M

usic proved instrumental in last year'€™s presidential election. It is safe to say that President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo owes his rise to power partly to his supposed fondness for heavy metal and hard rock.

Seeing his slumping poll numbers, on the eve of the election musicians came to the rescue by staging a concert that many believed rocked the vote in his favor.

It may not have been the Summer of Love, but only eight months ago people had high hopes that a metalhead in the State Palace could deliver change for the better.

But the party has ended too soon and disillusionment has set in. The process of selecting a new police chief, which should have been a walk in the park for a popular president, turned into a quagmire that ended up with
the emasculation of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

We are witnessing more or less the same drama in Jakarta'€™s politics, where the fight has turned nasty and where a campaign for transparency has been met with raw power. In the latest episode of a tug-of-war between Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama and the Jakarta City Council, we have learned that it is now legitimate to use a racial epithet to refer to a sitting governor.

The next brouhaha is the planned executions of 10 death row inmates, including two Australians, which has enraged not only death-penalty abolitionists the world over but also members of the heavy metal and hard rock community, who have disowned Jokowi as one of their own.

Black Sabbath guitarist Toni Iommy wrote an open letter demanding that Jokowi spare the lives of Australian duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

Earlier, Mark Greenway of the band Napalm Death made a similar plea.

It will be interesting to see what Lamb of God front man Randy Blythe says about the planned executions when the band plays the Jakarta heavy metal festival Hammersonic on Sunday.

This weekend, Hammersonic and Java Jazz will be two of several high-profile music festivals in the capital, bringing entertainment, culture and civility.

Later this month, parents should relax their curfew when boyband One Direction stage a gig at the Bung Karno Stadium.

Say what you will about metalheads, but deep down they are mostly compassionate, caring and peace-loving folk.

As for jazz fans flocking to Java Jazz this year, we can only say they are mostly bookish types who are more than happy to leave politics at the door, before bopping to the tunes of Jessie J, the British pop singer who will headline this year'€™s Java Jazz.

Music has always been food for the soul, so this weekend we urge you dance to jazz or bang your head to some heavy riffs, then come back civilized next week.