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.
