Projek SAMA calls upon Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to put his foot down to stop the ethnic witch-hunt by Umno’s youth wing chief, Akmal Saleh, a member of his “Madani” (civil and compassionate) coalition government.
Akmal is threatening to hold a protest against a shop owner in Penang, Feng Jin Zhen, if the Attorney General’s Chamber does not press charges on him over the upside-down display of the Jalur Gemilang (Malaysian flag).
Projek Sama demands an end to the investigation and harassment of Feng, who was released on police bail, for his unintended mistake, which according to him, was made when measuring the pole.
Projek Sama strongly upholds the need to treat and fly the Jalur Gemilang with respect and dignity. While the proper handling of our national flag is important, unintended mistakes must not be blown out of proportion to be politicised and effect an ethnic witch-hunt.
If the Madani government wants to prosecute the shop owner for a mere wrongful display of the national flag, then the people expect a consistent application of the law in other cases concerning the national flag. Among them are:
- On 11 August, the youth wing of Terengganu Umno showed a 12-stripe national flag in a poster for #JusticeforZara
- In April 2025, the Ministry of Education’s report on the SPM (Year 11 exams) result included an AI-created malformed national flag
- In May 2025, Terengganu Pas posted a modified national flag in its Himpunan Teguh Memimpin Terengganu event poster
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In the April and May cases, the wrongful parties apologised and the issues were rightly settled. The people did not remember Akmal making any threat for the wrongful parties to be charged. Why his hypocrisy today?
In the fresh-from-the-oven case of the youth wing of Terengganu Umno, will anyone be arrested and investigated under Section 5 of the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act 1963 and Section 14 of the Minor Offences Act 1955 as Feng was subject to?
Anwar’s entire Madani project is again called into question and risks being seen as a hollow and hypocritical slogan if the Prime Minister allows Akmal to continue his ethnic witch-hunt game. This time Akmal is weaponising the national flag, and he has thus far succeeded in pressuring the police into arresting Feng.
Akmal’s successful pressure on the police and now the blatant threat to the Attorney General’s Chambers to do his bidding reflects the mindset of many politicians that law enforcement agencies are the executive’s weapons
to extract concession and score political mileage. This undermines the urgency to depoliticise the prosecution by separating it from the Attorney General’s Chambers.
People still remember how Anwar’s inelegant silence in March 2024 allowed Akmal’s inflammatory campaigns over the sale of socks allegedly bearing the word Allah to escalate a localised incident into a national crisis. The episode saw three Molotov cocktail firebombings of KK Marts in Bidor, Kuantan and Kuching, and the police’s abject failure in catching any suspect.
Akmal’s promise to “teach” the shop owner how to hang the flag correctly – after publicly labelling and condemning him – borders on vigilantism to target a vulnerable ordinary citizen who wanted to express his patriotism by raising the national flag but only made an initial mistake by hanging it wrongly, which was quickly corrected.
If Akmal’s sinister attempt to stir public emotions through fear, insecurity and resentment is not called out and put to an end, can anyone guarantee that the shop witch-hunted by him would not become the target of another Molotov cocktail attack?
It’s most disgusting that this antic is employed and enabled by tacit consent of the Madani government through a police arrest, ahead of Merdeka Day and Malaysia Day. While sad, it is also a wake-up call on the meaning of being Malaysian and what we should do to preserve our nationhood.
National symbols like the Jalur Gemilang should unite us in pride and common purpose, not be used as cudgels to attack individuals or communities. Weaponising patriotism for partisan ends undermines the very values the flag represents – unity, dignity and mutual respect among all the people.
If people make mistakes in displaying or presenting national symbols, educate, not humiliate – launch public awareness campaigns on the proper handling of the Jalur Gemilang instead of engaging in public shaming, let alone an ethnic witch hunt.
The call by National Unity Minister Aaron Ago Dagang for the people not to be afraid of raising the national flag is completely hollow. Can the people be blamed if they are too afraid to raise the national flag because any small error can be turned into a call for a witch hunt?
It is most regrettable that even the minister himself echoes the accusatory chorus rather than pointing out the unintended nature of Feng’s mistake. Just applying common sense, what can a shop owner gain by purposefully wrongly displaying the national flag?
No society can be free from divisive and extremist politicians like Akmal. In most societies, they do not get to cause harm because leaders and the public would speak up and stop them.
In 2024, the British Conservative Party suspended a government backbench MP Lee Anderson for accusing London Mayor Sadiq Khan of being controlled by Islamists.
If the British Conservative government under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak could rein in Lee Anderson for making an Islamophobic statement, why can’t Malaysia’s Madani government under Prime Minister Anwar rein in Akmal for terrorising an ordinary person?
Often attributed to British philosopher politician Edmund Burke, we are all familiar with this quote: “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.”
What Akmal would do next does not matter as much as what Anwar would or would not do.
Anwar can make his choice and Malaysians will make theirs two-and-a-half years from now. – Projek Sama
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
Do not understand why is our PM keeping silence???