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Jerinx, Ashanty clash on social media over draft legislation on music
The House of Representatives’ recent draft bill on music has sparked controversy, with a heated exchange erupting on social media between Superman is Dead drummer Jerinx and the singer and wife of Anang Hermansyah, Ashanty.
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Musicians have expressed disappointment over the draft bill. (Shutterstock/Barna Tanko)
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he House of Representatives’ recent draft bill on music has sparked controversy, with a heated exchange erupting on social media between musician Jerinx from Bali-based punk-rock band Superman is Dead (SID) and the singer and wife of Anang Hermansyah, Ashanty.
Singer-songwriter Anang serves as a legislator from House Commission X, which deals with education, youth affairs, sports, tourism, art and culture.
Read also: Draft legislation on music sparks criticism from musicians
The Superman is Dead drummer submitted on Friday a lengthy opinion post on his Instagram account, which has 566,000 followers, saying that, as a musician, the bill “raped his rights of expression and will eventually destroy them”.
“Kampungan [underclass] is the perfect word to describe those who came up with the idea for this bill,” Jerinx stated. “It will serve as some kind of filter that shows those who are the real musicians and those who are businesspeople who happen to play music.”
He then encouraged “all musicians, whatever their genre and cultural background, to unite against the bill”.
One of the draft’s provisions regarded as “ridiculous” by many musicians is Article 5, which states, “When creating, it is prohibited […] to include negative influences from foreign cultures or those that demean human dignity.” Meanwhile Article 50 states that anyone who is found to have "included negative influences from foreign cultures or those that demean human dignity, as stated in Article 5, may face imprisonment or a fine”.
A day later, Jerinx posted on the platform a screenshot of a recent article that features a photo of Anang performing on stage alongside the text, “Anang Hermansyah claims some musicians approve the bill on music”.
He captioned the post, “A fake musician who acted as a politician will eventually reveal his true color; disgusting. Other than Rhoma Irama, who else agrees with Nang @ananghijau?”. In addition to mentioning Anang’s Instagram account, which has 1.2 million followers, he also used the hashtags #RUUkampungan (underclass bill) and #AnangPayah (Anang is lame).
Following his statement, netizens chimed in on the issue, with some expressing support for him and others criticizing him. Responding to a netizen’s comment that Jerinx should just meet with Anang instead of venting on social media, the drummer said he was ready to “knock down Anang’s conventional arguments” face-to-face.
Wah, dengan senang hati. Saya lebih dari siap merontokkan argumen-argumen kolotnya. Ayo kapan @ananghijau? https://t.co/uC33N9ggFV
— JRX (@JRX_SID) February 1, 2019
Anang did not post any response on social media. However, his wife did.
To her 16.7 million Instagram followers, Ashanty, whose previous posts mostly involved product promotions and family photos, published a long reply captioned, “Read the entire note and hope you understand!!!! @jrxsid”.
In the reply, Ashanty said she was disappointed that a great musician like Jerinx, whose songs were liked by her son, would write such a rude statement. “My husband probably won’t say anything since he’s focusing on fighting for the bill on music during the end of his tenure. However, our family won’t stay silent. [...] Perhaps I’m somebody who is not adept in music. However, my husband’s fight in the House is not [for money for us to buy] food. Anang has long been antipolitics, [but he decided to] join the House anyway. [...] He joined the House for one thing only, to fight for the bill on music.”
Read also: What politicians don't talk about when they talk about music
In the same reply, she said the bill aimed to help musicians whose songs and works were used without them being given royalties and that discussions on the bill at the House always involved other musicians. “As a wife, I have an obligation to set the matter straight since you’ve been outrageous and talk with zero data,” she added.
Baca tulisan nya sampe akhir dan semoga mengerti!!!! @jrxsid
A post shared by Ashanty (@ashanty_ash) on
Ashanty followed the post with a screenshot of a tirto.id article titled, “The request of a bill on music comes from Anang Hermansyah”.
“Please read it thoroughly, as the point is this bill was proposed and fought by my husband as a House member who is also musician, as well as other musician friends outside the legislation. As far as I know, Anang has also criticized some of the articles, hence why the bill has not been passed into law, as it’s still a draft.”
She added that, since Anang would soon return to the music scene after his tenure as legislator ends, it was not reasonable to think that he would support the existence of a burdensome bill on music. “Don’t trigger negative thoughts due to current political differences. Learn to think positively,” Ashanty added.
Following Ashanty’s response, Jerinx mocked Anang as “a people’s representative who has to be represented”, saying he let his wife speak on behalf of him. “[They] claimed you ‘fought for SID’ when we were being intimidated for protesting the Benoa Bay reclamation, but now you created a bill on music so that musicians can no longer create protest songs. Are you smart or what?” he said in a post on Instagram that was attached with a short video of a person dressed in a pig costume being undressed by a woman.
In his subsequent posts, Jerinx claimed that Anang refused to face him in a live debate arranged by Elshinta Radio and said, according to news reports, they were planning to report him to the police.
Ashanty told kompas.com on Saturday that she had yet to decide whether she would take action against Jerinx.
“Many told me that what he said had violated the Electronic Information and Transactions [ITE] Law. But, again, I’m tired of responding to these things. If I reported him, he would have probably just challenged me again,” she said.
In a statement released on Friday as quoted by kompas.com, Anang said that “the issue of freedom of expression should be based on Article 28J/2 of the 1945 Constitution, [which states] that such freedom is limited by law by considering the values of morality, religion, security and public order within the frame of a democratic country.”
“It does seem absurd to measure the works of artists and musicians though competency tests and certification. However, globalization and free trade require such a situation. All of this has to be discussed in more detail,” he added. (kes)
