Why is yellow clothing banned in Malaysia? (5 photos)

For almost ten years now, yellow clothing has been strictly prohibited in Malaysia. If a person appears wearing it on the street, he will inevitably be arrested by the police, after which the violator will face a considerable fine, and in some cases, a prison term. As for foreigners, they face expulsion or even imprisonment - there have been such cases.





But why is yellow clothing so disliked in this country?

Short answer: this color is a symbol of opposition. If a person appears in public wearing yellow clothing, he is automatically considered a participant in the protests. And not a single naive Chukchi youth or rural resident of the country can not know this. But let's talk about this in more detail.

Malaysia is a very unusual country in terms of its political structure. In fact, it is a federation of self-governing principalities, most of which are headed by their own dynasties of autocratic monarchs. Every five years they elect from among themselves a supreme ruler/king of kings, who is called the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in the local language.



But, unlike local princelings, the functions of the agong are largely representative. Like the English queen and the English king, they reign but do not rule. And all issues are decided by popularly elected prime ministers. They become the leaders of parliamentary parties that win the elections. Elections, as usual, are very far from fair and transparent.





Traditionally, the color yellow was perceived in Malaysia as a symbol of the local monarchy. As in the ancient world, where kings wore purple, here the use of yellow clothing was considered the exclusive prerogative of rulers of principalities and high kings.

Every day they appeared in robes of a different color, but wore yellow during anointing on the throne, official visits, their birthday and other special occasions. True, the current agong is a big fashionista and likes to break protocol, preferring green, white and similar tones.

For ordinary people, yellow was banned until relatively recently. But over the last century the situation has changed. Medieval laws were repealed, and wearing yellow clothing became popular because it symbolized patriotism and the people's loyalty to their rulers, much like the color red for the communists.



But the country has been unsettled for the last 20 years. Malaysians were tired of predetermined elections, and on this wave a protest movement arose called “Bersih” - the word means “clean”. Five opposition parties united for this purpose, and held large protests in 2007, 2011, 2012, and 2015.

At the peak of its popularity, in the capital Kuala Lumpur alone, up to half a million people took to the streets, i.e., a quarter of the city’s population. Now imagine if a quarter of Moscow residents came to the opposition rally, and you will roughly understand the scale of what is happening and the fears it causes for those in power.

These people had nothing against their sultans, the high king and power as such. But they expressed no confidence in the corrupt prime minister. To clearly show that they are patriots, citizens wore the monarchist color - yellow T-shirts and headbands sold like hot cakes. Some companies have managed to make a fortune from this.

In response to this, in 2015, the head of government Najib Tun Razak, against whom, in fact, the bulk of the movement was directed, initiated the following decree: “Any yellow clothing containing the words “Bersih 4” and any other printed materials and brochures leading to the Bersih 4 rally are absolutely prohibited throughout Malaysia.”



At the same time, the police tend to understand this law broadly, and in fact, any yellow clothing is prohibited in the country. This also applies to foreigners: the Malays, the largest people in the country, also live in each of the neighboring states and are also not against helping in the protests.

In 2018, the “clean” ones achieved their goal. An unscrupulous prime minister who held office for ten years finally lost the election. And two years later he was put on trial. But the law regarding yellow clothing was never repealed.