Bongkar

Iwan Fals already knew what singing about power could cost. In April 1984, after performing two unrecorded songs in Pekanbaru, one of them about a roadside prostitute married to a man named Soeharyo, he was arrested and questioned for two weeks. He later turned the episode into a song titled with the date. Five years after that, he released Bongkar, whose title means rip it down. Bongkar came out in 1989 on the first album by Swami, a collaboration between Iwan Fals, Sawung Jabo, Naniel, Nanoe and Innisisri. It was loaded with criticism of the way Indonesia was governed at the time, and together with its album-mate Bento, whose title was linked to an abbreviation for Suharto's fortress, it caused real controversy when it was released. That did not hurt sales. The two songs made the album a huge success in its day. The musicians sang them at a demonstration by college students, and Bongkar later reappeared in the Kantata Takwa project and its film. In 2009 Rolling Stone Indonesia ranked Bongkar number one on its list of the 150 best Indonesian songs of all time, with Bento at number ten, and the Swami album placed eighth among the best Indonesian albums. By then Time had named Iwan Fals a Great Asian Hero. For a song written under a government that arrested singers, topping that list was a quiet verdict on who had the last word.