I don’t understand why Indonesians love to hate Malaysia. ‘Ganyang’ seems to be their favourite word when it comes to expressing their anger or dissatisfaction towards their neighbour, Malaysia.
And every time Indonesians cook up a storm in their homeland, their government would assure the Malaysian side that it has nothing to do with the protests, which among others would include burning Malaysian flags.
Malaysia-Indonesia ties have taken a very sharp turn recently. Malaysians would have recalled Sukarno’s ‘Ganyang Malaysia’ (crush Malaysia) declaration in the 60s. According to reports, this growing anti-Malaysian sentiment is spreading all over Indonesia like wildfire.
As far as I remember, Malaysians have not gone overboard as to burn Indonesian flags in Malaysia. Not that I heard of.
It appears that Indonesians are an emotionally-charged and disgruntled lot.
Recently, there was outpouring of anger, including a heated protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta, over Malaysia’s supposed theft of the Balinese ‘pendet’ dance to promote itself in a television advertisement. It was revealed that no Malaysian government agency had a role in the advertisement.
The Singapore office of cable television station, Discovery Channel, however, quickly acknowledged that it was responsible for mistakenly featuring the dance in a promotion for its documentary programme ‘Enigmatic Malaysia.’
Earlier, Indonesians also took to the streets venting their anger at Malaysia, with allegations that the Malaysian national anthem – Negara Ku – had been copied from the Indonesian song Terang Bulan.
According to Wikipedia, Negara Ku was selected as national anthem at the time of the Federation of Malaya’s independence from Britain in 1957. The tune was originally used as the state anthem of Perak, which was adopted from a popular French melody composed by the lyricist Pierre-Jean de Beranger.
Another controversy erupted in 2007 after the Malaysian Tourism Board suddenly released the Rasa Sayang commercial, an advertisement used to promote Malaysian tourism industry. Indonesians claim that Malaysia unfairly claimed ownership of the song.
Anti-Malaysia sentiments raged on, with cyber attacks on Malaysia on Sept 1 (Tuesday). According to reports, Indonesian hackers claimed they hit 120 websites in Malaysia on Tuesday.
The hackers said they were acting in revenge against what they perceived as Malaysia’s alleged theft of Indonesian cultural items and abuse of migrant workers, reported the Jakarta Globe.
A statement on a Blogspot blog titled “Terselubung” says that a number of Malaysian websites have been hacked and defaced to “celebrate” Malaysia’s Merdeka Day.
“Today, August 31, 2009, an uncreative country, a country who likes to steal Indonesian culture, a country whose citizen is the mastermind of bombings in Indonesia, a country who harassed Indonesia on the Internet... a country which received their independence from Britain, is celebrating its anniversary,” the website stated.
The site then listed in excess of 120 Internet addresses, including domains for Malaysian educational and tourism pages, reported the Jakarta Globe.
Each link, when clicked, opened to a page with flashing graphics of the Indonesian flag and a statement that the site has been “hacked by Indonesia”.
What next Indonesia?
Indonesia exports human capital in the form of maids. More than 300,000 Indonesian women work as maids in Malaysia. Around 3,000 new maids head for Malaysia every month, most of them placed through specialized employment agencies, according to the manpower ministry here.
Maids file up to 150 complaints every month with authorities in Indonesia alleging ill treatment, overwork, unpaid salaries and physical abuse in Malaysia.
With all these hate sentiments, will Malaysia look elsewhere for maids?
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