Chinese internet or US foreign policy? Why some Indonesians support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Translated Weibo posts are making the rounds among Indonesian-Chinese, while academics-turned-pundits cater to Muslims interested in the Ukraine invasion
Among some Indonesians, anti-US sentiments have translated into empathy for China and support for Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s actions

Ukraine

Johannes Nugroho

Published: 9:30pm, 8 Mar 2022

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When the UN General Assembly held its Special Emergency Session this month, Indonesia – along with 140 other countries – voted in favour of a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the Muslim-majority country’s official stance is not shared by all its citizens.

Mako Setiawati, a resident of Situbondo, a small town in East Java, is among them. The 75-year-old Indonesian-Chinese retiree has been getting her news about the war from social media, including messages sent by her contacts on WhatsApp. One message that was forwarded multiple times originated on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo and was translated into both English and Indonesian.

It used an analogy to explain why Russia had invade Ukraine, likening Moscow to a long-suffering husband who allowed his ungrateful wife – Kyiv – to keep the children after she asked for a divorce. He even paid off her debts. But the ex-wife went on to have a dalliance with the village bully – the United States in this analogy – and befriended a group of prostitutes (US allies) and besmirched her ex-husband’s name. The man lost his patience and demanded the return of one child (Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014), but the wife also began treating other children badly, forcing the man to confront her.

“I can hardly sympathise with Ukraine because it treated Russia badly and is now reaping the fruit of its own sowing,” Mako said, referring to Moscow’s insistence that it acted due to security concerns about Ukraine’s efforts to join the European Union and the Western military alliance Nato.

It is a view China has echoed. It has not condemned Russia, its close ally, or described its actions as an invasion, insisting it remains “objective and impartial”. Beijing says it respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and wants to play a “constructive role” in mediating the conflict in Ukraine.

Mako said she had seen many Chinese language messages and videos espousing the Russian viewpoint. She likened the US decision to invade Iraq in 2003 to destroy weapons of mass destruction and unseat dictator Saddam Hussein to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move on Ukraine.

“I don’t see what Russia has done wrong,” she said.

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Kezia Dewi, an Indonesian doctoral student at Belgian university KU Leuven, said she had noticed a deluge of pro-Putin messages being shared in social media groups used predominantly by Indonesian Chinese.

“Though further empirical studies are called for, there seems to have been a shift in attitudes among Indonesian Chinese towards the US and its allies since the pandemic began. It coincided with the aggressive narrative put out by China repudiating the charge that it had been the origin of the coronavirus,” said Kezia, who is doing her thesis on Indonesian-Chinese urban settlements. She said many Indonesian Chinese wee now on the defensive against what they saw as US bullying of China and the Chinese.

In the case of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, existing anti-US sentiments among Indonesians and empathy with China had extended to support of Russia as a fellow rival of the US, Kezia said.

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Muslims cynical of US

But apathy towards the US is not exclusive to ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, who are thought to number just under two per cent of the 270 million population.

Indonesian Muslims have also grown cynical of US foreign policy, deeming the superpower’s military campaigns in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria as attempts to scapegoat Muslims. Russia’s reputation among Indonesian Muslims, on the other hand, has fared better.

Radityo Dharmaputra, a doctoral candidate in political science at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia, said Russia had been trying to improve its image in relation to the Muslim world after the end of the Second Chechen War in 2000.

Political scientist Radityo Dharmaputra. Photo: Handout

Radityo said Chechnya’s President Ramzan Kadyrov, a Kremlin loyalist, had great appeal among Indonesians Muslims. Kadyrov’s comments are covered in Indonesian-language media and he is seen as a Muslim icon.

“There is a perception that Putin is more pro-Islam than the US, despite a lingering stain remembered by older generations when Russia invaded Chechnya and when the USSR did the same thing to Afghanistan,” he said referring to the Soviet Union’s intervention in Afghanistan in 1979. One of the factors that motivated Moscow to do so was the fear that Afghanistan might switch loyalties to the West.

Several scholars, including those who have studied in Russia, are becoming popular pundits, with Indonesians seeking to make sense of highly complex global affairs turning to their commentaries in Indonesian media and social media posts.

University lecturer Dina Yulianti Sulaeman. Photo: Handout

They include international relations lecturer Dina Yulianti Sulaeman, who teaches at the University of Padjajaran in the West Java city of Bandung and is director of its Indonesia Centre for Middle East Studies.

In a social media post which has 3,700 likes and 1,200 shares, Dina called Ukraine “The Other Syria”, alleging that the chaos preceding the 2014 Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine had been engineered by the West to create “another Syria” by pitting different groups in the country against each other.

She has repeated Putin’s claims, asserting that neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups are trying to subdue Russian-speaking Ukrainians in Donetsk and Luhansk.

Dina told This Week In Asia that Putin had earned the admiration of Indonesians because he dared challenge US hegemony.

“When all other world leaders remain silent about American interventions worldwide, Putin stands alone in firm opposition. Many of us are thankful that someone like him exists.”

She added that there was another reason for Indonesian Muslims’ support for Russia.

“Many have come to believe in the Prophet’s Hadith [religious saying] that towards the end of days, a nation known as Rum, which is usually interpreted to be Russia, will join forces with Muslims to fight off a great enemy,” she said.

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Indonesia was said to have paid a visit to leaders of the country’s largest moderate Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), on Monday, with the Russian ambassador doing the same on Tuesday. Media reports said the Ukrainian ambassador had asked for NU’s support to pressure Russia into ending its invasion with NU leader Yahya Cholil Staquf urging both sides to return to the negotiating table.

For other Indonesians, Putin’s demeanour is appealing. Netizens in the country often describe him as tegas (“decisive”) or disegani (“respected and feared”).

Dharmaputra said Putin’s public persona fit the romanticised version of an ideal leader for many Indonesians, one who is decisive and semi-authoritarian.

“This also explains why many Indonesians mock [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenksy’s past occupation as a comedian and TV celebrity. This is often contrasted with Putin’s past as a former KGB man.”

The gung-ho image of Putin also evokes the memory of Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, who was known for his anti-Western politics in the 1960s and once told the US to “go to hell with your aid”. Indonesia has been known to resort to military adventurism against its neighbours in the past.

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In 1962, Sukarno launched his military campaign to “retake” West Papua from the Dutch. In the following year, he launched Konfrontasi (Confrontation) against the creation of the Malaysian Federation after its independence from the British was declared. His successor, Suharto, annexed East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, in 1975.

Rahino Sudjojono, a blogger from Yogyakarta, said Indonesia’s own history had given him a perspective on the Ukraine War.

“I can understand why Putin decided to attack. This is why our Bung Karno [Sukarno] opposed the formation of a Western puppet state that was Malaysia. So Putin must have been thinking the same way Sukarno did.”