Political parties in Malaysia are starting to hand out their campaign materials and you can see many banners and flags being hoisted all along the roads. Many of the political parties have already prepared these materials to be used during the campaigning period.
It was reported by Oriental Daily that about six months ago, certain political parties have already started ordering their promotional materials before the Parliament was dissolved. Although the candidates have not been announced yet, some of the items such as banners, T-shirts, umbrellas, hats, bags, fans, and badges – which do not need to have any faces on them – have already been ordered.
However, it looks like not all of these are ordered from local printers but instead, the items are supposedly from China. A local printer interviewed by Oriental Daily said that almost 80 per cent of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) publicity items come from China as they were much cheaper. Why didn’t #SupportLocal?
He said, “Even with our weakening currency and shipping fees, it is still much cheaper for them to order the goods from China. Local suppliers cannot beat the price as they are at least 50 per cent cheaper than our prices. Some of the opposition parties also ordered from China but the amount ordered by BN is 15 times more than them.” Wah, that’s a lot!
Several sharp-eyed netizens have also spotted that some of BN’s banners were printed with the company’s name, which is located in China and did not understand why they weren’t giving their business to local companies. A few of them have also voiced out their dissatisfaction about this on social media.
They said, “How come they need to order from China instead of helping struggling local businesses?”. Meanwhile, the newspaper said that the opposition chose to order from local printers but did not mention the prices they had to pay.
It was said that Pakatan Harapan (PH) did not dare to make a mass order for promotional materials as the Registry of Societies had banned them from using Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s logo. They decided that in lieu of this ban, PH would use a common logo for all its component parties to signify their unity. They finally chose Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s (PKR) “Blue Eye” symbol and said that they would be contesting under this logo.
Will it be your first time voting for GE14? Read the article below for some simple guidelines so that you can vote correctly!
Also read: GE14: Important Do’s & Don’ts on Polling Day M’sians MUST Take Note Of