Onlooker: If you want to install the One Piece flag please go ahead, this is a democratic country, that's freedom of expression.
Government official: Careful, you could be charged with treason.
Father: That authoritarian, arbitrary and corrupt regime is only in your favourite anime, right? It's not a real country? Yeah.
Mother: Just let that flag fly in an anime country, not in other countries.
Ahead of Indonesia's 80th anniversary of independence, social media has been flooded with images of flags from the Japanese anime One Piece flying on houses and vehicles instead of the national red-and-white flag, which many have interpreted as an expression of growing public discontent with the government of President Prabowo Subianto.
One Piece tells the story of a young pirate named Monkey D. Luffy who is determined to become the Pirate King. Based on a comic book published since 1997, for its fans some of the stories represent resistance against injustice in which the protagonists confront corrupt governments, sadistic military forces, human rights violations, genocide, racial discrimination and attempts to manipulate history.
Despite that fact that legal experts have publicly stated that there is no law prohibiting the flying of flags and symbols other than the national flag, government officials have responded with accusations and threats.
House of Representatives (DPR) Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad from Prabowo's Gerindra Party for example, told the press he had received information from security agencies that the One Piece flag movement was a "systemic" effort to divide the nation.
This was followed by Human Rights Minister Natalius Pigai who called the act of raising the pirate flag "an act of treason". Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Budi Gunawan threatened to slap criminal charges on people flying the Jolly Rodger flag to "insult" the red-and-white flag.
There have also been reports from around the country of people flying the pirate flag from their homes being visited by police and military officers and circulars being sent to residents from the local authorities warning them not to fly the One Piece flag.
In some areas the authorities have reportedly confiscated flags, painted over street murals depicting the flag and forced people to make public apologies.
Human rights groups have condemned the response as unnecessarily and excessive, with Amnesty International Indonesia asserting that freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Constitution and international instruments ratified by Indonesia and that instead of trying to silence criticism perhaps it is time for the government to address the people's concerns.
"Instead of repressing freedom of expression through raids, the government should focus more on resolving the root causes of public unrest, which led to the choice of flying the One Piece flag", said Amnesty International Executive Director Usman Hamid said in a statement.
