Anti-Jalur Gemilang banner appear in KL

A mysterious banner urging the national flag be replaced with the controversial Bendera Rakyat has emerged in the bustling capital of Kuala Lumpur today.

The white banner features the Jalur Gemilang marked with a big cross and accompanied by the words "this flag must go", while the Bendera Rakyat flag can be seen next to it with a green tick.

Below the two flags, the banner refers to the coming Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat (People's Uprising Rally) which is to be held on Saturday.

The banner was found hanging on the pedestrian bridge near the Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) headquarters and Abdullah Hukum Putra Light Rail Transit station.

A station staff, who declined to be named, told Malaysiakini that a few passengers had informed him of the banner at around 9am.

Asked on whether the station staff will remove the banner, he said they could not do so as the bridge came under the purview of the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).

‘Banner an effort to sabotage Bendera Rakyat’

Meanwhile, activist Mohd Haizal Yatizan said he “is angry” over the matter and denied any responsibility in putting up such banners.

Haizal, who, together with friends promotes the Bendera Rakyat, said he will pull down the banner himself, as he feel it an effort to sabotage the Bendera Rakyat.

“I will pull it down now. I do not want people to say it was us (who put it up),” he said when contacted by Malaysiakini.

“We do not want to change the national flag. We only want people to know the history of that flag. That is all. We did not put up such banners,” he reiterated.

On New Year's eve, a number of activists flew the Bendera Rakyat, also known as the Sang Saka Merah Putih, at Dataran Merdeka(right) to demand that the nation’s history involving the “leftist” struggle for independence be written “with truth and facts”.

The flag was once proposed as the national flag by 1940s and 50s leftist group Putera-AMCJA (All-Malaya Council of Joint Action).

Previously, another flag known as Sang Saka Malaya was flown during the Janji Demokrasi gathering on Merdeka eve last August, which sparked a police investigation.