JAKARTA: Prasetyo, wearing colourful Javanese facial make-up, has travelled 16 hours to be a part of a protest in Jakarta against Malaysia, accused of ‘stealing’ a traditional Indonesian dance.

Hundreds of others from East Java have made the long journey to demand an ‘apology’ from Kuala Lumpur, accused by the group of plagiarising their ‘Reog Ponorogo’ dance in a Malaysian tourism advertisement.

“I am very angry,” fumes Prasetyo, just after the demonstration in front of the Malaysian embassy, protected by 100 policemen, three rolls of barbed wire and two water cannon.

“They have taken Indonesia’s culture,” says the 19-year-old dancer, as the crowd chants “Indonesia, Indonesia” and “Reog Ponorogo.”

Reog Ponorogo is a dance from East Java’s Ponorogo region that features a dancer carrying a large headdress — weighing up to 50 kilograms — with the head of a tiger surrounded by peacock feathers.

The dance blends mystical trance and asceticism.

“This is a ceremonial dance,” says Adji Damais, a specialist in Javanese culture.

The Reog dancers wear black kung fu-style pyjamas. The characteristics of the dance are seen as evidence of its origins here and this has contributed to the anger of the protestors.

Their leader, Purnomo Sidi, head of the Association of Reog Ponorogo, told the crowd that the Malaysian government should apologise “to all the people of Indonesia.”

“If the Malaysian government does not, we demand a severing of diplomatic ties with Malaysia,” he said.

Thursday’s incident was preceded by a similar controversy sparked in October between the two nations, which share the same roots and the Malay language.

That case saw complaint over a song, “Rasa Sayange”, used in another Malaysian tourism advertisement.—AFP