Waving foreign flags: Know the law — Hafiz Hassan

Waving foreign flags: Know the law — Hafiz Hassan


Monday, 28 Oct 2024 9:00 PM MYT


OCT 28 — National Emblems (Control of Display) Act 1949 is unheard of until the furore over the waving of China flags in Perak and Penang.

It is an Act to control the display of national emblems. It came into force December 31, 1949. It is a pre-Merdeka law.


The Act is short, with only 8 sections.

Section 2 of the Act defines “national emblem” as “any flag, banner or other emblem being or purporting to be the flag, banner or other emblem of any State, or the flag, banner or other emblem of any political organization claiming to be a national movement in any State or any likeness or resemblance however reproduced of any national leader or former national leader of any State or the leader or former leader of any such political organisation.”


“State” is defined as “any State or country, other than Malaysia and any State included in Malaysia, and includes any dependency, possession or part of any State.”


The Act prohibits the display of national emblems in public or schools. Section 3 of the Act says as follows:

(1) No person shall display in public or at or within any school any national emblem.(2) For the purposes of this section, an emblem shall be deemed to be displayed in public, if it is displayed in any road, street, bridge, passage, footway or place over which the public or any class of the public have a right of way or to which they have access, whether on payment or otherwise, or if it is displayed in such manner as to be visible from any such road, street, bridge, passage, footway or place by any member of the public using the same or being therein.

Section 3(1), read with Section 2, simply means that no person shall display in public or school any foreign flag.

The prohibition, however, does not apply to—

(a) the display of any national emblem of the State of which he is a national by any of the following persons:(i) any person duly accredited as a diplomatic representative of a foreign power or as a consular representative of a foreign power to Malaysia to whom an exequatur or provisional or other authorisation has been granted by the Government;(ii) any person in the service of a Commonwealth Government or the Government of any British dependency or possession or of the Republic of Ireland and officially recognised as representing that Government in Malaysia; or(iii) any person upon whom the immunities and privileges referred to in Part II or Part III of the Schedule to the Diplomatic and Consular Privileges Ordinance 1957 [Ord. No. 53 of 1957] have been conferred under that Ordinance;(b) the display of any national emblem on any ship or aircraft. (Section 4 of the Act).

The prohibition may also be exempted by the Minister “by order published in the Gazette or by a permit in writing”, allowing “the display of any national emblem specified in the order or permit, and such order or permit may regulate the manner of such display and the period during which such display may be permitted.” (Section 5 of the Act)

Any person who displays any foreign flag contrary to the Act or any condition of any order or permit made or given under Section 5 of the Act is guilty of an offence and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to a fine not exceeding RM500 or to both. (Section 8(1)(a) of the Act).

Have we not displayed, or are displaying, foreign flags in public? Know the law.

In law, ignorantia juris non excusat (Latin for “ignorance of the law excuses not”), or ignorantia legis neminem excusat (“ignorance of law excuses no one”).