MAY 29 — Reports of authorities having raided the Malaysian stores of Swiss watchmaker Swatch and confiscated items from its "Pride Collection” bearing the rainbow flag associated with the LGBTQ movement, first appeared last Monday, May 22.

According to Options, the lifestyle section of The Edge business weekly, Home Ministry enforcers seized the items from Swatch outlets in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, 1 Utama, Sunway Pyramid, Setia City Mall, Mid Valley Megamall, Southkey, Sunway Putra Mall, Sogo KL, Queensbay, Fahrenheit 88 and Suria Sabah on May 13 and 14.

In response to the seizure, Swatch Group chief executive officer (CEO) Nick Hayek Jr said the brand had consistently produced colourful timepieces to represent diversity and celebrate people from all walks of life.

"We strongly contest that our collection of watches using rainbow colours and having a message of peace and love could be harmful for whomever.” the CEO was quoted as saying by Options

"On the contrary, Swatch always promotes a positive message of joy in life. This is nothing political. We wonder how the Regulatory and Enforcement Division of the Home Ministry will confiscate the many beautiful natural rainbows that are showing up thousand times a year in the sky of Malaysia,” he added.

When Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim reportedly said that the seizure was not about the issue of the colours displayed on the watch, but the letters "LGBTQ” – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer – inscribed on the face, Hayek refuted the claims, stating that the seized watches did not contain any reference to the LGBTQ community.

"The Malaysian prime minister Mr Anwar Ibrahim stated in a recent interview that Swatch's latest collection of colourful watches includes the letters LGBT on their dials. Apparently, he was misinformed.

"Swatch has not included any reference to the LGBT community on the dials of this year's Pride Collection,” Hayek said in a statement to an online news portal.

Free Malaysia Today (FMT) has now reported that the seized Swatch watches have the letters LGBTQ inscribed on the face. (See image below)

This was according to a home ministry source, who told FMT the authorities only seized watches that contained those letters.

"We did not seize the watches just because they had the rainbow colour. If that’s the case, we would need to seize Paddle Pop ice creams,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2023/05/29/seized-swatch-watches-had-lgbtq-inscribed-says-source/

Swatch has, in quick time, dismissed the claim by the home ministry that it only seized watches with the letters LGBTQ inscribed on the face.

A spokesman for Swatch Malaysia said the ministry seized watches displaying the words: "nature, growth, life, passion, healing and spirit” on the second hand to symbolise equality, and not just the LGBTQ-themed watches.

So, do the seized watches have the letters LGBTQ inscribed on the face?

Does it matter now, when truth is already a casualty?

*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.