What do the symbols on Malaysian political party logos mean?

The Johor state election is coming up on 12th March, and you all know what that means: flags, flags, and more flags. Everywhere.

Now, of course we all know what the government coalition Barisan Nasional’s iconic blue flag represents (scales = justice, duh), but the other parties’ flags might not be so straightforward. So we decided to look into the meanings of the flags used by the big parties for the upcoming Johor election, and came up with a one-stop political party flag guide.

And tbh, some of these origin stories kinda surprised us too.

 

Government coalition (Perikatan Nasional)

1) United Malays National Organisation (UMNO)

Although the Sang Saka Bangsa (literally, “The Spirit of the Nation”; not to be confused with ‘Sang Saka Malaya’) flag design has been in existence since its inception in 1946, it was only in 2006 that that name was adopted by UMNO to represent the ‘authority and sovereignty’ of the Malay peoples.

The flag has four colors that each represent something, namely:

• Red: bravery
• White: purity and sincerity
• Yellow: royalty
• Green: Islam

While the keris in the centre represents, yep, you guessed it: the Malay civilization.

 

2. Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA)

Designed by Mok Yuen and Kean Chai Seng in the 1950s, the MCA flag was flown for the first time in Bukit Mertajam, Penang during the 1958 national day parade. The idea for it came about when its two designers were ‘touched by the active participation’ of the Chinese community in nation building back then, using the 9-point star from Malaysia’s flag (now 14) to signify their loyalty to Malaysia.

Which, of course, they’re very, very particular about, especially judging by their response after Perak DAP chief Nga Kor Ming called it a ‘durian’ in Parliament:

“The 14-stars emblem symbolizes the 13 states and the Federal Government. Him calling it a durian is disrespectful to our flag and our country.” – Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong

 

3) Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC)

MIC appears to have taken a similar approach to MCA’s borrowing of the Malaysian flag graphics, though they instead adopted the 14 stripes of the Jalur Gemilang. It’s also made up of several other elements, such as:

• one blue stripe on the top and bottom of the flag: peace and prosperity
• a green circle in the center: unity
• the Tamil letters Ma Yi Kah (மஇகா/MIC)
• and the Romanized letters MIC

We couldn’t find much else about their flag itself, though we gotta admit, their official song is a real bop:

4) Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU)

We couldn’t find much about their flag or logo from their official website, but if ex-PM Mahiaddin Yassin’s party flag follows the traditional meanings of those colors, we’re assuming that red = courage, white = purity and the hibiscus is, of course, our national flower. But feel free to correct us if we’re wrong.

 

5) Pan-Islamic Malaysian Front (PAS)

At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the PAS flag is a rip-off of the Japanese flag (and you wouldn’t be the first to think that). But that couldn’t be further from the truth; in fact, in line with their platform as an Islamic party, the white circle actually represents the moon, which symbolizes Islam (our national flag uses the crescent moon instead, but, same idea). And of course, as with UMNO’s, the green also symbolizes Islam.

However, what’s interesting is that this iconic green-and-white flag isn’t even their official flag. In fact, this is it:

Why the second flag then? Well, turns out it’s for practicality; PAS wanted a design that would be easy for rural people to sew:

“The green-white PAS flag was designed for election purposes, and is not the official one as registered with the Registrar of Societies (RoS), but the RoS and Election Commission (SPR) allowed PAS to use the green-white one.” – Almarhum Ustaz Shukri

It’s actually also got a philosophical element to it, as the flag is designed in such a way that no matter which way you turn it, the white moonlight that ‘guides’ their followers will remain at the center of the flag. #Deep.

 

6) Malaysian People’s Movement Party (Gerakan)

Ok, be honest; hands up if you didn’t know who Gerakan was. Because we’ll be honest, we didn’t know too much about them either. 

But when we started looking into them, we discovered why we don’t hear too much about them: in the 2018 general election, Gerakan (under the BN umbrella) failed to win any seat, hence being unrepresented in Parliament for the first time in history. They then left BN in 2018, joined PN last year, and will be running under PN for the Johor election.

