Panca Nugraha, Mataram – Public order officers arrested several punks on Tuesday who were deemed to be causing a nuisance to citizens at several locations.
The authorities said the punks' activities caused a nuisance to public order and that they were deemed as "the scum of society" in a city that carried the motto of "The worshippers' city: progress and religion".
"The existence of the punk community has been annoying and we have received a lot of complaints from citizens. We have detained five of them, two boys and three girls," said Ibnu Salim, head of the public order police unit.
The five, aged between 16 and 24 years, were arrested at a crossroad in the city at around 8:45 a.m. local time. They fell asleep after having allegedly held a cocktail party the night before.
Dozens of punk youths have been arrested this year and then returned home for counseling. Ibnu said people have been complaining about punks' street singing and loitering at crossroads.
Punk subculture emerged in the UK, US and Australia in the mid-1970s. It includes a diverse array of ideologies and forms of expression, including fashion, visual arts, dance, literature and film, which grew out of punk rock.
In Indonesia, punks can be readily recognized with their untidy appearance, which is regarded as unfriendly toward the public. Punks in Mataram are alleged to be resorting to extortion in their street singing, which supposedly causes a nuisance to motorists.
"They are also prone to committing crime. When a vehicle user is not giving them money, they will scratch the car with the guitar or another blunt weapon," Ibnu said.
He said his unit was still establishing the size of the punk community in Mataram. He added it was difficult to uncover information about the community from an arrested punk because they would be tight-lipped on their friends' whereabouts.
The arrested punks, according to Ibnu, will be handed over to a social agency before being sent home. "Parents, village and district heads will be informed so that the kids will not fall back into such a kind of lifestyle," he said.
Issues of punks allegedly troubling the authorities have also surfaced in other areas.
In Aceh last year, local police arrested 60 punks that were accused of having made a false proposal in their organization of a punk rock concert in Banda Aceh. They were sent to a police school where they were said to have undergone education to change their social mindsets.
"It's very strange if they're treated like the mafia, big embezzlers or drug traffickers. Never forget that any mistake in responding to their behavior can ruin their future," legal expert Saifuddin Bantasyam said.
Mataram municipal officials said they would attempt to contain punk activities so that other youths would not follow suit.
Chaerul Anwar, a city official in charge of security, said the community of punks in the city had existed since 2010 and had since grown in both number and in location. "We sent home around a dozen punks to Bali and Java last year. Now those from Mataram and Sumbawa have been induced into the lifestyle."