Logo of Amnesty Intenational, a human rights group based in London
Logo of National Salvation Party
PHNOM PENH, 21 August 2012 (Cambodia Herald) - What do the Republic of Kazakhstan, the
opposition Islamic party in Malaysia and British human rights group
Amnesty International all have in common?
A lack of originality, it seems, among Cambodian graphic designers who should realize by now, in the second decade of the 21st century, that copyright infringement is theft.
In 1991, the former People's Revolutionary Party of Kampuchea adopted a five-tower replica of Angkor Wat as the logo for the new Cambodian People's Party.
A year later, however, it was abandoned to be replaced by the now-familiar Thevada "angel" of the CPP.
Who decided this is a mystery, at least to this columnist.
A lack of originality, it seems, among Cambodian graphic designers who should realize by now, in the second decade of the 21st century, that copyright infringement is theft.
In 1991, the former People's Revolutionary Party of Kampuchea adopted a five-tower replica of Angkor Wat as the logo for the new Cambodian People's Party.
A year later, however, it was abandoned to be replaced by the now-familiar Thevada "angel" of the CPP.
Who decided this is a mystery, at least to this columnist.
But as a foreign ambassador noted many years ago, it was a "brilliant" move by the CPP and brought the party close to the people with its distinctive Khmer design.
Without getting too bogged down with the 1990s, let's cut to the present, especially the logos used by the two main opposition parties that are now setting up a new party.
While they will no doubt say otherwise, it cannot be argued that the candle logo of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) does not closely resemble that of Amnesty International, a human rights group based in London.
At the same time, neither can it be said that the logo of the opposition Human Rights Party (HRP) of Kim Sokha is not dissimilar to that of Parti se-Islam Malaysia (PAS), one of the leading opposition parties in Malaysia.
With their plans to set up a new opposition party to contest next year's elections, one would have thought that this might have been a good opportunity to "go local" for the two opposition parties.
Sadly, it seems, this is not the case. As any fan of the international hit comedy movie "Borat" will recall, the logo unveiled Monday for the new National Salvation Party bears an uncanny resemblance to the national flag of Kazakhstan.
To be fair, this new logo combines the round "sun" of the Human Rights Party, formally encased in green, with the pale blue associated with the Sam Rainsy Party.The "rays" are supposed to be the 24 country's provinces.
The close similarity to the Kazakhstan flag, however, raises the question of whether graphic designers working for the opposition are capable of doing original work.
Unlike Sam Rainsy, the British clown who played Borat in the movie is a "persona non grata" in Kazakhstan, where the film has been banned. The French clown who leads the opposition is free to return to Cambodia and wave the pirated flag of the new party he plans to share. Whether he's ready to accept his court conviction and ban from running in next year's elections is a separate matter.
2 comments:
The logo should be using the Moon/ Sun and putting Angkorwatt in the center of the sun with rays similarity to the one they have now.Don't use someone else logo.Its bad for khmers,especially,Islamic-Kazakhstan's logo.Please we can do better than that....
Kmenhwatt.
I think the author of this article just exaggerate things. The only similarity is the HRP logo and the Malaysian logo. The flag of Kazakstan and the National Salvation Party's logo are different. The Kazakstan flag is full moon while the NSP is half or 2/3 moon.
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