“It was a spur-of-the-moment thing – I wanted to try something new to see if it would work,” he says. So he called his friend, keyboardist Malik Abdullah, to ask if he had a list of musicians who needed help.
“Malik had a list of 65 names,” Gerard reveals.
The idea involves livestream performances by Gerard and Malik, as well as fellow musicians Vishnu Shakthi, Sherman Tan, Soon King and Colin Jansen. During each livestream, five names from the list are displayed onscreen alongside their respective bank account details.
Viewers are welcome to donate as they wish to any or all of the listed recipients. “No one is obligated to give anything. Anyone is welcome to enjoy the music for free,” Gerard says.
“If they want to give, they can give anything, even if it’s a minimum of RM1 to each of the five accounts. If 100 people did that, each person would still spend a maximum of RM5, but there would be RM100 in each of those accounts.”
And that is how the 5 Ringgit Initiative came about.
It may seem a little cumbersome to carry out five transactions, but Gerard says they wanted to be transparent and did not want any physical exchange of money.
“People eventually warmed to the idea and we’ve managed to generate some funds for the musicians,” he says happily, adding that they have exhausted the list of 65 names and are currently taking a break to regroup.
“Many people have been asking us when we are going to start the next round. Malik and I are going to come up with another list of names, or perhaps we could partner with charities.
“It doesn’t have to be restricted to musicians anymore – you read about so many people in deep trouble because of the pandemic,” Gerard says. “We’re going to ask people to let us know of others who need help.”
The 5 Ringgit Initiative is in partnership with BRADA, a social enterprise founded by Malik to help musicians and others who are struggling due to the pandemic.
“The moment they shut down all the bars, clubs, pubs, hotels, and restaurants where we played, we were in hot soup,” he tells FMT.
“Nobody knew what to do. The associations took too much time to respond to the day-to-day needs of the musicians as they were busy engaging with the government on policy matters.
“BRADA was an immediate response to the situation. A whole bunch of musicians came together and decided we needed to do something that allowed us to earn a daily income.”
Besides helping musicians with business know-how, BRADA has since organised eight food bazaars that also feature performances. Given the current restrictions, however, they now operate through the Bazaria Muzika Facebook page, which features food, products and services by musicians.
Malik, who was a full-time keyboardist prior to the pandemic, shares that he had tried to launch an official BRADA website but did not have enough funds.
“We have a registered domain and tried to organise a crowdfunding campaign last December, but we only managed to get RM1,500 out of RM10,000,” he says.
Still, this has not deterred the dedicated musician. BRADA also helps music makers promote their livestream performances via a dedicated Facebook page, BRADALive.
He acknowledges the many musicians who have had to put their craft on hold, opting for construction and food-delivery jobs to make ends meet. While it is understandable, “it’s such a waste as they have devoted so much love and time to their art”, he says.
Nevertheless, Malik remains hopeful for the future, especially since in some parts of the world, gigs and concerts are back in full swing. Moving forward, he hopes there will be new ways for listeners to send money to musicians they wish to support.
“At a bar, the audience puts something in a tip jar. Now it’s about opening your mobile banking app and making the transaction.
“It’s a whole new way of doing things, and a lot of people are not used to it yet,” he says.
Support local musicians via the The 5 Ringgit Initiative, Bazaria Muzika and BRADALive Facebook pages.