Admittedly, the Indonesian flag blunder was not a small mistake that can be easily dismissed, and clearly Indonesians have taken it to heart. They retaliated by criticising the Malaysian government on social media but one man decided to step up his game.
According to an Indonesian online portal, a man from Surakarta (also known as Solo), Indonesia attached the Jalur Gemilang flag on the back of his black sedan and drove it around the city. The flag was deliberately printed upside down, just like what happened to their flag in the SEA Games booklets. A video of him shaming the Malaysian flag quickly went viral on social media.
Here’s the video.
The reporters managed to interview the man named Bambang Saptono who did that. Clearly he was upset about the Indonesian flag mistake and took it as an insult to his country.
“My action is a reaction towards our inverted flag during the SEA Games in Malaysia. The SEA Games is such a huge event that’s participated by so many countries. We see it as a provocative move towards our country,” Bambang said.
“It’s true that I purposely attached the Malaysian flag upside down and drove it around Kota Solo before going home,” he added.
Source: Facebook
Source: Facebook
Besides, he demanded the Malaysian government to apologise to Indonesia and if necessary, he wanted the apology to be covered by the media in all countries participating in the SEA Games.
Some extreme Indonesians even uploaded edited pictures of our King and Prime Minister on Instagram. Their pictures were deliberately inverted, which included a pig’s snout superimposed on their noses. However, the pictures have since been removed by Instagram.
Source: Facebook
Although Youth and Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin has already met with Imam Nahrawi, Indonesia’s Minister of Youth and Athletic to apologise, some Indonesians still aren’t able to get over the issue. Let it go~
Well, looks like this issue is here to stay and won’t be going away anytime soon.
Also read: 27 Malaysian Websites Hacked After Indonesian Flag Wrongly Printed in SEA Games Booklet
