I am writing in response to the national unity minister’s slamming of Perikatan Nasional (PN) for wanting to use a different logo and theme for state-level Merdeka celebrations.

The recent decision by PN has annoyed supporters of the unity government. They argue that the move will further divide the country, especially since Independence Day is a time for unity. 

They demand that PN-led states align their National Day themes and logos with the ones used by the Federal government. It has emerged, however, that Pakatan Harapan-led (PH) states did the same thing when Barisan Nasional was in power. 

Last year, the PH-controlled Selangor government used “Teguh Bersama” for its Merdeka Day celebrations, departing from the federal administration’s “Keluarga Malaysia, Teguh Bersama”. In 2020, the state used “Kita Merdeka” instead of the federal’s “Malaysia Prihatin”.  

In DAP-held Penang, the same had happened. In 2012, it went with “Sebangsa, Senegara, Sejiwa” while the federal government under Najib went with “Janji Ditepati”. There were other departures over the years too. https://dapmalaysia.org/tema-hari-merdeka-kerajaan-bn-buli-sabotaj-pulau-pinang/ 

The point here is how easy it is for supporters of the federal government to forget that they used to behave like PN supporters.  

Now that PH has come to power, it has conveniently forgotten what it said and did in the past.  

Didn’t PH attack overzealous enforcement by religious officials in the past? If so, they must have forgotten what they did, going by the government’s decision to ban LGBT-themed Swatch timepieces. How about Home Ministry officials seizing two unofficially banned works from a bookstore last week? 

Have PH supporters forgotten how they criticised BN in the past over such heavy-handedness? Or do they have two rules – one for themselves and one for others? 

How about the use of the Sedition Act, which PH vehemently opposed during the BN era, but had no qualms using against Kedah Menteri Besar Sanusi Md Nor? Or how a minister threatened social media trolls with police surveillance?

Let’s not get started on how the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission can go around blocking access to websites that are not in favour of the government or how the agency constantly writes to Twitter (now known as “X”) to report users whose views are not aligned with the Madani government? Why not just charge users if they broke any law?  

I am truly disappointed with supporters of the unity government for these double standards. Their hypocrisy stinks to the high heavens.  

In the spirit of Merdeka, all Malaysians need to treat each other with respect. We can start by embracing diversity in opinions and treating all Malaysians equally. – August 21, 2023.  

* Abdullah Yunos reads The Malaysian Insight.  

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.