Artists continue festival despite 'facistic' raid

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Despite a raid by public order officers, street artists insisted on Monday that they would continue to paint the streets, saying the public had the right to enjoy and appreciate art.

"We will continue to paint on the street and hold street art festivals as we believe that all citizens have the right to celebrate and appreciate the arts," said Bebek, an artist from the Taring Padi group.

Late on Saturday, public order officers cleared the artists from Jl. Sumenep in Menteng, Central Jakarta, where a two-day Street Art Festival was being held, and forced the artists to vacate Sumenep Park.

The officers accused the artists of disturbing the public, damaging the environment and selling drugs. They pulled down the artists' banners and painted over their wall murals, including a painting of murdered human rights activist Munir on Jl. Sudirman.

The artists -- some of whom had tattoos and various parts of their bodies pierced -- were accused of being "thugs" by the officers, who then assaulted two of them and gave money to a group of unidentified men in order to get them to force the artists to leave the venue at about 10 p.m.

"They accused us of being thugs, yet the officers themselves, including Public Order Office chief Harianto Baijuri, were drunk when they arrived at the scene," said Amir, an artist from the Nurani Senja group.

Bebek said the artists had obtained a permit from the city police to stage the festival on condition that the event was finished by 12 a.m.

"A few hours before the deadline, the officers came to the venue and ordered us to finish by 11 p.m. We did. We followed their orders and yet we were still treated like this," he said.

This, he said, proved how fascistic the city administration was.

Amalia Pulungan of the Institute for Global Justice (IGJ) said the important thing was not at what time the officers started to clear the street, but the fact that the officers used coercive measures.

The two-day Street Art Festival, which was organized jointly by IGJ, the Urban Poor Consortium, the Taring Padi arts and cultural organization from Yogyakarta, and Nurani Senja, was moved to the Taman Ismail Marzuki Arts Center on Jl. Cikini Raya. The event was closed on Sunday night.