Origins of the ubiquitous Shafie 'Unity' poster

SABAH POLLS | With the Sabah election campaign in full swing, Warisan president Shafie Apdal's face is plastered on billboards all over Kota Kinabalu.

The portrait of Shafie is in shades of the Sabah flag colours with the words "Unity" under it, occasionally accompanied by quotes from the incumbent chief minister.

It is reminiscent of the iconic "Hope" poster of former US president Barack Obama in his 2008 presidential campaign, which was first created by artist Shepard Fairey as an independent street poster. It was later approved and used in the official Obama campaign.

Just like the Obama poster, the stylised Shafie portrait was first designed independently by a group of youths under the Sabah Unity Movement.

"We watched the video released by Shafie on Aug 31 on his Facebook, and we saw his message of unity," Jonathan Chin, a Sabah Unity Movement representative, told Malaysiakini.

Describing themselves as not knowing much about politics, he said he and his friends were inspired by the video and felt that Shafie, with his message of unity, was the right leader for Sabah.

With that in mind, Chin said they designed the Shafie poster and decided to paint murals of it for the first time in Kundasang, which is about a two-hour drive from Kota Kinabalu.

They then brought the poster of Shafie with them when they climbed Mount Kinabalu and went diving in Semporna, spreading their image of Shafie with the word "Unity" under it.

As the image started to gain prominence, Chin said they began distributing the image for public use to whoever wanted it.

Before they knew it, billboards with their Shafie poster started popping up everywhere in Kota Kinabalu. It seemed like Warisan had begun using it as their official campaign material.

"We were shocked, happy and proud but also kind of overwhelmed.

"We never expected something small that we just decided to do would appear on billboards and become so viral.

"We thought at most it would spread on social media only," Chin said.

He said Warisan did not contact them for the usage of the image, but he stressed that it was up for public use.

Now, Chin added, the Sabah Unity Movement is planning some youth programmes for the future.

"We want to highlight and provide a platform for young voices to express themselves," he said.

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- Mkini