I am not sure if you are aware of this poster, but I am assuming that you do because this is the poster that managed to gather trust of many nations, and responsible in many ways in inserting the nationalism in many people around the world. The poster began its journey in United State for the war between United States of America and British empire in 1812. The poster that was stamped around the country, is known and later become famous as ‘Uncle Sam’. The image of a white elderly man with white hair, a goatee beard and wearing some kind of army uniform with American flaggs color, pointing his finger to the spactators asked for help, to save the country by joining the United States of America’s army.
Well, believe it or not, Uncle Sam had been in Malaya/Malaysia in 1951, not that he had left. But he disguised himself in a Malay man farmer’s style. A man wearing white shirt and kain pelekat ( a casual sarong that man used to wear at home or when working in the farm in early days of Malaysia) with a cloth on covering his head (like a scarf) holding a Malaysian flags. Interesting to see if you start to compare about Malaysia and America, there is not much thing that we did not have in common. The Malaysian flag for examples is created based on the spirits of United States of America, the courage that many states in America fight for to be united as a country. Can we said that Malaysia glorify American’s spirit and managed to create one on its own? I am not going to say much here, but let’s the posters tell the story. Look around and you’ll see..
This poster was published and used for promotion in 1951 with the Malay text written in Arabic scripts ‘Berkhidmat Untuk Tanah Air dan Masuk Polis’ (Serve the motherland and join the police). It is a collection of Malaysian National Archieve (Arkib Negara Malaysia).