"If the Indonesian flag is used in a demonstration abroad, which is not connected with Indonesia, we certainly will protest too," he said at his office here on Friday.
On January 21, the Palestinian Embassy in Jakarta issued a statement complaining and deploring the use of its flag in a demonstration held by FPI, which was not connected with its support to Palestine.
In response to the complaint, FPIs secretary general Novel Bamukmin noted that the Palestinian Embassys statement did not represent the voice of the Palestinian people.
Regarding this, Kalla stated that an embassy was the representative of a government and the people of a country. Hence, FPI or any other organization must respect the Palestinian Embassys statement regarding the use of its flag in a demonstration that had nothing to do with them.
"The embassy is the representative of a government and the people of a country," he remarked.
"Certainly, it represents the Palestinian state and so automatically its people too," he asserted.
Kalla appealed to the mass organizations or any group wishing to carry out a demonstration to understand the context of the objectives they wished to convey.
"If they wish to demonstrate to defend Palestine, they can go ahead. But the demonstration which was held recently was not related to Palestine, and so it was unnecessary to use the Palestinian flag in it," he concluded. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
