Patriotism?

Our 60th Merdeka Day is only another 13 days to go but observers have noted to their disappointment, dismay & distress that the display of our national flag is somewhat lacking.

FMT reports in its Kurang 2 minggu, mana bendera sambut Merdeka 60 tahun? (extracts):

Bagi sejarawan Tan Sri Dr Khoo Kay Kim, ia menandakan rakyat Malaysia terutama generasi Y semakin “buta sejarah”, sesuatu yang disebabkan mereka tidak terdedah secara langsung dengan sejarah perjuangan menentang penjajah.

“Mereka tidak faham apa itu kemerdekaan, golongan muda terutamanya, mereka tidak terdedah kepada apa yang sudah berlaku,” katanya kepada FMT.

“Kalau tanya mereka maksud negara bangsa, mereka tidak tahu, apa maksud perlembagaan mereka tidak tahu.

“Kalau sebut apa berlaku sebelum 1957, mereka tidak faham,” katanya.

Khoo berkata bagi ramai rakyat Malaysia, 31 Ogos hanyalah cuti umum.

Tetapi beliau tidak meletakkan kesalahan sepenuhnya ke atas generasi muda.

Pemimpin juga gagal menunjukkan teladan dalam menunjukkan semangat kemerdekaan.

Pemimpin politik kerajaan dan pembangkang hanya mengutamakan wang dan kepentingan diri, kata Khoo. [...]

Khoo berkata ia masalah yang timbul apabila sistem pendidikan hanya mementingkan peperiksaan dan cara “mendapat A dalam mata pelajaran” tanpa pelajar betul-betul memahami subjek.

“Peperiksaan dengan pendidikan tidak sama,” tambahnya.

But could there be another reason, to wit, that Generation Y has been disfranchised from belonging as, and believing to be citizens to this country?

Thus their lack of so-called 'patriotism'* is a natural outcome of their blaséness towards dedicated and devoted citizenship.

* Remember Samuel Johnson who told us 'Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel' which is why I now abhor this very much abused word.

But Professor Khoo is not entirely wrong in saying Generation Y seems to NOT know our history leading to our Merdeka on 31 August (or, thanks to Soekarno and Marcos, 16 Sept).

We see that ignorance today where many of them embrace Mahathir as a political Moses who will lead them out of the Najib-wilderness which they fail to realise was created and entrenched by Mahathir himself.

did you know that Moses was a Pharaoh?

To cut a rough analogy, it would be like the Americans embracing David Duke (former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan) as a leader to lead them out of the racial imbroglio in the USA today, wakakaka.

You may call our Generation Y political morons but that's another story. Our story today is why Malaysians are not that enthusiastic about Merdeka Day.

OK, ignorance of our history is one reason, but we should also blame it on Mahathir, blame it on Najib, blame it on Hadi Awang, blame it on Anwar Ibrahim (or Wan Azizah or Azmin Ali), blame it on Lim Kit Siang as they are all the same with more interests in fomenting dissent, disagreement and disputes rather than promoting unified love of our country.

But most of all, blame the citizens themselves as nowadays they forget they are Malaysians but think-believe they are either BN-ites or Pakatan-ists, such is the toxicity of our politics and their lamentable inability to differentiate politics from nationality.

Politico-socio-ethnic-whatever disenfranchisement should not be an excuse as one must learn how to rise above marginalisation for one's country. As our Almarhum Tunhu used to say (very frequently): "Malaya (then Malaysia) is our ONLY country. We have no other country to turn to".

But the worst proposal to deal with the lack of nationalistic show has been by a moron who wants to make flying the national flag on Merdeka Day compulsory. What an idiot - no wonder the citizenship spirit of the nation has gone to the dogs.

Hmmm, maybe we need a new flag too. Someone meddled with the Jalur Gemilang (and our anthem Negara Ku) and as many Chinese will tell you, it's bad feng shui to fool around with a sacred object.

Maybe the following? Wakakaka.