This image shows a bus stop with a communist symbol in India, not Indonesia
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on January 6, 2021 at 11:00
- 2 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
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The image was shared here on Facebook on January 1, 2021. It shows a bus stop designed to include a communist symbol, the hammer and sickle.
The Indonesian-language text superimposed on the image translates to English as: “The incident in Cileungsi - West Java: ‘trending’ bus stop, of which shape is like what Mr ‘LP’ said, appears.
“So, slowly this symbol is justified for the TREND OF NEO-PKI COMMUNIST RESURRECTION.
BEWARE ... !!!”
Cileungsi is a district in Bogor regency, in Indonesia’s West Java province.
“LP” refers to Luhut Pandjaitan, currently the Indonesian coordinating maritime affairs and investment minister.
In 2016, Luhut, then senior security minister, made a comment in which he appeared to downplay an incident in which two people were arrested for allegedly selling hammer and sickle T-shirts, local media reported.
According to Indonesian media outlet Detik.com, he said: “If there is only one or two T-shirts, this might be just a fashion trend among young people. We need to see, don’t overreact.”
“PKI” refers to the Indonesian Communist Party, which was banned following the anti-communist purge in 1965-66.
The same photo has appeared since at least 2016 on Facebook here, here and here, alongside a claim that the bus stop is located in Sukoharjo regency, in Central Java province. It has been shared more than 260 times.
The claims are both false.
A Google reverse image search found the original image was posted here on the website of stock photography agency Alamy in December 2015.
The photo’s caption reads: “Hammer and Sickle Bus Stop, Kollam”
Kollam is a city in the Indian state of Kerala.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) leads the ruling Left Democratic Front coalition in Kerala as of January 2021.
Below is screenshot comparison between the image in the misleading post (L) and the Alamy photo (R):
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