Wedding photo 'stolen' for BN man's poster

This image was shared more than 5,000 time since Monday.

Most of you would be over the moon if your best work got picked out for the whole world to see.

But not so in the case of freelance photographer Nasrul Effendy, who woke up one day to find out that a wedding photo he once took was being used on a Barisan Nasional (BN) campaign banner in Putrajaya.

The portrait of a Malay couple taken by Nasrul on their wedding day in May, 2007 was used without his permission to ‘augment’ the campaign banner of BN's Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor in Putrajaya on Sunday.

The banner showed an image of Tengku Adnan along with two photos: one of the couple and another of an unsmiling single man, accompanied by the words “Bantuan Bujang 1Malaysia’ and “Bersyukurlah kepada BN” (Be grateful to BN).


To make matters worse, the bride's face appeared to have been replaced with someone else's.

An understandably riled up Nasrul took his displeasure to the social media by posting the image on his Facebook page on Monday after he was notified by his friends who had earlier shared the photo on their respective FB pages.

Since the post exploded onto the social media scene on Monday, it has recorded a whopping 5,327 shares.

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“Tak kiralah sapa pun yang buat … ini kerja tak elok dan tak bertanggungjawab”, (I don’t care who did this….this isn’t nice and it’s irresponsible) an angry Nasrul wrote in his comment.

When contacted, Nasrul said that he was appalled to see that his work had been ‘exploited’ by “people who are in it for their political gains”.

“It’s strange because I’m not at all interested in dabbling with the country’s political games and yet I see myself being dragged into this episode.”

“I’ve decided to post the image on my FB to send out a message to the responsible parties that it’s inappropriate to do such a thing to the rakyat,” he added.

His disappointment led him to bring up the matter to the authorities. On Monday itself, Nasrul lodged a police report in Putrajaya.

“I’ve also surrendered the image to the authorities. I hope justice will prevail,” he added.

Nasrul has also contacted the Malay couple to apologise over the unflattering episode. “The couple is distraught so it’s best to leave them alone,” he said.

Tengku Adnan’s reaction

Tengku Adnan meanwhile, called this ‘an act of sabotage’ by PAS supporters’  and a ‘psychological warfare’ to simply mar his image.

Tengku Adnan, 63, will battle it out against PAS candidate Husam Musa at the 13th general elections on Sunday. If he triumphs at the election, Tengku Adnan will be retaining his Putrajaya seat for the third consecutive term.

“This is crazy and I believe that it was PAS supporters who are responsible. They want to launch a ‘war’ against me and at this point in time, it has escalated and it’s getting out of control.

“If PAS is out to get me then they might as well do it the right way and not commit to such stupidity. I’m not about to stoop low to their level,” he said.

The furore over the image led Tengku Adnan and his supporters to the Election Committee (EC) office to lodge a report two days ago.

“My supporters have taken down the banner to avoid any untoward incidents and further damages,” he said.

“I’ve seen the banners and I strongly believe that it was PAS supporters who should be blamed. Would you believe if I say that there were a few versions of the banners that were put up – including one with an image of actress Neelofa,” he said.

Asked if he was disturbed by the ‘unruly’ act, he replied, “No, I’m not at all disturbed. Unlike the opposition, BN campaigns have been clean, the leaders tell the truth, no lies.  As far as my campaign is concerned, I’d continue doing the usual things. The last thing I want to do is to sabotage the opposition to incite anger.”