Malaysian punk group's artful protests are getting harder for authorities to ignore
RANAU, Malaysia -- In a rural area of the Malaysian island of Borneo, a punk group gathers around a massive print of a Snakes and Ladders board game on the floor of their art studio. On his knees, Jerome Manjat presses an inked piece of Lino onto a blank square. Lifts it. Emblazoned in red ink is the Prime Minister, Najib Razak, depicted as a clown.
Malaysian authorities have been trying to censor this image ever since it was first tweeted by artist, Fahmi Reza back in January but the members of the Pangrok Sulap art collective don’t care. They want to defy the government’s increasing use of the sedition law to gag artists.
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Pangrok Sulap, formed in 2010, is named for “Pangrok” the local slang for “punk rock”, and “Sulap”, a traditional hut used by the indigenous people of Sabah.
“It’s about government corruption."
Inspired by American bands Black Flag and Minor Threat; and closer to home, Marjinal, Jerome and his fellows fuse punk ethics with traditional arts to illuminate issues facing the animals, forests and indigenous peoples of Borneo.
“I can’t count the number of protests I’ve been to,” says Jerome, a 32 year-old founding member. “It’s about government corruption; we make posters to educate our community to become more aware of their rights.”
Jerome is from the indigenous Dusun group. Last year Pangrok Sulap helped the Dusun community protest against the Kaiduan Dam -- a controversial project which the government says will safeguard water supplies on the island, but locals say will flood the homes of 1,400 native people.
Getting its art noticed
Jerome and founding members, Rizo Leong and Freddy learned the woodcut technique in 2012 at a workshop given by Indonesian band, Marjinal. The trio, who had been friends since school, were captivated by the punk “Do It Yourself” ethic, where art and music is created and distributed independently.
“They taught us what tools to use and what kind of ink,” explains Jerome. “We cut from medium-density fibreboard (MDF) wood so it’s very cheap and everyone can do it.” The collective has grown since. “Now we have a tattoo artist, a bead artist, henna, silk screens and a carpenter,” says Jerome.
Their woodcut posters, prints and banners have garnered attention. Pangrok Sulap have exhibited and given workshops all over Malaysia and are planning their third trip to Tokyo this year after last year’s "From the Foot of Mt. Kinabalu to the Foot of Mt. Fuji" exhibition. “I don’t know how we got famous” says Jerome, smiling. “It happened spontaneously.”
The Petronas logo is twisted to resemble the face of a vampire.
Recently, they caught the attention of Malaysian oil giant Petronas, who they say invited them to paint a mural in state capital, Kota Kinabalu as part of the conglomerate's #tanahairku patriotism campaign in time for Malaysia Day.
“They said to name our price,” says Rizo before printing a Petronas logo on the Snakes and Ladders board. The logo is twisted to resemble the face of a vampire. “But they wanted us to tone down our message so the art would not have been about the real Malaysia.” He grins. “So we turned them down.”
Protest and telling the truth as they see it is the essence of the collective. “We don’t care about the money,” says Jerome. Their workshop is checkered with impactful designs: a lone Orangutan sits on a tree stump screaming “this is my land,” a fist grips a sprig of broccoli “food not bombs” reads the message in Bahasa Malaysia, the official language.
The Snakes and Ladders piece they are working on is a three-layered commentary on Malaysian politics.
“The black print shows what happened in the 2013 election,” explains Rizo, referring to accusations that the government distributed fake IDs to migrant workers in exchange for their votes.
“Now we are putting in the consequences of that in red,” he muses and adds: “We might add a third layer later this year -- maybe in yellow.”
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Topics Activism
Victoria Ho is Mashable's Asia Editor, based in Singapore. She previously reported on news and tech at The Business Times, TechCrunch and ZDNet. When she isn't writing, she's making music with her band
