Indonesians issue war threat over Malaysian ‘dance theft’

Simmering anger in Indonesia over Malaysia’s ‘theft’ of a traditional dance is spurring unlikely calls for war in the latest spat between the two neighbours. The dispute started in Indonesia in after word spread Malaysia had screened tourism advertisements featuring the traditional ‘pendet’ dance of Indonesia’s Bali island.

The ad quickly turned out to have been a botched promotion for a Discovery Channel programme on Malaysia, with no role played whatsoever by Malaysia’s government, but that has done little to dampen feelings here.

Protesters vowing to “crush Malaysia” have burned Malaysian flags and thrown rotten eggs at the country’s embassy, while local media have for weeks run a steady stream of reports of Malaysian outrages, most of them recycled. Many media have also studiously ignored an admission of guilt and apology from Discovery.

Nationalists — as they do in nearly every one of the two countries’ frequent disputes — have already opened registration for volunteers willing to go to war with Malaysia, but admit this is largely a symbolic gesture.

“Malaysia has, in so many ways, robbed, stolen from and insulted Indonesia. We’re angry, we’re disappointed, we’re upset,” Mustar Bonaventura, the coordinator of a Jakarta recruitment drive said. “We have 486 volunteers who have signed up and they are ready for any consequences... All that’s left for us with Malaysia is war.”

Bonaventura conceded war was very unlikely, but said the group had stockpiled food, medicine and weapons including samurai swords and ninja throwing stars, just in case. Indonesian politicians have also voiced their displeasure to Malaysia over the controversy, and received apologies in return, but the issue has refused to die down.

For Bonaventura and others, the pendet dance controversy is only the latest in a string of perceived insults by Indonesia’s wealthier and more developed neighbour. Stories of horrific mistreatment of Indonesian migrant workers by their Malaysian bosses have for years raised public anger, as have territorial disputes over islands and the two nations’ shared maritime boundaries.

Indonesian nationalists have claimed that Malaysia’s national anthem plagiarised an Indonesian song, but have been dealt a blow by musicologists who say both borrow from a 19th-century French tune. A 2007 dispute over the use of Rasa Sayange, a folk song that originated in Indonesia’s Maluku islands, in a Malaysian tourism ad also has more than a whiff of familiarity with the current dispute.