3 curious things that #MERAH169 props had in common

CILISOS always prides itself in being fair. Since after BERSIH 4.0 we ran a feature on the coolest props, we thought we’d do the same for our 1 million buddies at the #Merah169 rally, organised over Malaysia Day on Wednesday.

But as we scrolled through pictures of the props on the day, we noticed some things they all had in common.

1. Many of them play on fear

We were quite perplexed by this one because we can’t imagine a DAP politician saying this. Turns out once, it came from a fake Facebook account, but was instantly shared on pro-UMNO blogs everywhere.

BUT, in all fairness, we also found this video of DAP Tawau Branch Chairman, Jimmy Wong, negotiating with locals over the location of a mosque. We’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

We see that name and all of a sudden, we turn into…

Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah: 

JWW Birch was that orang puteh boss of Perak at some point, but he wasn’t very well-liked by his people.

“Birch was assassinated because of the disrespect he showed tolocal customs and traditions, and conflict with local Malay chiefs. He was a ‘bull in a china shop’.” – Wikipedia

Maybe that’s why people in Pasir Salak seem to be quite gung-ho about this rally.

2. Many of them were really ironic

So first there’s the unavoidable fact that they were marching to protest the right to march.

And then of course, they couldn’t decide if they were racist or not.

Ugaiz: Being racist is not the same as being angry. We can’t force you to be racist, just like you can’t force us… as much as you tried to on Wednesday 🙁

3. And many of them had the SAME FONT!

There ARE ALOT of posters like the ones above but one thing many of them have in common is… THE FONT they’re using.

It’s called IMPACT, and yes… it’s not an uncommon font (in fact, it’s the default font for MEMEs). But as a comparison, look at the BERSIH props that CILISOS and SAYS featured. Out of more than 30 placards featured, only 2 featured IMPACT as a font.

While it’s popular, IMPACT is far from the default font on your graphics program (usually Calibri, Arial or Myriad Pro), which leads us to believe, that …alot of these banners might have come from the same place (!)

Don’t worry redgaiz, CILISOS can totally relate also

When CILISOS helped organise the (very tiny, 400 people only) AtTheEdge rally last month, we were a very small team of journalists with very little time. So someone took the effort to create the placards for us. And as you can see, many of them have the same font too (although it’s not IMPACT).

But we also had some hand-drawn ones, some of which were very nice…

“Eh CILISOS! What you trying to say la!? Cepat!”

To be fair, #Merah169 had some hand-drawn ones too. Like the ones below, but even then, they’re on the same wood, cardboard and pink paper constraints.

But when you compare it to these…

You get the picture. And it’s not just us that said it either…

“The rally drew perceptions of massive funding after police estimated that over 2,000 busses were used to transport attendees to the protest on Wednesday. The view was reinforced when food, drinks, and banners were brought in to be distributed to attendees.” – The Malay Mail Online

“Memang Bayar, tidak nafikan. Bahagian saya. Kenapa nak bersembunyi? Kita tau BERSIH juga bayar… lebih mewah daripada kita…. There’s nothing for free.” – Tan Sri Annuar Musa, UMNO Supreme Council Member

Not to mention this video showing beggars being offered food and free t-shirts to march.

While we’re sure that there were those (like Aunty Marah), that did care deeply about the cause they were marching for, it’s becoming apparent that many were just at #Merah169 because they were asked to be there. While BERSIH did have free mineral water and snacks (next time no need la k?), we know that most of the people we went with sure weren’t paid to be there, much less paid overtime to sleep on the streets after.

So why did the Himpunan Baju Merah organisers even bother?

To get to that, let’s look at how Malay media covered it.

“Dua perhimpunan besar yang berlangsung di ibu kota iaitu Bersih 4.0 dan Himpunan Baju Merah menggambarkan hubungan etnik, khususnya Cina dan Melayu di negara ini, berada di tahap tidak baik.” – Sinar Harian

“Kejayaan Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu semalam yang menyaksikan sokongan padu lebih 200,000 orang Melayu telah mencerminkan hakikat bahawa kaum tersebut boleh bersatu.” – Utusan Melayu

Imagine seeing these kinds of headlines every day, and you’ll get a picture of what certain forces are trying to do in Malaysia. With this kinda coverage, it’s sometimes hard for non-Malays not to feel threatened by the things going on in our country.

Thankfully, according to this Merdeka Centre report, the majority of Malay people aren’t entirely convinced. We recommend you read the full report, as it also shows that Urban and Rural Malays aren’t as different as some might think.

So more than anything else, and more than ever before… it’s important that the rest of us aren’t convinced either.

PS: CILISOS still looking for BM Editor. Send resume to [email protected] 🙂