Social media was in an uproar recently over controversies involving the Jalur Gemilang, where a local newspaper published a picture of the flag without the crescent moon on its front page, and in a separate incident, the Ministry of Education (MOE) featured an incomplete version of the flag in the SPM examination results analysis report.
The parties involved have apologised, but the issue still caught the attention of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, or Tun M, who shared his thoughts about it.
“The move was done on purpose”
In a clip from Episode 5 of the Dr M Podcast shared on his Facebook, Tun M claimed the missing crescent moon on the Malaysian flag was not a mistake, but a deliberate move.
“This was intentional, not an error. It was done on purpose to show that there’s no Islamic symbol on our flag. So the crescent moon was removed, and only the star was kept,” he said.
He went on to suggest that this move might have been the act of certain parties trying to align Malaysia with communist ideology.
“There’s a desire to make M’sia look like a communist country”
Tun M also made it clear he couldn’t accept what happened with the Jalur Gemilang, insisting that it wasn’t a mistake.
“If you look at it, there are countries that only use stars on their flags, especially communist ones. They just put stars, one big one, four smaller ones. All communist countries use stars. So maybe there’s a desire to make Malaysia seem like a communist country. It’s not like we don’t know. It’s obvious,” he added.
He then brought up a past controversy where “Allah” was printed on socks, which had also caused major outrage.
“I don’t believe that was a mistake either. It wasn’t an accident. Taking the moon out of the flag doesn’t just happen by chance, but it was done knowingly. And as for printing ‘Allah’ on socks, we wear socks on our feet. We walk and step on things with our feet. So putting the name of Allah on socks, and then stepping on it, it’s intentional.”
You can watch the full video down below:
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