#BenderaPutih Movement Urges Those Who Require Assistance To Signal For Help

The #BenderaPutih (white flag) movement is currently making rounds among social media users in Malaysia and has brought a lot of attention to the plight of those who have been badly affected by the ongoing lockdown. While its origin is rather unclear, the idea by the movement is rather simple: by flying a white flag or cloth outside their homes, those who needed assistance in terms of food supply and daily necessities can be found by others in the area.

There have been growing reports indicated that many Malaysians are facing difficulties because of the near-total and indefinite closure of the economy due to the lockdown which would remain until daily COVID-19 cases drop to below the 4,000 mark. Supporters of the movement have emphasised that waving a white flag should not be interpreted in its traditional sense of indicating defeat or surrender, but to view it purely as a means to signal their need for support.

As its message spreads to more netizens, the #BenderaPutih hashtag is leading Twitter’s trending chart in Malaysia as of 3:22 PM today. The movement appears to be similar in nature to the #KitaJagaKita movement, which gained traction briefly at the start of the pandemic last year but later lost momentum after being co-opted by the government, seemingly in an attempt to absolve themselves from widespread criticism.

Since it began in March, the Ministry of Health has used the hashtag in tweets dozens of times, even though the hashtag was often used to criticise the government’s handling of the pandemic. The movement was also appropriated by Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul, Minister of International Trade and Industry Azmin Ali, and Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin, just to name a few. Even backbencher government MPs such as Ahmad Maslan frequently use the hashtag to praise the government.

Hanna Alkaf, who is credited for starting #KitaJagaKita, has rebuked politicians who try inserting themselves into the rakyat’s movement and expressed the same for #BenderaPutih as well. After all, Minister Zuraida is already trying to ride on the trending hashtag and naturally, this has immediately attracted criticism from the netizens.

Movement Control Order 3.0 Goes Nationwide From Now Until 7 June: Here Are The SOPs

 

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has announced that Malaysia is now placed under the Movement Control Order (MCO). These also include locations that were previously designated as Conditional MCO and Recovery MCO which include states such as Penang, Johor, Sabah, Sarawak, Melaka and others. 

In the announcement, he pointed out that the country is now facing the third wave of COVID-19 infections which could potentially cause a national crisis. This wave is also discovered to include newer strains of the coronavirus that also has a high rate of infection.

PM Muhyiddin stressed that the country has exceeded 4,000 cases as of 10 May 2021, with a total of 37,396 active cases and 1,700 reported deaths related to COVID-19. He noted that the major cause of the increased number of cases is attributed to various public gathering activities which have caused difficulties in maintaining social distancing practices.

In light of this, the National Security Council (MKN) have decided to take drastic measures by implementing MCO nationwide, with hopes to curb the further spreading of COVID-19 in the country.

For clarity, here are all the SOPs as stipulated by PM Muhyiddin in his announcement:  

• Interstate and interdistrict travel are not allowed. The exceptions being for emergency cases, or for health, work and economic related affairs, married couples who are located in different areas, or for vaccine appointments.

• Public social gatherings such as weddings, tahlil, dinner receptions, birthdays, and events are not allowed. This also applies to official events, face-to-face meetings, seminars and study courses.

• Marriage ceremonies are permitted but are required to adhere to the attendance restrictions and SOPs determined by JAIS for Muslims, and by the National Registration Department for non-Muslims. 
• All sports and recreational activities involving multiple individuals are prohibited. However, personal activities such as jogging, cycling and regular exercises in public areas are allowed – provided that social distancing is maintained.

• Educational institutions are required to close during MCO, but exceptions are given to students who will be sitting for international examinations. Meanwhile, daycare centres and kindergartens are allowed to operate with proper SOPs in place. 
• Personal transportation, taxis and e-hailing services are only allowed to carry three individuals, including the driver. Meanwhile, the individual capacity for freight vehicles, as well as those used for economical and industrial purposes, are determined by the limit described on their respective business licences. 
• As for public transportation, operators are required to maintain social distancing restrictions on their vehicles (LRT, MRT, buses) and also adhere to the SOPs that have been determined by the government.

• The economic sector is allowed to operate throughout the duration of MCO. 
• Dine-in at eateries is no longer allowed. Instead, the public is encouraged to rely on drive-thru, takeaways, and delivery approaches. 
• Workplaces are required to instruct employees to Work From Home (WFH), and to also maintain not more than 30% of management staff to be in the office at all times. 
• Open houses, house visits, and cemetery visits during Hari Raya Aidilfitri are not permitted. 
• Mosques and suraus with a capacity of supporting more than 1,000 individuals are only allowed to host 50 attendees for Aidilfitri prayers, whereas those that could only support less than 1,000 may only allow a total of 20 attendees. 
• Non-muslim places of worship will also see revised restrictions. These will be determined by the National Unity and Integration Department at a later date. 
• Specific measures that are implemented in the states of Sabah and Sarawak, as well as the Federal Territory of Labuan, will resume accordingly.

The restrictions on inter-district and interstate movements as well as on social, sports, and education activities are already in place starting from today until 6 June, following the announcement made by the Senior Minister for Defense, Ismail Sabri Yaakob on 8 May.

As for other restrictions, they will be enforced on 12 May instead and will last until 7 June. Please keep in mind that the ones listed above are just a small number from a larger list of SOPs that is likely going to be revised by MKN.

Currently, other possible changes such as operating hours for premises and services such as food delivery and so on are still not known. It is quite likely that the complete list of updated SOPs from MKN will be issued to the public by tomorrow morning or so.

On that note, we’ll definitely keep you posted for any updates.

Twitter Creates Dedicated Emoji For Pro-Democracy Movement, #MilkTeaAlliance

Twitter has created a special emoji for the so-called “Milk Tea Alliance” – a pro-democracy, anti-China movement that has seen traction in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and more recently, Myanmar. Supporters of the #MilkTeaAlliance in these countries have frequently used the hashtag to protest against their respective authoritarian governments and/or China’s increasing dominance / assertiveness in the region.

Released a year after the hashtag took off, the emoji is simply a white cup set against the three different shades of a regional type of tea, the BBC said. As The Economist noted, tea is often taken neat in China – differentiating it from the milky variants popular in the other aforementioned countries.

Notably, the #MilkTeaAlliance hashtag saw a huge resurgence after the recent military coup in Myanmar. The country’s military government has since blocked Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Twitter itself said it had recorded over 11 million tweets featuring the hashtag over the past year, peaking in April 2020 (its first appearance) and again in February 2021 (when the Myanmar coup happened).

This isn’t the first time that the social media platform has (at least tacitly) thrown its support towards social or political movements. It also designed special emojis for #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter.

And it has little to lose too – Twitter has been blocked in China for years, unlike in other authoritarian countries like Russia, where it has shown some (probably grudging) cooperation with authorities. Unsurprisingly, Beijing isn’t a fan of the #MilkTeaAlliance, accusing it of consistently holding anti-China positions and being “full of biases” against the country, BBC said citing a Bloomberg report.