(My name is Yella and my blog can be found here.)
When George W. Bush visited Indonesia last year, thousands of us marched down the streets, with banners saying things like “Bush’s feet are stained with blood. Don’t let him on our innocent land and force our government to kick the President of USA out of our country.”
These people, we suspect, were the same people who had protested many times before — and who would protest again in the future — against US international policies and any bad news from Palestine (or ‘good news’ from Israel) regarding the conflict between the two countries. These people, claimed themselves anti-Americans. They burn the so-called star spangled banner, threw rocks and rotten eggs at the American embassy building …while wearing Levi Jeans and keeping a Motorola in their pockets! These kinds of people are usually not so anti-American and harmless on normal days. They love McDonald’s fried chicken. Only a few of them were true anti-Americans. And I can say is that an anti-American here is also a fundamentalist Muslim.
Anti-Americanism in Indonesia is almost always about Islam and non-Islam. That’s why whenever their brothers in the Middle East suffer from Israel and/or USA actions, they get angry, and they gather people to walk the length of all roads to express their resentment. It’s a good thing for them that most of Indonesian people would come with these Muslims (or any Muslim at all), for free lunch.
We Indonesians, actually, are not quite familiar with anti-Americanism. We’re never even anti to anything at all! We’re too lazy to think, to busy with our basic daily needs like getting something to eat, some place to stay, and some clothes to wear. We don’t have time for anti-Americanism. So if we joined the parade and burned American flags, we did it for free lunch.
In fact, in normal life, we respect Americans. I know many of us would rather live in the US than in Indonesia, if given the choice. What we commonly have in mind about Americans is that Americans are rich and generous, and that they’re nice and fun people to get along with. Thanks to Hollywood.
Moreover, there are many people who kept their head up high simply because they had an American friend. They talked about their American friend all the time, and tried to think and live like Americans do.
Me, I’m with most Indonesian people — not an anti-American at all. Only I’m luckier than my neighbors here. I don’t have to burn flags for lunch.
Okay, happy 4th of July! I’ll see you again next time.
There can’t be anti-Americanism in Indonesia, because Obama grew up there (he’s a citizen? … hmmm …), and look at what a patriot he is.