What’s the flap in Indonesia over pirate protest flag against Prabowo government?

JAKARTA: With a heavy heart, graduate student Aditya recently took down from the walls of his dormitory room one of his most prized possessions: A pirate flag from the popular anime series One Piece he bought a few years back.

“I don’t want some passerby seeing the flag in my room and getting the wrong idea,” the 31-year-old anime fan, who lives in the Indonesian city of Bandung and asked not to divulge his full name, told CNA.

The flag is precious to him because, he said, it was bought from an official One Piece store in Japan and not some unofficial copy made in Indonesia or China.    

The black flag, with its straw hat-wearing skull, has been at the heart of a fierce debate in Indonesia ever since it began popping up in late July, raised on busy streets and lonely country roads or tied to the side of moving trucks and stationary walls.

In the Japanese anime series, the Jolly Roger flag is carried by a band of pirates bent on bringing down a draconian regime. 

Which is why for many Indonesians, the flag has come to symbolise discontent towards economic uncertainties and President Prabowo Subianto’s government which has been criticised for a series of controversial policies and programmes ever since taking office in October last year.

These include the government’s budget cuts, setting up of sovereign wealth fund Danantara, and moves to give the military a bigger role, such as appointing uniformed personnel to civilian posts. 

The Jolly Roger phenomenon occurred right around the time when Indonesians are preparing to celebrate the country’s 80th Independence Day on Aug 17, which is traditionally marked by the raising of the country’s Red and White flag and other decorations of the same colours.

While many defended the raising of the fictional pirate banner as a form of self expression and right to criticise those in power, the authorities have reacted, with various ministers and law enforcement leaders threatening to crack down on it.

Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, on Jul 31 described the movement as "a coordinated attempt to divide the nation", while Minister of Human Rights Natalius Pigai called on Aug 3 for a ban on the Jolly Roger flag to “protect national symbols”.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Budi Gunawan warned on Aug 2 that there are “legal consequences for dishonouring the Red and White” and asked Indonesians to refrain from displaying “symbols which are not relevant to the nation’s struggle” ahead of Independence Day.

Budi’s remarks were echoed by authorities across the country.

In Jakarta’s neighbouring province of Banten, a deputy police chief warned on Aug 2 that the raising of the fictional flag will be met with “strict actions”. 

On the same day in West Java, a police spokesman said they are keeping tabs of where these flags are raised and by whom so that they can press charges “the moment an instruction (to do so) is given”.

Similarly, a police spokesman in Jakarta said on Aug 4 that they are "monitoring the use of non-national flags and symbols that don't align with the spirit of nationalism, including pirate or fictional-themed flags".

These threats were enough to instill fear in the hearts of anime fans like Aditya. 

“Every One Piece fan I know is nervous about having a Jolly Roger flag in their collection. (Owning it) was never political. We just love the anime,” he said, hoping that the One Piece flag furore will die out soon.

SELF EXPRESSION OR DISRESPECT? 

After days of controversy, state secretary minister Prasetyo Hadi said Prabowo had weighed in on the problem and saw no need to ban the banner.

“(Raising the flag) as a form of expression is okay, no problem. However, it should not be used to challenge or diminish the significance of the red and white flag. The two should not be placed side by side in a way that invites comparison or conflict," Prasetyo said on Tuesday (Aug 5), as quoted by Antara news agency.

The minister said Prabowo also promised there will not be any raid against those raising the flag, as long as they subscribe to the national law which stipulates that the country's flag must always be bigger and hoisted higher if flown alongside other banners and symbols.

Feri Amsari, a legal expert from West Sumatra’s Andalas University, said he agrees with Prabowo’s enlightened approach. 

“The government must not overreact in handling the matter. It is just a flag from a fictional world. There is no need to see this as an insult against the state or the national flag,” he told CNA.

Abdul Fickar Hadjar, a criminal law expert from Jakarta’s Trisakti University, supported Prabowo’s stance.

“There is no law which bans the hoisting of a fictional-themed flag. Every citizen has the right to fly any flag, banner or symbol unless there is a law or a court ruling against said symbols,” the lecturer told CNA. 

Throughout its history, Indonesia has banned flags used by rebel groups and terrorist organisations as well as symbols of communism.

But Prabowo’s instructions might have fallen on deaf ears in some quarters.

A day after Prasetyo’s remarks, a man in Tegal, Central Java told Detik news portal that several government officials came to his shop after he hoisted the Red and White along with a Palestinian flag and the anime pirate flag in one flag pole. 

The officials, the shopkeeper said, told him to take out only the One Piece flag.

The same news portal also reported that on Aug 7, several youths in Sleman, Yogyakarta were told by local government, police and military officials to erase two Jolly Roger murals they had made.

Meanwhile, a police chief in the Central Sulawesi district of Parigi Moutong instructed his men to raid markets in search of vendors selling One Piece flags.

“We will compensate them for their losses,” Parigi Moutong police chief Hendrawan Agustian Nugraha said on Aug 6, as quoted by Central Sulawesi-based news portal Al Khairaat. 

The police, he added, will give money as well as a national flag for every One Piece flag they take out of circulation.

“But if people are caught raising (the pirate flag), that is prohibited and we will take actions,” he said.

Usman Hamid, the Indonesian director of rights group Amnesty International, is calling for the government to stop these tactics.

“The raids, the confiscations of flags and the erasures of murals are robbing people of their freedom of expression, intimidating and creating fear among society. The government cannot be anti-criticisms,” he said.

A COUNTRY DIVIDED

The threat of criminal prosecution and perceived heavy handed tactics by some government officials and law enforcers appear to have had the opposite effect: People becoming curious and sympathising with those looking to raise the pirate flag.

In the days since the controversy broke, several vendors reported a spike in demand for One Piece flags.

An online merchant, Rido, told Kompas news portal on Sunday that he had shipped around 2,000 pieces of Jolly Roger flags to various customers across Indonesia since officials began mulling on a ban in late July. 

“I have exhausted one year’s worth of stock in just a few days,” he said.

Meanwhile, Imam, a street vendor who sells flags and other Independent Day decorations, said he was confused at first why numerous people went up to him looking for an anime flag.

“They weren’t interested in my Red and White flags. They were looking for One Piece flags,” the 40-year-old told CNA.

“I told them I didn’t have one. I didn’t even know what this flag looks like because I never watched the show.”

After more and more people kept asking Imam the same thing, the vendor decided to ask his teenage son who watches the show.

“I asked (my son): ‘what does this One Piece flag look like’ and ‘do you think we should start selling them?’ and I was shocked when he told me ‘Dad… don’t! Don’t you read the news? People are getting into a lot of trouble for selling these things,” the vendor said.

Meanwhile, social media feeds have been flooded with the crossbones and skull with a straw hat iconography, not just from die-hard fans of the anime series, but also from those who had never even watched the show.

“No matter how disappointed you are with this country, there are things so sacred you don’t swap them with anything else, certainly not with something out of a cartoon show.”

But legal experts argued that banning the flag and criminalising those who raise it is counter productive.

 “All Prabowo has to do is just do what he promised. Create jobs, stimulate the economy, help the needy,” Feri said. 

“If he does that, no one will bother with pirate flags anymore.”