UPDATE (Nov 22). A day after he compared Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa to “70s Filipino Porn star,” the advisor to Australian Prime Minister, Mark Textor appears to have deleted his Twitter account. The racial slur “caused Australian-Indonesian to deteriorate further, forcing the Australian politican advisor to eat humble pie and say sorry” reports Time.com. Thankfully, Time was able to save a few “mud-slinging” tweets, which the news magazine has included in the same report. Very entertaining, to say the least.
(Nov 21) Keep with us for a bit as we back track a bit. Above is a photo of Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa. He figures prominently in this story because, as you may or may not know, Indonesia and Australia are having a tiff at the moment over spying allegations. The Australia government has allegedly “tapped the phones of the Indonesian Prime Minister, his wife, and other top officials,” according to Time.com.
Naturally, Indonesia wants an apology. Why are we reporting this story? Because an advisor to the Australian Prime Minister, Mark Textor, tweeted the following: “An apology demanded from Australia by a bloke who looks like a 1970’s Pilipino porn star and has ethics to match.” The tweet has been deleted but the Sydney Morning Herald was able to take a screen cap, which we’re pasting below.
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Of course Textor denies referring to anyone, but the Indonesian and Australian press both believe Textor was referring to Natalegawa, whose photo appears above.
And so we ask: Is there anything porn star-ish about him? Or wait, to begin with: Does the Foreign Minister look like a Filipino from the ’70s?
Textor has since apologized to the Indonesians for the racial slur, but we’re still racking our brains as to who Natelagawa reminds him of.
And a question to Textor: so, you’ve been watching Pinoy porn, eh?
Lastly, you apologized to Indonesia, but not to the Philippines.
Apologies to my Indonesian friends – frustrated by media-driven divisions – Twitter is indeed no place for diplomacy.
— Mark Textor (@markatextor) November 21, 2013
