One Piece Flag Excitement, Jakarta DPRD: It's Just Fun, As Long As You Don't Fly the Communist Flag

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairperson of Commission A of the Jakarta Regional People's Representative Council (DPRD), Alia Noorayu Laksono, responded casually to the controversy surrounding the raising of the One Piece flag ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia, which has been causing a stir on social media.

According to Alia, there's no problem with people raising the One Piece flag as long as they don't intend to demean the Red and White Flag as a symbol of the Indonesian nation.

"It's just for fun, right? As long as it's not insulting the Red and White Flag, I think it's okay. As long as it's not destroying the Red and White Flag, or raising a communist flag. I think raising the One Piece flag is just for fun," Alia told reporters on Thursday, August 7.

Therefore, according to Alia, raising the Jelly Rogers flag shouldn't be a problem. Consider it a form of expression for fans of Japanese manga or anime.

"It doesn't matter if you want to follow suit. Oh well, that's just anime fanaticism. Nothing to be serious about. The important thing is not to replace the Red and White Flag," she said.

Recently, the public has been abuzz with the phenomenon of raising a pirate flag from the Japanese manga series, One Piece, ahead of the 80th Indonesian Independence Day on August 17th.

The fictional flag features a black background and a skull and two crossed bones behind it. The white, smiling skull is adorned with the yellow straw hat typical of One Piece's protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy.

When the narrative of the One Piece flag raising spread on social media, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Sufmi Dasco Ahmad warned of a systematic effort that could potentially divide the nation.

"We have also detected and received input from security agencies, and there are indeed efforts to divide the nation's unity," Dasco said at the Parliament Complex, Senayan.

However, Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi later stated that there were no raids by the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) or the Indonesian National Police (Polri) regarding the raising of the One Piece-themed flag ahead of the 80th Indonesian Independence Day.

"There's no such thing (raids)," said Prasetyo at the Presidential Palace Complex in Jakarta on Tuesday.

He stated that the government has no problem with the One Piece flag as a form of public expression or criticism.

The government, he said, is also open to various forms of criticism, given that there is still much work to be done.

According to him, possible action will only apply to parties who intentionally clash with the One Piece flag and the Indonesian flag.

"Even if someone goes that far, a ban or whatever action will be taken against those parties who clash with it by, for example, inciting, in quotation marks, that it's better to fly this flag than the Indonesian flag. That's not right, it shouldn't be," Prasetyo added.