What's The Problem This Batik with You

Indonesia was successful in organizing the G20 High Level Conference which took place on the island of Bali.

The heads of state and invited guests who come can enjoy the beauty of the Island of the Gods and various cultural arts that are displayed by the committee. like when the guests enjoyed a dinner at the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park (GWK) by wearing batik clothes made by Balinese catrik woven fabrics.

However, not everyone appreciates the batik used by the delegates that night.

For example, a British political observer, Mahyar Toussi, in his twitter account mocked the clothes worn by state leaders at the dinner, including the batik clothes worn by the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.

"What the hell are these idiots wearing?" wrote the man who labels himself anti-Iran.

Although the tweet has been deleted, the screenshot has been widely shared, as shared by the Election Watch journalist account.

@maxwalden_. "British right-wing influencer deleted the tweet after being criticized (Indonesian netizens) for insulting endek/batik. Indonesian netizens remain undefeated," he wrote.

In a Twitter account, a broadcaster named Sophie Corcoran also mocked the batik clothes worn by the state delegates who attended the G20 Summit.

"Why are they all dressed the same and like that," he wrote on his personal Twitter account.

Of course this provoked the anger of the +62 netizens, because they felt that their culture was insulted, even some netizens in a slightly tone explained that what the state leaders were wearing at the G20 Summit were batik shirts woven by Balinese people.

"Don't blame us because we have creativity and don't wear boring white shirts and black suits," wrote the netizen.

"That's because they're creative and don't wear monotonous white shirts, black suits, and black ties, which is really sad like your name.... corcoran in Indonesian = pouring concrete," another added.

Here is an apology tweet from Mahyar Tousi:

Once again, I apologise for any unintentional offence caused by the tweet joking about G20 leaders wearing Indonesia’s traditional clothing. Those of us in Britain making a joke about Sunak & Trudeau wearing it did not have bad intentions and were unaware of the culture.

Following a number of death threats and messages from Indonesian citizens and government officials, I’d like to address this photo that was posted on social media by a lot of us in Britain that has caused offence in Indonesia.

We normally find our politicians pandering to groups and cultures for PR purposes… cringey and try hard. There was no intent to offend any culture’s tradition. We would criticise politicians even if they wear an east London hoodie just to “relate” to the area.

All cultures and traditions have their own unique characteristics and shouldn’t randomly be insulted, or be taken advantage of by politicians and celebrities for attention-seeking purposes.

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