Pakatan Harapan’s new logo has drawn mixed responses so far. Some have praised it for its simplicity while others believe it was poorly designed.
While Harapan leaders believe that the arrow in the logo represents a “mountain of hope”, netizens have drawn up many creative interpretations, ranging from parodies to conspiracy theories.
Malaysiakini goes through a sampling:
Star Trek
Perhaps the most popular comparison used by netizens was the likeness between Harapan’s logo and that of popular sci-fi series Star Trek.
Harapan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail sees nothing wrong with the similarities, however, and cites one of Star Trek’s more famous quotes: To boldly go where no man has gone before.
“It is a bit like that (quote) because no one has ever defeated BN,” she said.
DAP rocket
Others, however, claim that Harapan logo had a different interstellar muse – DAP’s rocket logo.
PAS vice president Iskandar Abdul Samad on Friday shared a link to a blog claiming so, on his Facebook page with an excerpt saying, “Pakatan Harapan’s logo confirms which is the dominant party.”
The excerpt then describes how the logo was allegedly shaped just like DAP’s rocket.
Iskandar has deleted this post, but some bloggers had captured a screenshot of it prior to being removed.
Freemasons
Harapan detractors more fond of conspiracy theories meanwhile alleged that the arrow subtlely contains the Freemason square and compasses symbol.
This is claimed to be proof of a “Jewish agenda” brought by DAP.
Bersatu Armada logo
A more grounded take on Harapan’s logo is that it was taken from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s (Bersatu) Armada youth wing.
Bersatu youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, however, dismissed this.
“When we released Armada Bersatu logo, if you notice it’s almost the same. Mind you I did not in any way play an important role like ‘I pick that one (Harapan logo) because it looked like Armada’. No,” he said at a press conference on Friday.
GPS arrow
Some netizens instinctively saw the arrow as a something normally seen in GPS navigators, to which some Harapan politicians believe was not a bad thing.
This is the preferred interpretation of Amanah communications director Khalid Samad, who said Harapan would” “navigate the country out of the mess that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has created.”
Mahathir’s nose
The silliest take on the logo however, is that it actually represents Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s nose.
A playful meme on this was posted on the Tentera Troll Kebangsaan Malaysia Facebook page.
The meme triangulates the shape of Mahathir’s nose, and then shows a Malaysiakini photo of the nonagenarian pointing at the logo with the caption “Ini hidung saya” (This is my nose).