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Activists claim Yogyakarta administration violates human rights by banning street musicians
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Some 'angklung' players stage a protest at the Yogyakarta City Council on Monday. The placards read: “We are musicians, not vagrants”. (JP/Bambang Muryanto)
T
he Yogyakarta administration’s stance on banning street musicians is thought by some to have breached the economic, social, cultural, civic and political rights of the province’s residents. The administration has categorized the musicians as vagrants and beggars who disrupt traffic.
Pandawa Legal Aid and Consultation Institute director Sugiyarto said on Monday that the Yogyakarta governor through the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) had banned angklung (bamboo music instrument) players from operating on city streets based on a 2004 regional regulation on traffic management and a 2014 regional regulation on vagrants and beggars.
“They are not vagrants or beggars. They have ID cards and dress neatly while entertaining people who are waiting at the traffic lights,” Sugiyarto said while accompanying angklung players who complained of the policy to the Yogyakarta City Council.
Sugiyarto said the street musicians were trying to make a living, an action that was protected under Law No. 30/1999 on human rights.
Angklung player Widi Ariska said if the musicians were banned from making a living on the streets, they would be unemployed and fall into poverty.
“I can earn about Rp 100,000 [US$7.50] a day,” said Widi, a Banyumas resident in Central Java, adding that there were some 15 angklung street musician groups throughout the province, 40 percent of whom were Yogyakarta residents.
Yogyakarta City Council deputy head Dharma Setiawan said he would help solve the problem.
However, Yogyakarta Public Order Agency head GBPH Yudhaningrat stated that the agency would continue to ban the musicians from working on the streets, arguing that their activities fell under the category of begging.
