The MCA Kelana Jaya division today appeared in full force to protest against an alleged attempt by the Subang Jaya Municipal Council to bar them from putting up festive greetings banners in Subang Jaya.
Its division chief Ong Chong Swen, while leading a 20-people crowd to rally at USJ 6 this morning, accused the local council of banning the 1 Malaysia logo and the national emblem on MCA’s banners.
Ong alleged that her aide was told to remove the 1 Malaysia logo on MCA’s Hari Raya greetings banner in their application two months ago because ‘Subang Jaya is not a 1 Malaysia area’.
She claimed the sentences were uttered by a MPSJ licensing department officer.
The local council, according to Ong, again asked them to delete the national emblems, BN and MCA logos when they presented the Deepavali banner artwork on October 27.
“Who on earth is going to know who sent the greetings if we don’t put up our party logo on the banner?” she asked.
She also chided MPSJ’s prohibition on the wordings of “Kelana Jaya parliament coordinator” (penyelaras parliamen) to appear on BN’s banners.
“We are the coordinators appointed by the PM. This is a recognized post,” she said.
In response to these alleged oppression, Ong (centre, pic) said that MCA is going to launch its ‘mobile banners’ machinery, whereby party workers will carry the banners from places to places to greet Indian voters.
MPSJ president Adnan Ikhsan later issued a statement saying that the council is yet to receive any formal application for Deepavali greeting banner from the division.
He said MCA only consulted the council on its artworks but did not file in any application.
“We advised them to edit the national emblem and the ‘Kelana Jaya parliament coordinator’ wordings to avoid public confusion, as it (the banner) might be mistaken for referring to an aide to Kelana Jaya’s MP Loh Gwo-Burne,” he explained.
“If they want to do a banner, they just have to put up their party name and logo,” he added.
Adnan stressed that BN component parties’ logos are allowed to appear on banners provided if they comply with the guidelines.
“Even (SJ assemblyperson) Hannah Yeoh has to comply with these if she wants to put up any banner,” he said.
MPSJ corporate department acting chief Azfarizal Abd Rashid meanwhile hesitated to comment on whether the 1 Malaysia logo is prohibited.
He said that he personally does not view the logo as triggering public confusion.
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