UMNO Youth use picture of wrong M'sia national flag in their post criticising use of wrong M'sia national flag

Malaysia’s flag controversies will not die down, as yet another flag mistake has been uncovered.

Flagging a mistake

A recent post by the Terengganu branch of UMNO Youth on its Facebook page was subsequently revealed to be using an incorrect version of the Malaysian flag.

The flag, called the ‘Jalur Gemilang’ in Malay, had an insufficient number of stripes, with 12 red and white stripes instead of the correct number of 14.

The post was aimed at addressing two notable incidents that had occurred in recent weeks in Malaysia, with the incorrect flag superimposed over a photomontage of waving Malaysian flags and protestors.

The protestors pictured were holding placards demanding justice for 13-year-old Zara Qairina, who recently died due to injuries suspected to be related to school bullying.

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Not insult material

World of Buzz provided a translation for the post, which read: “UMNO Youth Terengganu is very disappointed and angered by the barbaric act of hoisting the Jalur Gemilang upside down, and also the cruel act of bullying sister Zara Qairina to death.”

The post appeared to equate the death of a child and the incorrect hanging of the national flag, saying, “These two tragedies have burned the heart of Malaysians because these acts are cruel, rude, and heartless.

“UMNO Youth Terengganu will not remain silent,” the post vowed. “We urge the government and the authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice with the harshest punishment.”

“Our flag is not insult material, our children should not be the victims of injustice! Let the harshest punishment be a lesson so that this matter does not happen again in the future.”

Attentive commentators, however, noted that the Jalur Gemilang had an incorrect number of stripes, forcing UMNO Youth to edit the post and repost it with the correct flag, but not before many noted the irony inherent in the post.

The 14 stripes of the Malaysian flag represent the 13 states and the Federal Territories.

The original version of the flag, representing the pre-1963 Malaya, only had 11 stripes; a 12-stripe version has never been officially used.

Merdeka month

While the outrage regarding the death of Zara Qairina is straightforward, the flag issue bears some explanation.

August is Merdeka month, where Malaysians celebrate independence from Britain on Aug. 31 1957, for the 11 states of Peninsular Malaysia.

Sabah and Sarawak (and Singapore) would gain independence by joining Malaya to form Malaysia six years later on Sep. 16 1963, also known as Malaysia Day.

Like in Singapore, Malaysians celebrate independence by raising the national flag at home or their place of business, and as is to be expected, they take a dim view of incorrect or illegal uses of the flag.

As a result, the shop’s owner faced numerous police reports and was subsequently arrested.

He would later apologise and chalk it up to a “mistake”.

But this has not stopped many from continuing to publicly speak on the issue, with the head of UMNO Youth, Akmal Saleh, threatening to give until Aug. 14 for Malaysian authorities to press charges against the shop owner.

Otherwise, he ominously said, he would gather a “class” to “teach this Ah Pek” how to correctly hoist a flag.

Wrong is wrong

The entire incident has led to a fierce back-and-forth between Akmal and some within UMNO and leaders of the Democratic Action Party, such as its secretary-general, Anthony Loke.

Loke promised to hoist a giant Malaysian flag outside the Penang shop and hand out 831 national flags, a reference to Aug. 31’s Merdeka Day, as reported by the Malay Mail, while other members of Malaysian civil society have criticised Akmal’s statements.

The Terengganu UMNO Youth’s post, far from slowing the war of words between the leaders of DAP and UMNO Youth, appears to merely have opened a new front.

Far from backing down, he instead urged authorities to investigate and prosecute the Terengganu UMNO Youth member responsible for the post, as reported by MalaysiaKini, saying that he had verified the mistake had come from “my gang”.

“Wrong is still wrong.” Akmal said, adding that “we take responsibility”.

Animosity

The incident is a reminder of the animosity that exists between UMNO and its ostensible governing coalition partner, the DAP.

The DAP and UMNO have long traded barbs with each other.

A curious example of this occurred in 2024, when an MP from the opposition party PAS accused DAP leaders of being communists.

While PAS and UMNO are political rivals, the MP cited her source as being from a Barisan Nasional handbook; UMNO is the dominant party in BN.

Top image via Pemuda UMNO.Negeri Terengganu/Facebook via @NewsBFM/X