26 Aug – DAP has urged the Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture to take another look at the controversial "Tanda Putera" film before its official release on 29 August, as they feared that scenes such as Malays fighting the Chinese could worsen race relations in the country. Another controversial scene was when a character in the film urinates on a flag pole in front of the house of former Selangor's Menteri Besar. According to DAP's Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng, the film paints a historically inaccurate picture of incidents that occurred during the May 13th race riots of 1969. He explained that if the Barisan National government were to allow the controversial film to be screened, it would only prove that the ruling coalition intends to stoke racial tensions. The controversial film, directed by Datin Paduka Shuhaimi Baba, was supposed to be aired last year, but was postponed twice due to apprehension about what the race-sensitive scenes would mean for the 13th General Election. The cost of the film is estimated to be around RM4.8 million and was produced through the joint effort of Persona Pictures, the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC). Last week, DAP urged "Tanda Putera" producers to declare the film as a work of fiction with no factual basis in any historical material, documentation or photographs. Recently, Shuhaimi Baba has also admitted that the film is a work of fiction based on multiple opinions. Last year, Lim Kit Siang criticised the production company for uploading a photo of him being arrested with the caption "Lim Kit Siang had urinated at the foot of the flagpole bearing the Selangor flag at the then Selangor MB's Harun Idris's house" on the film's official Facebook page in regards to the aforementioned urinal scene. It was later removed after many complaints were lodged.
According to Lim Kit Siang, the photo used was actually from a different incident in 1984 and not from 1969. He revealed that he has yet to see the film but clarified that based on a book written by the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, there was no such incident. "Although the film had obtained the approval of the government and they had denied that I was involved in the incident, the production team should not be given the freedom to spurt out lies that could jeopardise relationship between races," Kit Siang said. The movie has already seen a few private screenings, namely to the media, University Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) and Felda settlers.