Thread by @olliekarp

In today's #dailysoup, I'll introduce Indonesian activist, politician, and tankie, Budiman Sudjatmiko (@budimandjatmiko).

He's best known his participation in the Indonesian Communist Party and spewing peepotalking remarks favouring Putin's dictatorial regime.

1/24

Budiman started his activist career when he was in secondary school in the midst of the dictatorial regime of Soeharto.

He dropped out of uni in the 1990s to focus on activism, in which he founded the People's Democratic Party in 1996 and led anti-Soeharto rallies.

2/24

Meanwhile, during that time, Indonesian forces created a chart explaining that "Budiman's party is connected with the Philippines' New People's Army with backing from Amnesty International and the Australian Labor Party".

3/24

Budiman's party was involved in the July 27, 1996 anti-government riots at Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia.

The riots were led by supporters of Megawati Soekarnoputri, who would become Indonesia's president from 2001-04.

4/24

Meanwhile, Indonesian authorities summoned Budiman's parents for questioning upon hearing allegations that his father was a former member of the Communist Party of Indonesia.

5/24

Then, Budiman and his party's members were arrested without warrant for "rebelling against Soeharto" and "supplying elements to East Timorese resistance forces".

In April 28, 1997, he was sentenced to 15 years of jail, while Amnesty International called for his release.

6/24

After the fall of Soeharto in 1998, Budiman was eventually released from jail in 1999. However, in 2001, Indonesian authorities raided an anti-globalisation conference at Depok, West Java, in which Budiman was one of its organisers.

7/24

After Budiman's party went defunct in 2001, Budiman joined the PDI-Perjuangan (PDI-P) political party in the mid-2000s.

FYI, a lot of PDI-P members are literally friends with current Russian dictator and Chief Vatnik, Vladimir Putin.

8/24

After joining the PDI-P, Budiman started to spew pro-Russia peepotalking remarks.

When Putin planned to visit Indonesia for the G-20 Summit, Budiman praised current Indonesian President Jokowi Widodo for "acting like Soekarno by allowing Putin to attend".

9/24

Budiman's stance is somewhere around the lines of "promoting a multipolar world with China compensating for Russia's geopolitical burdens by implementing the Belt and Road Initiative", praising Putin for "circling to the East".

10/24

In 2014, Budiman parroted Putin's accusations towards the West for "practising double standards by recognising Kosovo's independence while rejecting Crimea's departure from Ukraine".

11/24

Then, Budiman called the illegal 2014 Crimean referendum as a "people's movement", accusing the West for "protecting far-right groups in Ukraine".

He suggested that "the West should welcome Crimea's departure from Ukraine and its arrival to Russia".

12/24

Meanwhile, Budiman denied Kosovo's independence when he peepotalked about how "Kosovo is Serbia cuz Serbia is Kosovo's cultural capital".

13/24

Contrary to Budiman's claims, the referendum is illegal cuz int'l law says that secession is allowed only if the region has been "denied self-determination". This factor was not present in Crimea.

The referendum was just a modus operandi from Russia to steal Crimea.

14/24

Meanwhile, Kosovo's independence came after Kosovo experienced human rights violations from Serbian forces, especially after the fall of Yugoslavia.

Hence, Kosovo lost the right to self-determination, thus making Kosovo's case more legitimate than Crimea's.

15/24

Budiman showed more symptoms of a traditional vatnik. During the same day when Russia invaded Ukraine, Budiman peepotalked about how "the pro-Russia leader Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown by pro-Western and ultranationalist elements supporting Nasis", claiming...

16/24

...that "it is not appropriate for a government to be overthrown by rebellion".

Budiman peepotalked about "Russia seizing Crimea to protect the ethnic Russians there". He tried to defend his claims by saying that "the Soviets also protected Indonesia against the Dutch".

17/24

Few weeks after 02/24, Budiman bought into the "West bad, Russia good" peepotalking remark when he accused the West of "racism and Islamophobia" while praising Russia for "making ethnonationalism, the root cause of racism, as a bad thing", proceeding...

18/24

...to peepotalking about "the war in Ukraine being caused by the persecution of Russians in Ukraine" and "the de-Nasification of Ukraine".

A rebuttal to Budiman's pro-Russia peepotalking can be found in this #vatniksoup entry from @P_Kallioniemi:

19/24

Then, Budiman suggested that "to achieve peace, Ukraine should not join NATO", claiming that "Ukraine is creating US-backed military bases and reviving its nuclear program".

20/24

Budiman did some anti-West whataboutism when he called Europe as "something punished by history treating nationalism like a bad word". He accused the West for "heroising Ukrainian soldiers while terrorising Palestinian, Iraqi, and Vietnamese youths".

21/24

Moreover, Budiman accused Ukrainian forces for something like "playing the victim" when the topic of Russia's war crimes in Bucha came up.

He said that "the Indonesian government has been prevented from responding to Bucha by Ukraine's "playing-victim" attitude".

22/24

Budiman is also known for some pro-China peepotalking remarks. For example, he once said something like "there is no such thing as Taiwan cuz there is only one China" and "China doesn't want war".

23/24

Then, Budiman accused the US for "acting like a bully to China while many countries are approaching China", adding that "this is not a matter of human rights and democracy, but this is how geopolitics works".

He also praised Xi Jinping for "industrialising China".

24/24

Support my work: buymeacoffee.com/olliekarp

Related entries:
Pro-CCP peepotalking points -

Connie Bakrie -

Decadent West (#vatniksoup) -

Similar entries:
Rigoberto Tiglao -

Syksy Räsänen -

Shoutouts:
@P_Kallioniemi, @Aaron_MatthewIL, @outlierplanet, @kimsungkeji, @PepiUtami, @NervosaCafe

If you have any additional info, feel free to comment below.

This is Phase 1, Entry 28 of the #dailysoup. Feel free to read the previous entries here 👇
bit.ly/thedailysoup