LFL defends Umno Youth flag blunder while Akmal stokes racial tensions

Summary

• Lawyers for Liberty’s Zaid Malek defends Terengganu Umno Youth over an erroneous Jalur Gemilang graphic, saying no legal offence occurred due to lack of intent.

• Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh uses the incident to fuel racial tensions, saying the Chinese have united behind the Penang hardware store owner, while Malays remain divided.

---

Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) has come to the defence of Terengganu Umno Youth over its botched Jalur Gemilang graphic.

Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh - who called for police to probe the state youth chapter - is using the episode to further stoke racial tensions.

In a statement today, LFL director Zaid Malek said that Terengganu Umno Youth had not committed any legal offence when it posted a Jalur Gemilang that had only 12 stripes instead of 14.

“Akmal’s latest call for action over a flag mistake displays his gross ignorance of the law.

“It is basic in law that a person can only be found guilty for an offence if they have the ‘intention’ to commit the offence. This is called ‘mens rea’ in legal language,” he said.

He said that it was clear in both the Terengganu Umno Youth and Penang hardware store case - where the national flag was hoisted upside down - there was no intention to insult the flag.

He said this is obvious to all reasonable Malaysians, and that the fuss Akmal created has no basis in law or common sense.

“Mistakes happen, and every mistake is not a police case,” Zaid said.

Forced to condemn?

Terengganu Umno Youth had posted the erroneous graphic on Monday, ironically in an attempt to condemn the flag blunder in Penang.

Its chief Tengku Haphiz Tengku Putera said the designer had made a mistake and was affected by other flag blunders.

Akmal urged police to investigate them in an effort to demonstrate his consistent stand on the issue.

Zaid (above), however, believed that the Umno Youth chief was forced to condemn his own side.

Nonetheless, the LFL director said they were prepared to provide pro-bono legal representation to anyone from Terengganu Umno Youth who may be investigated or prosecuted over the Jalur Gemilang error.

Racialising issue

In a Facebook post today, Akmal sought to racialise the issue.

In his post, he thanked Malacca MCA Youth for lodging a police report against their Terengganu Umno counterparts, and reiterated his hope that the police will take stern action.

However, he then questioned whether MCA had also lodged a report against the Penang hardware store owner who hoisted the Jalur Gemilang upside down - whom he called an “apek”.

He said failure to lodge a report over the Penang case exposed MCA to accusations of bias.

“They (Chinese) unite on their matters, but we are still divided because of political leanings.

“Be united, o my race,” he said.

The Penang incident caught public attention on Saturday after a viral 20-second video showed the hardware store owner carrying the flag upside down on a pole, while another man recorded him.

The owner, Feng Jin Zhen, later 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. He said he immediately corrected his mistake upon noticing.

---

Malaysiakini wants to hear from you