Why are Indonesians so enthusiastic about Russia on social media?

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

While the Indonesian government has criticised the invasion, the atmosphere on the internet favours Russia.

A story mirroring one of Indonesia's many popular soap operas has been circulating on the country's social media in recent weeks.

A woman and her faithful husband divorced, and he agreed to pay off her debts in exchange for her custody of their three children.
However, after a wealthy neighbour seduced the woman, her ex-husband became so enraged that he returned one of the children.
Meanwhile, the two others demanded that their father punish their mother.

 

However, the deeply misogynistic plot is not a soap opera, with its images of domestic violence.

It's actually pro-Russian propaganda, with Russia playing the wronged husband and Ukraine playing the ex-wife.
The United States is the wealthy neighbour, while Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk are the three children.

 

The story is believed to have first appeared on the Chinese messaging app Weibo in the days following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but its enthusiastic reception in Indonesia via Whatsapp groups and other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook suggests an increasingly pro-Russian stance among Indonesians, which has surprised some.

"Pro-Russian social media has been fast to define the battle in Russia's favour," Alif Satria, a researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia's Department of Politics and Social Change, told Al Jazeera.

 

"They portray Russia as a dutiful husband who wants to reclaim Ukraine, an ungrateful ex-wife who allied with European criminals and has held their children, ethnic Russians, prisoner, using memes and visuals that appeal to Indonesians."

As a result of such imagery, a rift has arisen between Indonesia's official stance and social media and online opinion that is more sympathetic to Russia, if not downright favourable, in the three weeks since the war began.

 

Indonesia supported a UN General Assembly resolution denouncing Russian aggression, as well as a decision by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to create an independent commission to investigate suspected human rights breaches.
In an interview with Nikkei Asia on March 9, President Joko Widodo also called for a truce.

 

Part of the problem, according to Yohanes Sulaiman, an international relations lecturer at Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani in Bandung, is that some Indonesians despise the US, even though they may have previously spoken out against Russia's conflicts in Chechnya and strikes on Syria.

Much of the mistrust dates back to the aftermath of 9/11 and Indonesia's response to the US's so-called "War on Terror" in the Muslim-majority country.

 

"[Pro-Russian Indonesians] dislike and distrust America."
People watched the US attack Afghanistan and Iraq in the past for false reasons like the 9/11 conspiracy and the lack of Weapons of Mass Destruction [used as the justification for the Iraq war]."

"As a result, many have begun to doubt the legitimacy of news sources, particularly in the context of the United States' mass media."
Many claim that they can't accept news from the United States without also reading the opposing viewpoint – yet the base of this is their general mistrust of the United States."

 

According to surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC, Indonesia has a higher level of scepticism toward the United States than many other Asian countries.

According to a Pew survey released in February 2020, only 42% of Indonesians have a positive view of the US, the lowest of the six countries examined.