Shop owner says was measuring pole, flag accidentally hung upside down

A Penang hardware shop owner explained that he was measuring the length of an iron pole while hanging the national flag and did not notice that the flag was upside down.

Chinese-language daily Kwong Wah reported that the owner, Feng Jin Zhen, said the incident occurred between 9am and 10am today, while he was preparing to hang the flag up.

He said that during the process, he realised the flag had been accidentally hung upside down and immediately corrected it.

He also said he was unaware the entire process had been filmed and quickly uploaded to Facebook, and regretted that the video only captured the upside-down portion without showing the moment the flag was corrected.

Feng apologised and said he went to the Kepala Batas police station at 1.30pm to lodge a report to take responsibility, clarify the facts, and provide an explanation.

This latest flag blunder went viral on social media after a Facebook account under the name “Nazirul Hafiz” posted a 20-second video of the incident.

It garnered around 2,900 “likes”, 4,200 comments, and was shared 6,300 times.

Recent flag controversies

This marks the sixth national flag blunder in recent months. The most recent incident occurred at a Chinese school in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, where the Jalur Gemilang was displayed upside down.

Following that incident, Lukut assemblyperson Choo Ken Hwa revealed that the mistake happened as the worker who handled the flag was disabled. However, Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh urged the authorities not to back down, despite the explanation.

Akmal subsequently made a controversial Facebook post saying that DAP Youth leaders should be given “a disabled person card too” after they accused him of being inconsistent and hypocritical.

After heightened brickbats, he later defended his comment, claiming it was aimed at the DAP wing and not the disabled community.

In a Facebook post earlier today, Akmal sarcastically asked if the latest incident also involved a disabled person.

“I want to ask if this person is also disabled, for him to ask another person to take his picture holding the flag upside down,” he said.

Akmal said that he has instructed youths in Penang, where the video was allegedly taken, and Umno Youth wings across the country, to lodge police reports against this latest incident, starting tonight.

“We urge the government to take action against ‘traitors’ who do not know how to respect the Malaysian flag and also this country,” he added.

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COMMENT | True patriotism includes empathy, forgiveness