Youth wing lodges report after CM Chow’s billboard pictures found defaced

THE YOUTH wing of DAP's Bukit Bendera division in Penang has lodged a police report over a vicious series of vandalism acts that appear to target Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow.

Four representatives of the wing turned up at the Pulau Tikus police station earlier today after it was found that Chow’s images on four billboards were smeared with black paint.

The state DAP chairman’s pictures were placed on the Pakatan Harapan billboards designed to convey Chinese New Year greetings.

The roadside billboards, all located in the Pulau Tikus area, had his picture defaced, with one sprayed over with the word “scam”.

It was obvious that Chow was the specific target of the vandals as the billboards also bore the images of Bukit Bendera MP Syerleena Abdul Rashid and first-term Pulau Tikus assemblyman Joshua Woo. Their photos were spared.

The local wing was represented by its head R. Vijay Pillay, organising secretary Koay Gaik Kee, political education director Lee Seng Hwai and committee member Mohd Farid Mohd Azmi.

“Such an action can be construed as an attempt at incitement with the aim to paint a bad picture of the leader and to create disharmony among the people,” they said in the report.

“There have been a few (earlier) instances where the images of state leaders have been vandalised, especially in the Pulau Tikus area,” they added.

The wing expressed concern that all these may be the work of the same individual or group.

Meanwhile, a few political observers when contacted claimed that it does not augur well for Chow if he is singled out by the vandals.

There is a clear political objective in what the culprits were trying to do, they commented. 

It was not an act of random vandalism or rebelling, but one with a political message as only Chow's image was singled out while the other leaders were spared, said the observers. – The Vibes, February 23, 2024