As Malaysia inches closer to its polling day on 19 November, political parties contesting in the 15th Malaysian General Election (GE15) are ramping up efforts in their campaign, whether via seminars, social media outreach, press conferences or even propaganda billboards along the roadsides.
But sometimes campaigning efforts by political parties could go overboard and overheated, like the “banner war” in the Lanang constituency of Sibu Division, Sarawak.
Huge banners displaying a rocket logo — the party logo of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), have been seen erected in the Sibu town area.
But these are clearly not placed by the party as the Mandarin character word “lie” is featured at the centre of the banner, in what seems to be a move to disparage the political party.
Such banners were also erected at the roundabouts at Jalan Aman and Bukit Lima in the town.
Other than these banners bearing the party logo, some other banners just contain the Malay word “TIPU (lie)” against a red background and are erected beside DAP candidates’ posters.
Such as the one seen with DAP candidate, Alice Lau Kiong Yieng’s campaign billboard.
Alice Lau, DAP candidate for Lanang parliamentary seat, has lodged a complaint to Election Commission (EC) over the issue and requested the relevant party which had placed the signs to remove them.
Alice Lau is defending her seat for the third term under the DAP flag. Without naming who the responsible party was, she remarked the move as being ‘low class’ and ‘no standard’, and urged those responsible to remove the signs.
“In front of all my billboards here in Lanang parliamentary area, you can see they put the rocket logo with the Chinese word for ‘lie’ on it,” she added that she had never encountered such a ‘low class’ tactic in all the election campaigns she had been involved in.
“I don’t think our supporters (can) accept that…I think my opponent is just (hitting) below the belt.”
She is facing a four-cornered fight in this election, contesting against Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) candidate Wong Ching Yong from the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), Priscilla Lau from Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) and independent candidate Datuk Wong Tiing Kiong.
Kuching DAP Candidate’s Signboard Vandalised
Meanwhile, Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen, DAP candidate for Kuching seat, also claimed that his signboard was vandalised, being poured with black paint.
Yii posted on his Facebook official page on Sunday night: “Thanks for the new make-up. I respect the differences of political opinions, but I condemn any acts of vandalism & “gangster politics”.”
