Giving New Hope to Street Musicians
Andi Malewa, the man from Makassar, South Sulawesi, has been working to improve the wellbeing of marginalized people. He has become a mouthpiece for street musicians.
The founder of the Street Music Institute (IMJ), Andi Malewa . Photo received on Tuesday (31/3/2020).
Although he has lived on the streets for years, Andi Malewa, 38, never lost hope. The man from Makassar, South Sulawesi, has been working to improve the wellbeing of marginalized people. Opening a reading space in 2007 for the street people who have made their home at Depok Terminal in West Java, Andi has become a mouthpiece for street musicians.
Andi set up the Street Music Institute (IMJ) in 2014 with Frysto Gurning and Iksan Skuter, although Iksan withdrew later to focus on his musical career.
I thought it wasn’t fair to deprive musicians of public space for expressing themselves.
The idea to set up the IMJ, according to Andi, struck him when a Depok issued a municipal bylaw in 2012 that banned its residents from giving money or public space to street musicians. The city’s public order officers took several measures to enforce the bylaw.
“I thought it wasn’t fair to deprive musicians of public space for expressing themselves,” Andi said in Depok on Tuesday (31/3/2020).
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The IMJ is a forum that shows the positive side of street musicians to both the public and the local administration. As musicians, buskers aren’t selling their sob stories and don’t seek pity, but rather wish to entertain people with their music.
“The main mission of the IMJ is to fight discrimination. As marginalized people, we are striving to secure [public] space for our artistic expression, which is needed even more because we cannot enter the [music] industry. We only ask for some space to make some money,” he said.
In 2015, the IMJ campaigned for the issuance special identity cards for the institute’s musicians in training. Two years later, the IMJ and the Depok administration launched the Depok Supercard that allowed street musicians to perform in certain areas.
“Around 2015, I tried several times to get past the presidential security guards to speak with President Joko Widodo. In the end, I was summoned to the [presidential] palace to discuss access to public spaces. So, we were able to work with the Education and Culture Ministry,” he recounted.
The main mission of the IMJ is to fight discrimination.
In its inaugural year, the IMJ membership included eight street musicians from Greater Jakarta. Its membership has now increased to 400 people ranging in age from 18 to 70 and hailing from Greater Jakarta, Semarang and Yogyakarta, including dozens of musicians with disabilities.
By 2020, the IMJ had released four albums of musical collaborations. IMJ members have also performed in places such as M Bloc Space, Thamrin 10 and MRT Jakarta stations as well as big shopping centers like Pejaten Village, Plaza Semanggi and Depok Town Square.
As a result, its members’ standard of living has improved. Each IMJ member earns an average Rp 5-6 million per month or even more, higher than the regional minimum wage (UMR) for Jakarta. They can now afford to support their families, buy motor vehicles and guitars worth Rp 5 million, and some even bought keyboards that cost Rp 20 million.
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Andi Malewa
Selective membership
Not all street musicians can join the IMJ. They must audition and go through a selection process, just as they would for any organization. A street musician or busking group must first submit several documents, including their police certificate (SKCK), identity cards and addiction-free certificate (SKBN).
After that, the applicant is interviewed and they must also take a test for their musical skills. Once the applicant passes the test, they start an in-house training program that prepares them for performing in public.
“At the IMJ, street musicians are taught how to adapt their behavior, change their appearance and enhance their musical quality. We teach them how to sing at a wedding party, an office event or a seminar. The IMJ thus acts like a management agency, because we also arrange where they perform,” said Andi.
The IMJ also arranges master classes featuring renowned Indonesian musicians like Glenn Fredly, Barry Likumahuwa, Padi and Slank. From its headquarters on Jl. Arif Rahman Hakim in Depok, the IMJ provides performance facilities and assistance for its members as well as promotes them.
Not all street musicians can join the IMJ.
“We emphasize progress, so new members should memorize songs and refresh [their repertoire] every week. Older members can play their own songs and are free to choose their genre, [like] pop, folk, ballad, rock, reggae and local genres. The IMJ wants to see its street musicians advance in [social] class,” he said.
IMJ members aren’t charged any fees, but contribute 30 percent of their earnings from the donation box they set out at each public performance in places like shopping malls.
The IMJ plans to open new branches in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and East Java.
Since 2019, the IMJ has collaborated with PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa’s GoPay mobile app facility. Street musicians can now perform on social media platforms and viewers can donate through the facility by scanning a QR code. The facility is new and has been applied only in China, Britain and Indonesia.
It has also helped the IMJ’s musicians during the social distancing policy the capital has implemented to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
“Under these difficult circumstances today, online performances and donations are the most reasonable ways,” Andi pointed out.
Andi Malewa
Street children
Andi’s dream of raising the reputation of street musicians is not happenstance. He has had a difficult life since he came to Java and has lived on the streets with other marginalized groups.
“I come from a poor family. My father is an artist and my mother a housewife. I finally left Makassar for Bandung in 2000 after graduating senior high school. At the time, I wanted to study at a university while doing a part-time job, but it turned out it was hard to realize,” he said.
So Andi decided to move to Jakarta to pursue his studies and stayed with a relative in Cimanggis. He found a job as a contract worker at an electronics factory. Disappointed by the delay in his promotion to employee, Andi quit his job at the factory.
He then worked for a poultry breeder in Pondok Rajeg, Bogor, West Java. In an unlucky twist of fate, the 2,500 ducks he raised had to be culled because of the H5N1 virus.
“I became desperate. I eventually returned to Jakarta in 2004. In Tanah Abang, I managed 12 shops while saving money for sending my three younger siblings to school in Makassar. I also met many preman [gangsters],” he recalled.
Andi decided to go back to Depok and become a busker at the bus terminal. There, he met someone who offered to pay for his tuition. Andi agreed, and finally completed his studies in 2011 as one of the top technology graduates from Pancasila University in Jakarta.
“I was inspired by the man who paid for my tuition, since we aren’t related. So I decided to work for my fellow buskers, starting with opening a reading center at the terminal and to founding the music institute. I believe that something good is sure to find its way, we should just continue to try, however difficult it may be,” he added.
Andi Malewa
Born: Makassar, 6 Jan. 1982
Wife: Shinta Anggraini
Children: Andi Adeeva Malewa, Andi Annasya Ramadhani Malewa
Education: Bachelor’s degree, technology major, Pancasila University, Jakarta
Achievements:
- Pioneering Community Empowerment Award, West Java Province, 2017
- Empowering Community Music with the Street Music Institute (IMJ), Cahaya Dari Timur Award, 2014
