They’re burning Aussie flags in Indonesia, a protest is expected at the embassy in Jakarta, and the Australian Federal Police and the Reserve Bank websites have fallen victim to cyber attacks.  It’s part of the widening fallout from the ham-handed response to Indonesia’s anger over being spied on by Australia, as revealed by the Snowden documents. 

But the worst blow on Australian – Indonesian relations may have been dealt by a Liberal Party pollster who isn’t even a member of government.  Mark Textor, who engineered so many Liberal election victories, took it upon himself to send infantile and racially insensitive insults at the Indonesian leadership via his Twitter account.

Textor tweeted that the Indonesian foreign minister is “a bloke who looks like a 1970s Pilipino [sic] porn star and has ethics to match”.  He insulted the Indonesian leader by asking “What sort of head of state communicates with a head of a neighbouring government by twitter FFS? SBY”, referring to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono tweets about the spying scandal.  And for some reason, Textor thought it’d be a great idea to bring the tragic 2002 Bali Bombings into it, tweeting, “Last time I looked no Indonesians were ever bombed in Australia.”

Textor later apologized.  But that wasn’t enough to stop a crowd in Yogyakarta on Java from burning an Australian flag, a sign of how quickly what was a rift was turned into a gaping canyon.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a travel advisory saying that a demonstration was planned for outside the Australian embassy.

“Australians should monitor local media, avoid protests, maintain high levels of vigilance and security awareness,” it read.

Meanwhile, a member of a hacking group calling itself Anonymous Indonesia claimed credit for attacks on the AFP and RBA websites. 

“The AFP takes any attack on its, or any other government website very seriously,” said a spokesperson, “Individuals who become involved in these types of cyber attacks need to be aware that they are committing a criminal offence.”

Meanwhile, there’s still no sign of an apology from Prime Minister Tony Abbott for the DSD’s eavesdropping on the personal phones of Indonesia’s President and First Lady, and other officials.  Jakarta has suspended all cooperation on combating people smuggling.