On a Friday afternoon, my friend Gustaff from CommonRoom called and asked me to be a speaker at an FGD (Focus Group Discussion) to support the working group of Indonesia’s creative economy transition team. The working group was a team of volunteers tasked with gathering input from creative industry practitioners, then delivering recommendations on what programs the new Indonesian Creative Economy department — under President Jokowi — should prioritize.
The session was held at BCCF Simpul Space #3 on Jl. Taman Cibeunying, Bandung — my first time visiting the BCCF office. When I arrived, the documentation team — Dwinita Larasati, Fiki Satari, and Gautama Adi Kusuma — was already in discussion with Dr. Adhi Nugraha from ITB. I sat at the dining table, opened my MacBook Air, and looked for presentation materials. Given how little notice I’d had between the invitation and the event, I didn’t prepare new slides — I used the same material from a previous talk, “Where Should Indonesia’s Creative Economy Go?”, adapted on the fly for this context.
In the main room, Gustaff was deep in conversation with Irvan Noe’man. Shortly after I sat down, my friend Kimung from Karinding Attack arrived. In the second FGD session, the three of us — me, Irvan, and Kimung — presented in sequence. Kimung and I focused on sharing what we had actually built and done. Irvan laid out a more programmatic vision: what the government should be doing to support the creative industry.
When Fiki asked me directly what the government should do, I could only answer honestly: I had essentially given up on the government. Perhaps I’d be willing to engage again if what was being offered was a proper agency — not one staffed entirely by bureaucrats. I want to believe that’s still possible.
Managing the Green Banana
The most memorable thing I took away from this roughly two-hour FGD was Irvan’s analogy of the green banana (unripe), the turning banana (starting to ripen), and the yellow banana (ripe). We are conditioned to manage the yellow banana — the ripe one — because we’ve always been taught that’s the only way to make money. But we never manage the green banana, even though without green bananas, there are no yellow ones.
In my own presentation, one of the solutions I proposed for developing music talent in Indonesia was community building — something I had studied at the Roundhouse in London — and a new music showcase program, inspired by what I’d seen at The Great Escape. These programs manage the green banana. We haven’t seen this done in Indonesia. Even when it does exist in some form, the concepts are fragmented.
The Indonesian creative industry will see a meaningful contribution from the music industry in the future — if we can successfully manage the green banana. But whose responsibility is that? It can’t fall entirely on the government, which doesn’t have the industry knowledge or the operational skills to do it well. The industry itself has to understand the need and take ownership. The government’s role is to facilitate — as we can see in countries where the creative economy generates serious national revenue, like the UK.
Takeaway
The more time passes, the more people I see who genuinely want to push Indonesia forward — including, and perhaps especially, people from the creative industries. I hope the spirit of change that the new administration has brought can be leveraged well. That was the spirit driving this FGD: use the momentum of the current political transition, and force those who resist change for personal gain to either get on board or get out of the way.
Change doesn’t happen on its own. It has to be helped, pushed, and demanded. And we have no choice but to change — willing or not.