“Russia is perceived as the potent alternative ‘superpower’ that can compete with Western neo-colonialism and influence on equal grounds.” wrote Benjamin Loh, a senior lecturer at Taylor’s University in Kuala Lumpur, and Munira Mustaffa, executive director of the Chasseur Group, a Malaysian research firm.Īnd whether located on the left or right of politics, pro-Russian supporters on social media in Malaysia harbour a “shared contempt for the West”, particularly the United States, and mainstream Western media, the authors found. The pro-Russia worldview on Malaysian social media tends to set “evil Western imperialists” against a benevolent Russia which has been “wrongfully accused” as the aggressor with the connivance of Western media and experts. In neighbouring Malaysia, researchers investigating pro-Putin sentiment on social media also found animosity towards the West and support for Russia owing to Moscow’s perceived ties with Muslims and the Islamic world. “The majority of my friends support Russia,” he added. Washington’s wars in Muslim countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq have also done nothing for relations with Indonesia – the country with the single largest population of Muslims in the world, he told Al Jazeera. Indonesian President Sukarno (left) and Lieutenant General Soeharto (right) are shown together at a military ceremony in Jakarta in 1965 Setiawan, who completed a master’s thesis in Russian at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia in Moscow, tells how relations were once so close during President Sukarno’s leadership in the 1950s that Jakarta and Moscow were considered “brothers”. Like old friends, support for Russia remains among Indonesians, explained Arief Setiawan, a lecturer in international relations at Brawijaya University in Indonesia, and for some of the same reasons as in the 1950s, including Indonesians’ dislike for “US hegemony”. Moscow’s intervention led the Dutch to eventually give up their claim. The Soviet Union backed the newly independent Indonesia – politically and militarily – in its dispute with former colonial power the Netherlands over the province of Irian Jaya (now West Papua) in the early 1960s. “Russia, as the successor of the Soviet Union is considered as this kind of anti-imperial and anti-colonial power,” Dharmaputra told Al Jazeera, which adds another dimension to local support for Putin and antipathy towards the West.
The US and its allies also invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.Īnd there is also the power of nostalgia. Indonesian audiences have also not missed the contradictions in the West’s response to the invasion of Ukraine, which contrasts starkly with its neglect for Palestinians suffering under occupying Israeli forces. Particular themes shine through on social media, Dharmaputra notes, including a “solid anti-Western narrative” that traces a line back to Indonesia’s independence movement against Western colonial powers and up to the anti-Muslim sentiment of the United States’ so-called “war on terror” following the Septemattacks. Russian President Vladimir Putin and defence minister Sergei Shoigu ride a boat during a hunting and fishing trip in 2017 “Indonesians have a tendency to trust, not more authoritarian, but more like a strong leader, someone that can be very assertive against foreign countries,” he told Al Jazeera. Putin’s hyper-masculine militarised image chimes with Indonesian political culture and its history of uniformed strongmen rulers, Dharmaputra says, noting that while public sentiment is mixed regarding Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, there is a loud and active pro-Russian minority on Indonesian social media.įor Putin’s social media supporters, Russia is seen as a noble anti-Western power challenging the hegemony of a hypocritical West, he says. “The popularity of Vladimir Putin in Indonesia is something quite striking,” said Radityo Dharmaputra, a lecturer in Russian and Eastern European Studies at Indonesia’s Universitas Airlangga. In Southeast Asia, a region dominated for decades by “strongman” political leaders and where nostalgia for the Soviet Union persists in some quarters, Russian President Vladimir Putin has a strong following among social media users who are sympathetic to his invasion of Ukraine and find his macho self-image appealing. While the West has united in condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, opinions differ markedly in parts of the developing world where Russia is not reviled but revered for what some see as its stance against the West and its hypocrisies.
0 kommentar(er)
