Viral Wrong Jalur Gemilang Looks A LOT Like Original Flag Design From 1949
The Malaysian Basketball Association (MABA) is in a lot of trouble.
During their 8th MABA Milo Lum Mun Chak Cup that took place on 25th November at a KL stadium, attendees were shocked when an inaccurate Malaysian flag was displayed during the opening ceremony.
While the Malaysian internet is in uproar and the police are investigating the incident, we noticed something very interesting about the wrong flag.
It looks A LOT like the original Jalur Gemilang flag
design from 1949!
EXHIBIT A: Wrong flag displayed by MABA
EXHIBIT B: Original 1949 Flag Design
Both the flags display the same sickle moon and 5-point star in a remarkably similar orientation.
Another similarity is the number of stripes: 11 stripes that starts and ends with the darkest colour. FYI, Jalur Gemilang’s stripes starts with red and ends with white.
The key difference between the two are the colours, but everything else is almost the same.
In case you didn’t know, the original flag design was one of the three finalists selected by the Federation Legislation Council in 1949 in a nationwide competition to choose a flag for the newly formed Federation of Malaya.
(Credit: Arkib Negara Malaysia via Malaysia Design Archive)
The 11 blue and white stripes represented each
state/settlement of Malaya while the yellow star and crescent represented the
sultanate as well as Islam. Red symbolised British protection.
Designed by Mohamed Hamzah, a 29-year old architect from Johor Bahru, his design was selected as the winner on 28th November 1949 after the public voted for their favourite.
(Credit: Arkib Negara Malaysia via Malaysia Design Archive)
However, his design was tweaked with the stripes changed to
red and white, while the 5-point star became an 11-point star.
It could be that the person who made the visual was a fan of Mohamed Hamzah’s work, a big history buff or simply Googled really deep into the web (like we did), but we’ll wait for the police to finish their investigations.
In the meantime, it’s a good time to read up on the history of Malaysia’s flag. Check out our article on Jalur Gemilang’s rejected designs HERE.
What do you think of the similarities between the two flags? Share your thoughts with us on TRP’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