Anyway, their flag is actually pretty interesting: the five paddy stalks represent the Malay, Chinese, Indian, Orang Asli, and others, all united by their love of rice. Yes, really. And even the number of the paddy grains has significance: 12 grains representing 12 months of the year, with 60 grains to represent a whole election cycle (5 years).

 

Opposition coalition (Pakatan Harapan)

1) National Trust Party (Amanah)

Nope, that’s not Mount Kinabalu, or any other mountain. It’s actually just the letter ‘A’, standing for ‘Amanah’. Which also doubles as an upwards-pointing arrow made up of three stripes representing their core values: Trust, Progressiveness, and Care. The orange represents energy, success, friendship, and determination, while the white represents purity and morality. Sometimes black is used, representing unity, protection, and a new direction.

We’re not really sure who comes up with all these meanings for the colors tbh, but it is what it is.

 

2) Democratic Action Party (DAP)

We don’t know how familiar you guys are with Singaporean politics, but if you thought DAP’s flag was based off of Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP), well, you’d be right, since it’s an offshoot of the now-deregistered Malaysian branch of the PAP.

And here are the meanings for the various elements of DAP’s flag:

• Blue circle: Malaysia’s multi-racial unity
• White background: purity, incorruptibility
• Red rocket: modernity, dynamism, and progressiveness
• Four rocket boosters: the support of all races in Malaysia

 

3) People’s Justice Party (PKR)

We’ll be honest, we always thought that eye meant something along the lines of ‘Big Brother is Watching You’ (or, if you’re a conspiracy theorist, ‘Illuminati’). But when we found out its actual meaning, it made us go ‘ohhhhh’; it’s actually Anwar’s black eye as a result of his beating during interrogation back in 1998 (though it also doubles as two crescent moons symbolizing Islam).

According to PKR Miri chairman Dr Michael Teo, the red was added after it paired with another socialist party (referring to their 2003 merger with Parti Rakyat Malaysia; yes, it used to be two parties), while the blue serves as a contrast to UMNO’s red.

 

Special mentions: Independent parties

1) Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA)

Young. Yep, that’s it.

Apparently they kept it simple so that it would be easy for people to recreate. In fact, when we asked a source from MUDA, they simply told us:

“Helvetica, bold.” – MUDA source

 

2) Sabah Heritage Party (WARISAN)

It’s a Sabah-based party, so no surprise that it uses Sabah’s flag colors:

• Sailboat: courage and resilience
• Handshake: unity of Sabah’s multi-ethnic makeup
• Blue hand: Eastern Sabah
• Red hand: Western Sabah
• Paddy: the welfare of Sabah
• The blue sea: the challenges to be faced together

 

3) Homeland Fighters’ Party (Pejuang)

Founded by Tun Dr. Mahathir after he left BERSATU, Pejuang’s flag has strong Malay-Muslim elements:

• The jawi letter ‘Pa’: the first letter of ‘Pejuang’
• The three dots of the letter ‘Pa’: the Islamic Pillars of Faith, Islam, and the Rukun Negara
• Shield: protection for the Malays and Malaysians

 

While writing this, we realized one thing: Malaysian politics is super confusing

So many parties, so many flags… You’d be forgiven for losing track of who belongs to which party, or which party belongs to which coalition, or what each party believes in, etc.

Because another thing we realized while writing this is how shockingly little we know about our own politics (yes, we know it’s our job, doesn’t mean we claim to be experts on the subject). So yeah, this article actually helped us quite a bit too.

As for the upcoming Johor election, well, we can’t say for sure who’ll come out on top, but hopefully this guide at least helps you guys better identify party flags. Another thing is that these flags represent the core beliefs of these parties at the time of their founding (though whether or not they followed through with them is another story altogether). And hey, you could even make it a little game among your friends to spot flags and show off your political flag knowledge.