Press Statement
No criminal offence in Terengganu UMNO Youth’s flag mistake, Akmal Saleh is ignorant of the law
13 August 2025
I refer to the statement issued by UMNO Youth Chief Akmal Saleh yesterday where he urged stern action against Terengganu UMNO Youth for its mistake in posting an incorrect picture of the Malaysian flag.
Akmal was obviously forced to condemn his own side, as he has been publicly attacking others for such mistakes over the past few weeks. Clearly, just like the store-owner in Penang, Umno Youth did not intentionally make the mistake. The problem is not that sometimes mistakes are made by people in displaying or hanging the flag; the problem is the conduct of opportunistic and irresponsible politicians like Akmal who take advantage of innocent errors for political mileage.
Had Akmal acted in decent and reasonable manner over the other flag mistakes, he would not have been put in the absurd position of having to call for police action upon his own youth wing members. Will Akmal learn his lesson?
Akmal’s latest call for action over a flag mistake displays his gross ignorance of the law. It is basic in law that a person can only be found guilty for an offence if they have the ‘intention’ to commit the offence. This is called ‘mens rea’ in legal language. Neither Terengganu Umno Youth nor the Penang store-owner had the ‘intention’ to insult the flag. This is obvious to all reasonable Malaysians from the facts of the cases. Therefore, no offence was committed. The big fuss created by Akmal has no basis in law or common sense.
The police cannot be expected to investigate every small flag mistake in the country. If they are busy with this, who’s going to investigate the rapes, murders or armed robberies?
Mistakes happen, and every mistake is not a police case.
Hence, we reject Akmal’s ignorant call for action against Terengganu Umno Youth, as well as his call for action against the Penang store-owner. We hereby announce that we are prepared to offer legal representation on a pro-bono basis to anyone from Terengganu UMNO Youth who may be investigated or prosecuted for uploading the incorrect picture of the national flag. No one should be subjected to criminal action for a simple blunder.
Issued by,
Zaid Malek
Director
Lawyers For Liberty