FAJAR.CO.ID, MAKASSAR — A senior artist from South Sulawesi, Asmin Amin, tells how complicated the life of Makassar street musicians has been in recent years.
After being hit by a pandemic for about 3 years, the majority of them are members of the Street Singing Group (KPJ), are also faced with the challenges of changing times in digitalization.
Street musicians, who usually fill entertainment stages, have been hit hard by the cheap stage entertainment sets available via smartphones.
Those walking down the street and through restaurant doors were forced to pull over, due to the habit of people who always prefer to peck their heads and eyes at their cellphone screens.
This is exacerbated by the lack of attention from those in the upper ranks at this time.
There is almost no attention from the government or officials who are busy making themselves close to the artists of South Sulawesi and street musicians.
“So, in the last few years, I have witnessed how these street musicians are so familiar with hunger. Several times before my eyes, it was hunger that caused the gazes among street musicians, which were once warm, changing as if enmity, even towards his fellow friends,” said the former member of the Indonesian Parliament, during a dialogue on the 17th anniversary of the Makassar KPJ, at Taman Macan, Saturday, July 29, 2023.
But, Asmin also said, KPJ’s 17 years of life and death, there is one figure who has never forgotten street artists and musicians.
That figure is the Supervisor of the Makassar KPJ, Dr. Ilham Arief Sirajuddin (IAS). Asmin is more familiar with calling him Aco.
