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Thai-Indonesian flame war spotlights ASEAN’s identity problem
As Indonesia's notoriously mean netizens bullied and harassed a same-sex couple from Thailand on Facebook, critics interrogated Indonesia and its place in the ASEAN project to construct a "common" regional identity.
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A supporter wrapped in a rainbow flag attends the annual "Pink Dot" event in a public show of support for the LGBT community at Hong Lim Park in Singapore, on July 1, 2017. (Agence France-Presse/Roslan Rahman)
I
ndonesia’s netizens have once again lived up to their reputation as the most ill-mannered in all of Southeast Asia, after a recent display of homophobic commentary devolved into an all-out flame war with Thai internet users.
But the incident also casts a long shadow over the regional project to construct a “common” ASEAN identity, as well as Indonesia’s traditional role in leading the way.
Thai national Suriya Kertsang, 28, and his 24-year-old partner Suriya Manusonth have been at the receiving end of obscene and degrading comments online by strangers from Indonesia, ever since they posted pictures of their celebration of union on Facebook on April 4.
It did not take long before the online bullying turned into a cross-border mud-slinging fest tinged with homophobia, Islamophobia and jingoism.
As of Thursday, the couple’s wedding photo album on Facebook had turned into an online battlefield, with over 445,000 comments and 40,000 shares.
The rude attitude and mob mentality of Indonesia’s netizens has already gained global notoriety, after Indonesia placed 29th out of a list of 32 countries on Microsoft’s latest Digital Civility Index released earlier this year. The online backlash that Microsoft received for its study only confirmed the findings.
In contrast, Thai netizens ranked 19th on the index, while Malaysia’s internet users, with whom Indonesians are most often embroiled in cyberspace brawls, ranked 10th.
