Medan, Indonesia – Indonesia is celebrating 80 years of independence from Dutch colonial rule, but not everyone is in a celebratory mood, and an unusual protest movement has rallied around a cartoon pirate flag.
The flag, which features a skull and crossbones wearing a straw hat, has been spotted adorning homes, cars, trucks, motorcycles and boats across Indonesia.
Popularised by the hit Japanese anime One Piece, the flag has even been flown beneath the Indonesian flag – known as the merah-putih (red and white) – which is widely raised throughout the month of August in the lead-up to Independence Day on Sunday.
In the anime series, which was adapted by Netflix in 2023, the hatted skull and crossbones flag is used by adventurer Monkey D Luffy – who one day hopes to become a pirate king – and is seen as a sign of hope, freedom and a pushback against authoritarianism.
In Indonesia, the flag has been raised as a sign of protest amid increasing public frustration with the government.
“Rising prices, difficulties in getting a job and the incompetencies of the government have prompted the people to use satire and sarcasm,” Radityo Dharmaputra, a lecturer in international relations at Airlangga University in Surabaya, told Al Jazeera.
Raising the pirate flag is a sign of “growing dissatisfaction in society, even with all the so-called progress that the government has claimed”, Dharmaputra said.
Prabowo Subianto was sworn in as the new president of Indonesia in October, promising fast economic growth and social change in this country of almost 286 million people.
Advertisement
But Southeast Asia’s largest economy and most populous democracy is faltering.
‘A symbol of my disappointment and resistance’
Indonesia has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in Southeast Asia, with an estimated 16 percent of the 44 million Indonesians aged 15-24 unemployed, while foreign investors are pulling capital out of the country and the government is cutting the budget.
In a survey published by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore in January, about 58 percent of young Indonesians said they were optimistic about the government’s economic plans, compared with an average of 75 percent across five other countries in the region – Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Before the flag protest, in February, the “Indonesia Gelap” or “Dark Indonesia” movement gained momentum, with citizens using the #IndonesiaGelap hashtag on social media to vent their frustrations about the future of the country following widespread budget cuts and proposed changes in legislation allowing the military to have a greater role in the government.
The online protest was followed by student demonstrations, which erupted across a number of cities.
President Prabowo accused the Dark Indonesia movement of being backed by “corruptors” bent on creating pessimism in the country.
“This is fabricated, paid for, by whom?” Prabowo said, according to Indonesian news outlet Tempo.
“By those who want Indonesia to always be chaotic, Indonesia to always be poor. Yes, those corruptors are the ones financing the demonstrations. Indonesia is dark, Indonesia is dark. Sorry, Indonesia is bright, Indonesia’s future is bright,” the president said.
Adi*, a truck driver in the city of Malang in East Java, told Al Jazeera that he has been flying the anime pirate flag on the side of his truck for the past three weeks.
“Many, many people have been flying it in East Java. To me, it is a symbol of my disappointment and resistance against the government,” he said.
Adi said that he had long been frustrated, but that the flag had provided him with a new way of displaying this frustration.
Advertisement
Members of his family had died, Adi said, when police fired tear gas into the Kanjuruhan Stadium in East Java’s Malang city on October 1, 2022, following what police claimed was a pitch invasion by fans at the end of a football match.
This tear gas led to panic and a crowd crush at locked exit gates that killed 135 people.
Three police officers and two match officials were prosecuted for their roles in the tragedy, one of the worst in international footballing history.
“I am disappointed by the lack of justice for the victims of Kanjuruhan. Until now, we have received none of the restitution we were promised. I am also disappointed by other problems in Indonesia, including rising prices,” he said.
‘An attempt to divide unity’
The One Piece pirate flag has caught the attention of the government, with Budi Gunawan, the coordinating minister for political and security affairs, warning that authorities would take “firm action” if the flag was flown on Sunday’s Independence Day.
“There will be criminal consequences for actions that violate the honour of the red and white flag,” he said.
Indonesia’s Deputy House Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad branded the hoisting of the pirate flag an attempt to deliberately sow dissent.
“We have detected and received input from security agencies that there is indeed an attempt to divide unity. My appeal to all the nation’s children is to unite and fight against such things,” he said.
Yohanes Sulaiman, a lecturer in international relations at Jenderal Achmad Yani University, told Al Jazeera that the government’s warnings were likely an attempt to clamp down on the show of symbolic dissent.
“I suspect they didn’t know how Prabowo would react and thus thought it better to show their loyalty and take the extreme position than be sorry later,” Sulaiman said.
The government threats had “backfired spectacularly”, he said, adding that it was left looking like a “laughing stock”.
“Saying that the flag has the potential of breaking apart the nation is too much. It is hyperbolic and nobody takes it seriously,” he said.
Sulaiman said the origins of the flag’s use in Indonesia could be traced back to truck drivers.
“Truckers were the ones first flying it to protest a recent regulation that forbade overweight trucks from hitting the road. If the government had just ignored it, the flag would have ended up on the back of trucks and nobody would have taken it seriously,” Sulaiman said.
“But, they had to make it about a national threat, a threat to national unity and disrespect of the national flag,” he said.
He added that the increased visibility of the pirate flag comes at a sensitive time in Indonesia – ahead of Independence Day – which is traditionally a moment for the government and the public to celebrate.
Advertisement
Ian Wilson, a lecturer in politics and security studies at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, said the flag furore demonstrated “sensitivity around perceptions of popularity” in the current government.
The flag as a symbol of protest appeared to be a more fragmented movement than recent and historical protests in Indonesia, Wilson said, which have traditionally been largely driven by students.
“Students are a more singular group, but this is a more dispersed phenomenon across different groups and parts of the country, which is indicative of widespread dissatisfaction. It touches a nerve due to the diffused representation,” he said.
“We are seeing this phenomenon in places like villages and by regular people in semi-rural areas, which are not conventional sites of dissent in Indonesia,” he added.
‘An expression of creativity’
According to reports by local Indonesian media, anime pirate flags have been seized in raids by authorities in East Java, while citizens found displaying them have been questioned in the Riau Islands.
So far, no one has been criminally charged, as flying the pirate flag is not technically illegal.
Usman Hamid, Amnesty International Indonesia’s executive director, said the raids were “a flagrant violation of the right to freedom of expression”.
“Raising an anime flag is not ‘treason’ or ‘propaganda to disunite the country’, as suggested by government officials,” Hamid said in a statement.
“Authorities, including lawmakers, must stop harassing people by threatening them with jail terms for ‘disrespecting the national flag’ and ‘treason’ if they raise One Piece flags,” he added.
Truck driver Adi told Al Jazeera that he had seen no indications that the government’s threats had had any impact on those flying the flag and that they could still be seen prominently on display across East Java – both on trucks and buildings.
“Why would I be scared of any sanctions?” Adi asked.
The president’s office has denied any involvement in the police confiscating flags or questioning civilians.
For his part, Prabowo – a retired army general who oversaw crackdowns on the 1998 student protests that precipitated the fall of the country’s longtime dictator President Soeharto – said that the flag was “an expression of creativity”.
Murdoch University’s Wilson said that the government had perhaps been rattled by the Dark Indonesia protests, which came early on in Prabowo’s presidency.
“No one wants that at the start [of a presidency], as they are trying to generate optimism,” Wilson said.
“But now, further down the track, people have some serious issues with government performance,” he said.
*Adi is a pseudonym as the interviewee did not want his name revealed for personal safety reasons when criticising the government.