March 14, 2023
JAKARTA – Police in Malaysia have arrested two individuals in connection with a post-concert scuffle that ended with Indonesian rock band Radja receiving insults and death threats.
Police in Johor arrested the two individuals for making the death threats and were looking for possible motives for the action.
“Johor Police take this matter seriously and won’t tolerate any action that involves criminal misbehavior and public order issues,” Johor Police chief Kamarul Zaman Mamat was quoted by Astro Awani news channel as saying.
Radja filed a police complaint on Saturday after a group of individuals mobbed the band during a meet-and-greet session following its one-night performance in Johor.
The singer of the Banjarmasin, East Kalimantan-based band Ian Kasela said that the death threats could be the result of a misunderstanding between the concert promoter and the band’s team.
“We were told that there was a government minister and people from the embassy wanting to meet us after the concert. We’re tired but we complied with the request, but no one showed up after a long wait and in the end, we were mobbed by these people,” Ian wrote on Instagram from his handle @iankaselaradja.
In his Instagram story, Ian also posted a screen grab of Instagram posts and messages from fans supporting the band during the ordeal.
One of the screen grabs was a post from Johor’s Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Idris who pledged to arrest the perpetrators in a week.
Radja, which is known for penning slow-ballad and Malay-influenced songs was popular in the mid-2000s and was one the country’s biggest-selling bands.
The band’s third album, Langkah Baru (New Steps) sold 1.3 million copies upon its release in 2004.