BN digs in heels over RM100,000 fine for illegal flags

Penang BN may take the council to court if they want to challenge the fine, says MPPP councillor Ong Ah Teong — Picture by KE OoiGEORGE TOWN, Feb 27 – Penang Barisan Nasional (BN) has denied being responsible for the 1 Malaysia flags that were illegally put up all over the island and refused to pay close to RM100,000 to the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) in summons and charges for their removal and storage.

Penang BN was issued seven compounds amounting to RM1,750 and told to pay RM10 for each of the 9,500 flags that the council had removed and RM50 for the storage of the flags per day, bringing the total sum incurred by the coalition to RM97,600 as of today.

Refusing to admit responsibility for the flags that were put up during the Penang BN Chinese New Year Open House event early this month, Penang BN Youth chief Oh Tong Keong demanded that the MPPP show proof that said flags were put up by the coalition.

“They don’t have proof that we are the ones who put up those flags so they can’t fine us and send us notices regarding this,” Oh told a press conference this morning.

The 1 Malaysia flags were put up overnight all over the island and the mainland before the Chinese New Year event in the field of Han Chiang High School that featured Korean sensation Psy on February 11 but due to public complaints over the haphazard method by which the flags were put up, MPPP had removed the majority by the end of that day.

Penang BN has denied putting up 1 Malaysia flags all over the state on February 10. — Picture by KE OoiOh expressed his displeasure that MPPP had immediately blamed Penang BN and issued them with the summons without launching an investigation to find the culprits behind the installation of the flags.

“It is true that 1 Malaysia is a BN slogan but that does not mean we are the ones who put up the flags so it is wrong that they decided to summon us, refused to return our deposit that we paid when applying for the licence to put up 1,000 banners in the state and also blacklisted us,” Oh said.

He insisted that Penang BN had only put up banners and flags with the BN logo and anything else did not belong to them.

“Those 1 Malaysia flags were probably put up by supporters of 1 Malaysia and BN so it is up to the council to find out who are the people behind it. They can come to check our storage and they won’t find any 1 Malaysia flags here so those are not ours,” he said.

“Just because it has the 1 Malaysia logo does not mean it is ours so from now onwards, are they going to attribute everything with the 1 Malaysia logo to us?” Oh asked.

He demanded that the council cancel the summons, remove their names from the blacklist and refund their deposit.

He also appealed to BN supporters not to do this again and to obtain the necessary permit from the council if they want to put up banners or flags in support of BN in the future.

When contacted, MPPP councillor Ong Ah Teong said Penang BN should submit their written appeal to the council if they are unhappy about the summons and blacklisting.

“If they insist that the flags were not theirs, then they should write to appeal against the summons and if they want to challenge the council’s decision, they can always take us to court,” he said.