Between US President Donald Trump’s April 2 volley of tariffs and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-country stop in Southeast Asia just two weeks later, most of the Asia-Pacific’s attention was captured by the implications of these contrasting developments.
But what happens on the ground in smaller countries offers a more interesting composite of local dynamics that can defy reductive geopolitical narratives. The recent controversy in Malaysia involving the publication of the country’s flag in a local Chinese-language newspaper during Xi’s trip to Kuala Lumpur is just such an example.
In conjunction with Xi’s visit, Sin Chew Daily ran a front page that had the Chinese flag flying alongside what was supposed to be the Malaysian flag – except it was missing its yellow crescent. The crescent symbolises Islam, which Malaysia’s constitution recognises as “the religion of the federation”. Yellow, the colour of royalty in Malaysia, symbolises the country’s system of constitutional monarchy which establishes the Malay rulers as the head of Islam.
In Malaysia’s increasingly polarised society, the backlash was swift and severe; not just from among the Malay-Muslim majority but also from non-Muslims, including Chinese Malaysians who are wary of being scapegoated by association. Fanning the flames of suspicion was incredulity that a newspaper that had operated for nearly a century could have made such a mistake. More than 40 police reports were made in the two days about the misprint.
Sin Chew immediately apologised for its “unintentional technical mistake” and made a digital correction. It also suspended its editor-in-chief and deputy chief subeditor as the news outlet cooperated with official investigations.
But the damage had been done. Some Malays were incensed, perceiving an insidious signalling of loyalties by a Chinese vernacular outlet to the visiting Chinese head of state. In a country where the Malay identity is constitutionally defined by ethnicity and Islam, both of which are upheld by the royal institution, the absence of the yellow crescent in Sin Chew’s flag undermined what some view as the very essence of the nation – Malay primacy.