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The rivalry between Malaysia and Indonesia continues, and this time it involves a picture of baju Melayu.

Threads user @whatzupmalaysia recently discovered that an Indonesian tourism agency used a picture of a model wearing baju Melayu from a Malaysian clothing brand to promote their local culture. The picture was also mislabelled as “baju kurung” on the Indonesian tourism page.

@whatzupmalaysia said it’s highly unethical and misleading of the Indonesian tourism page to misinform the public about the country’s identity using images that weren’t theirs.

After the issue went viral, the Indonesian tourism page allegedly removed the article page with the picture of the baju Melayu.

View on Threads

A Threads user argued that the Indonesian government agency should have created its own original content instead. Another commenter questioned why the agency needed to “steal” images at all, pointing out that Indonesia has plenty of stunning traditional attire of its own to showcase.

Meanwhile, a user who identified as Indonesian said government agencies should be held accountable for this kind of behavior.

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