UBUD, mybalinews – At the end of December 2024, clouds and drizzle alternated. Robi arrived with a beaming smile at a café in Ubud, Gianyar, Bali, where we had arranged to meet.
He’s not just a musician. With his band, Navicula, Robi has developed an activist mission, highlighting issues of the environment, law, society, and mental health.
“We invite fellow musicians who care about social and environmental issues. Including corruption cases related to natural resources,” said Robi.
He hopes that more people will listen.
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“Even if only ten percent of the entire Indonesian population, it could influence politicians and the government in making policies,” said Robi.
Robi has been involved in activism since 1997 when he was a student at one of the tourism universities in Badung, Bali.
His main interest was actually in Anthropology, but due to limited family finances, they suggested he study tourism with the hope that he could get a job right after graduating.
Interacting with intellectuals and activists in Bali made him more convinced that, besides music, activism was also his life’s choice.
Robi has been involved in the world of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations).
“Because I’m also a farmer and involved in agriculture, I had the opportunity to study agriculture in India, when Vandana Shiva visited Indonesia and offered scholarships to young people interested in learning about organic farming,” said Robi.
From this opportunity to study abroad, he obtained an international certificate which, besides making him a musician and activist, also made him a lecturer at a university in Bali.
He also learned to understand that environmental damage has a direct impact on humans.
For example, microplastics in the sea, of course, affect those who enjoy seafood.
“The fish I eat is dangerous because there is plastic in the fish,” Robi explained.
Therefore, awareness of the environment is very important. He and Navicula will continue to voice this.
In fact, seeing the environmental damage in Bali now, they have been voicing it for decades.
In the song ‘Pantai Mimpi’, for example, he tells a story about a beach in Badung that was taken over by investors. At that time, he saw the possibility of a hill being dredged, which has actually become a reality today.
Many problems faced by Bali from the past have continued to the present. Robiregrets that it only becomes news consumption on social media without any intervention and solution from the government.
“The noise on social media is reactive, just noisy. This then only becomes a tool for some politicians to garner votes during regional head elections, not with solutions such as the right government policies,” he said.
Climate change is also one of the most important issues he is pursuing. Since 2022, Robi and several musicians in Indonesia have created a joint project called IKLIM Fest to jointly voice the need for attention to this issue.
Interestingly, since the pandemic in 2019-2022, he has tried to explore the world of entrepreneurship by opening a café near his home in Ubud, Gianyar.
That is the profile of Robi, a musician who always speaks clearly, structurally, and “substantially” because what he conveys is always accompanied by factual data, typical of an activist. ( mybalinews/IST)
semangat!!!