Merdeka Logo - It's Very Well Made in Taiwan

On August 9, Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal launched the official Merdeka celebrations logo and the official theme song composed by Datuk Suhaimi Mohd Zain and Lokman Ghani [The Star, 9/11/08]. The slogan for the 51st Merdeka was "Perpaduan Teras Kejayaan (Unity is the Pillar of Success)."

However, the biggest joke was not on Shafie Apdal alone but the entire Ministry of Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage. Malaysiakini reported that the 51st Merdeka logo which was launched with great enthusiasm earlier this month was nothing more than a cheap gimmick. The Ministry had earlier received 800 over entries for a new Merdeka logo. The winning logo was the work of Anuar Dan and he walked away with RM10,000 as prize money.

This is Anuar's winning design and the official 51st Merdeka logo:

Anuar Dan explained that his work was inspired by the unity of all the races in Malaysia, with the three figures in the centre representing the three major communities of Malaysian society. However he seemed to have "missed out" on another group of
people - the Indigenious People or Orang Asli.

This is Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs' seal for product excellence:

The Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan awards the seal to the best of Taiwanese products along with the phrase, "It's Very Well Made In Taiwan." The seal is equivalent to Malaysia's "Buatan Malaysia" tag found on Malaysian-made goods.

The Taiping-born artist eventually confessed to Malaysiakini of using the Taiwanese logo but defended himself by saying he "modified" it with his own ideas. As far as Malaysians are concerned, the 51st Merdeka logo does not seem to differ much from it's Taiwanese counterpart. That's very creative of you, Anuar.

To date, the Ministry of Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage has been silent about this matter. It is now clear that Ministry did not do their research during the process of selecting a suitable logo for Merdeka, raising even more questions of how many other Merdeka logos of past years that could be have been plagiarised as well. If Shafie Apdal and his Ministry is serious about cutting costs, perhaps getting the RM10,000 back would be a good start.

Anuar Dan posing proudly with his work or "half" of his work that won him RM10,000.

Share on Facebook