Reuters and AFP reported on the 9th that students and activists are painting Jolie Roger patterns in “One Piece” on flags and murals in protest of the government ahead of Indonesia’s independence day, August 17.
The flag began to be used by truckers earlier this year in protest, and began to spread in earnest after student protests in February against the government’s cuts to education and R&D budgets and expanded military roles. Students and activists call the protest “Dark Indonesia.”
In “One Piece,” main character Monkey D. Rupee wears a flag with the image of Jolly Roger with his straw hat on the pirate ship. The image of Jolly Roger refers to a widely used skeleton design for pirate flags. In the image, the pirate team is confronting authoritarian world governments, and this has influenced Indonesians to raise the One Piece flag. “The Indonesian flag was so sacred to be erected in this corrupt country that I raised the One Piece flag,” Karik Anhar, a university student in Riau, Sumatra, told AFP.
Muralist Kemas Muhammad Firdaus said the work of drawing the pattern was done to protest government corruption and unemployment. “Many Indonesians fly the ‘One Piece’ flag because they want the government to listen to their voices,” he told Reuters.
Dendi Cristanto, which sells custom flags in central Java’s Karanganyar region, said it was no longer accepting orders due to a flood of “one-piece” flag orders over the past month.
“Symbols such as pirate flags become a means for people to express their anger without speaking,” said Dedi DiNarto, Indonesia’s chief analyst at consulting firm Global Council. “This reflects the public sentiment that the country has been stolen.”
After President Prabowo Subianto said in a speech late last month to hang Indonesia’s flag ahead of Independence Day, one-piece flag-raising began to spread further.
The government and political circles warn that the use of the One-Piece flag is an attempt to divide the nation. “We must refrain from provoking with symbols that are not related to our nation’s struggle for independence,” Security Minister Budi Gunawan said in a statement last week. House deputy speaker Supmi Dasco Ahmad, a close ally of President Prabowo, said early last week that the pirate flag-hanging movement was an “organized attempt to divide the country” and that “we must confront these acts as a group.”
Authorities in East Java seized some of the “One Piece” flags. A printer in the central province of Java told AFPE that plainclothes police raided his facility on the 6th and stopped producing pirate flags.
The Korean government is also moving to crack down on raising the One Piece flag under laws and regulations related to raising the national flag. Police in western Java warned that they will take action if the flag is raised next to the national flag. Indonesian law requires that the national flag be always raised higher than other flags when hanging both flags.
As human rights groups such as Amnesty International protested that it was a “violation of freedom of expression,” the president’s office said the government had not ordered any crackdown. Usman Hamid, head of Amnesty International Indonesia, said, “Raising the ‘One Piece’ flag in a critical sense is part of press freedom and is guaranteed by the Constitution.”
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
