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What makes guitarist Tom Morello rage against the machine today
While regular touring musicians visiting Jakarta for a show usually drop by the legendary Jl. Surabaya to look for old Indonesian records or hold a perfunctory press conference, on the eve of the sold-out gig at the Hodgepodge Festival on Sunday, Morello took the time to visit the Istiqlal Mosque in Central Jakarta, following in the footsteps of two United States presidents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who made the trip to the place of worship.
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Tom Morello of Prophets of Rage at the Hodgepodge Superfest 2019 at Allianz Ecopark, Ancol, North Jakarta, on Sept. 1. (JP/I Gede Dharma JS)
Tom Morello, the lead guitarist of supergroup Prophets of Rage, is not your typical rock star.
While regular touring musicians visiting Jakarta for a show usually drop by the legendary Jl. Surabaya to look for old Indonesian records or hold a perfunctory press conference, on the eve of the sold-out gig at the Hodgepodge Festival on Sunday Morello took the time to visit the Istiqlal Mosque in Central Jakarta, following in the footsteps of two United States presidents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who made the pilgrimage to the place of worship.
Morello documented the trip on his Instagram page, putting up a picture of him in a robe standing next to a plaque in the mosque that said: "Independence is the inalienable right of all nations, therefore all colonialism must be abolished.”
Places of worship, especially historical ones, appear to draw his interest. In Vienna two weeks ago, Morello stopped by St. Stephen's Cathedral and one week later when in Athens he made a sunset trip to the Parthenon.
Also, while a regular rock band would hold a press conference talking about set-lists and tour itineraries, Morello opted for an impromptu discussion with human rights campaigners and grassroots and political activists and shared his views on a wide range of topics from making music in the era of Trump, dissecting the efficacy of the anarchist Antifa movement and the unrest in Papua.
In the discussion, which was organized by Amnesty International Indonesia on Saturday, Morello tackled the issue of Indonesia's presence in Papua head-on before moving to headier subjects.
"Much of my knowledge about Indonesia comes from what I read from Chomsky," Morello said when asked about his opinion on this month's conflagration in Papua, referring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor and political activist who had long spoken out against Indonesia's occupation of Timor Leste.
