A Malaysian business manager is facing a possible five-year jail term for suggesting that his and his wife’s underwear could be used as a substitute for Indonesia’s flag, police said today.

Broderick Chin, a manager at a vegetable oil company in Dumai district in Indonesia’s Riau province, will be formally charged by prosecutors, after employees complained to police that he insulted the Indonesian flag by comparing it to his underpants, national police spokesperson Agus Rianto said.

Insulting state symbols carry a maximum five years in prison under Indonesian law.

Chin made the alleged remarks when employees complained they could not find a red-and-white Indonesian flag to hoist in the company’s premises on Independence Day on Aug 17, Rianto said.

“In that case, just use my underpants,” Chin was reported to have said, according to the Tempo.co online news website. “I have red underpants and my wife has white ones.”

Chin has been detained and banned from travelling out of Indonesia pending the investigation, Rianto said.

- dpa