withdrew from the party in 2007.

The 52-year-old, who turned to politics in 1999 and was appointed as a member the People Consultative Assembly from 1999 to 2004, said the government needed to provide a large concert hall as well as pose reasonable taxes on the music industry.

“The government should look at art as means to attract revenue. For example, the film industry in the U.S. is the second largest contributor to the country’s economy after the weapons industry,” said the man who was named Indonesia’s best disc jockey in 1975. — JP/Matheos V. Messakh

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