Those who know Unspun will know that he’s very critical of Malaysia and its paucity of tradition and culture. In various posts in the past Unspun‘s pointed out that the “Malay” culture that the Malaysian Government has been trying to engineer into place is ersatz and, when you scratch the surface, is a composite of the traditions and cultures betraying the origins of the Malaysia of Malaysia – predominantly Javanese, followed by a plethora of Minangkabau, Sunda, Sulawesi and other etchnic groups with their mothership in Indonesia.
In this blog Unspun‘s encouraged Malaysians and Indonesians to think critically about these issues that become the flashpoints whenever there is a kink in the relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia, usually caused by mistreatment of maids, border issues or other such issues.
But being critical is one thing. Resorting to acts of vandalism and criminality is another. Unspun thinks that Indonesian hackers have crossed a line in ganging up to hack Malaysian websites. This is not an intelligent way to convince the other side to do the right thing. All it will result in is some Malaysians getting their knickers in a twist and launch a counter attack, promopting to mind the Ghandian adage that those who indulge in mud slinging usually loose ground.
What is needed here is for Indonesians and Malaysians to get together to have a resonable conversation about what can be done about the Malaysian tendency to use what they feel is theirs by right of ancestry against the Indonesian tendency to carp about their neighbor stealing what they think is theirs. Unspun suspects that somewhere in this heated rhetoric is frustration that haslittle to do with cultural pilfering. Malaysians are frustrated witht their Government for a lack of leadership, failure to provide a vision and to address the perceived downhill slide of the nation, economically, politically, racial equality and also from a public security angle. Indonesians are frustated with their government for doing so little to capitalize on their culture which is varied and rich beyond description, and hence letting great opportunitie slip away from their hands.
So who would bridge the divide and call thing as they see them?
Indonesian Hackers Claim Web Attack on Malaysian Sites
The two countries have been embroiled in a string of spats over alleged misappropriation of cultural icons, reports of migrant worker abuse and territorial disputes.
A statement posted on a blog titled “Terselubung” says that a number of Malaysian Web sites had been hacked and defaced to “celebrate” Malaysia’s Independence Day, which was celebrated on Monday.
“Today, Aug. 31, 2009, an uncreative country, a country who likes to steal Indonesian culture, a country whose citizen is the mastermind of bombings in Indonesia, a country who has tortured many of our sisters — the migrant workers who worked there, a country who abused our national anthem, a country who harassed Indonesia on the Internet, a country that has stolen Sipadan and Ligitan islands, a country which has trespassed our water illegally, a country which received their independence from Britain, is celebrating its anniversary,” the Web site statement read.
“As good Indonesian citizens, we will celebrate their independence in our own way. We are celebrating by undertaking a mass attack on the country’s Web sites,” the statement continued.
The site then listed more than 120 Internet addresses, including domains for Malaysian education and tourism pages. But checks on a sample of the mentioned sites revealed only a few of them remained defaced, or that many had recovered from the attacks.
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