FMT:
Flag-waving, flag-hoisting and furious fanning of hot air
Flags are double-edged swords, they’re meant to unite people to a cause, but doing so often means uniting them against some other people and some other causes.
Malaysia Day is upon us again. And I’m celebrating!
A family member has a birthday on that date. In his honour, I declare Sept 16, 2025, and all subsequent Sept 16s as a public holiday until the earth is rent asunder or some politicians decide to spoil the party, whichever comes first.
It’s more likely some politicians wanting to spoil the party will come first. They’re plentiful, unprincipled, exploitative, generally noxious but very motivated, devious and resourceful, so don’t bet against them.
But hey, National Day and Malaysia Day and the independence day celebrations of Sabah and Sarawak are certainly important days that need to be celebrated.
We often celebrate them with public holidays and events and of course with a lot of flags.
Flags are lovely symbols of loyalty and patriotism, but unfortunately flags lately have become rather controversial, here in Malaysia and elsewhere in the world.
I like flags. I like that they come in many sizes and colours and designs and patterns and history too. I must confess however my liking of flags has a simple reason – I keep them as mementos of my travels.
When I travel, especially as I get older and my kids start questioning aloud about my tastes in buying souvenirs and gifts – assuming I ever had any taste in the first place – I’ve resorted to buying flags to remember my journeys by.
On collecting flags
Flags are cheap. They’re sold everywhere. They’re unique, even if occasionally people misidentify the Malaysian and the US flags, not to mention the many European flags which are mostly just a particular combination and orientation of three colours and crosses.
Every country has lower order flags too. They would have state or city or regional or historical or company or even sports team flags, all vying to be an excellent brand of whatever it is they represent.
Even political parties have flags. Malaysia is awash with them during election campaigns. These flags, ordered by the millions from China, are often made of materials as toxic as the parties they represent, and seem to last forever even if the parties they represent come and go like mushrooms.
So, you’ll never run out of flags, if your passion is collecting them.
I have a few nice Malaysian flags, made of materials slightly less toxic than most of those you see by the roadside. I don’t fly them outside of my house. I don’t have any strong feelings about the matter either way – I just never got into that habit.
It’s actually a risky habit to have. If you fly the flag one year, but not the next, people may read some nasty things into that. Similarly, if you fly it slightly wrong, you can set off some rabid reactions from politicians who’ve laid exclusive patriotic claims for said flags.
Upside-down controversies
The period leading up to our National Day celebrations a few weeks ago was full of controversies about some people flying the Malaysian flag upside down. It became political fodder for the usual political lowlifes, who gave it oxygen to last for days and days.
And it became racial of course, in good old Malaysian political traditions.
I heard from some non-Malay friends that many Chinese Malaysians refused to put up the Jalur Gemilang because of the politicisation of the incidents of flags being flown incorrectly by some individuals or organisations.
If your reaction is “that’s horrible, see what you have done, are you happy now Mr. Politicians?” then you haven’t been paying attention.
The division among Malaysians is not the unexpected and unfortunate outcome of the episodes – it’s exactly the outcome that these politicians wanted.
How did it come to that?
Flags are double-edged swords. They’re meant to unite people to a cause, such as a country or a political party or even a sports team. And this they often do well.
Symbols of unity or division?
But uniting people for some causes also often means uniting them against some other people and some other causes. The blue and yellow of Ukraine unite the Ukrainians against the white, blue and red of the Russians, and vice versa.
The same applies to the flags of Manchester’s United and City football clubs.
Just as a flag can be an instrument of unity, it can also be an instrument of division. The flags themselves – whether of organic fibres or forever plastics – don’t do any of these. The people who wave them do this.
Our own Jalur Gemilang isn’t a litmus test of how good a Malaysian you are. There are many other criteria that really matter, such as being a good human being first and foremost.
Flags may change, but the things that our good conscience or moral compass ask of us don’t.
Flying them doesn’t mean you’re a good citizen. Flying a foreign flag, as long as they follow a few simple protocols, isn’t a big deal. I don’t get triggered by seeing China’s flags in Malaysia, just as I’m not triggered to see Palestine’s flags in Malaysia.
I don’t see the symbolism that those flags carry as being unacceptable. But I would object to flags that represent symbolism that I do find objectionable, as is my right and prerogative.
Symbolism matters, but there must be more than just simple nationalism in it.
Cultural baggage
For example, I don’t have a problem seeing the Union Jack or the Rising Sun or China’s red flag and yellow stars, as long as they don’t dominate against our own flags. But I can understand these flags being offensive during our past of colonisation or the communist Emergency sponsored by the People’s Republic of China, or back in the days of Japanese Occupation in World War II.
Times have changed. Context matters. Seeing a flag flown wrong by itself doesn’t trigger me. Actually, there aren’t that many ways of flying a flag wrong except upside down. And even then it may not be wrong – it could be a distress signal and request for assistance, or perhaps to signal disagreement with something your nation does.
Most of the instances of the Malaysian flags being flown upside down came about through simple mistakes being exploited for political gain. It’s an easy way for lazy and mean people to point fingers at others to question their loyalty and patriotism.
Nope, I don’t buy their argument. I’m old school – I still believe the ultimate disloyalty, apart from treason, is a Malaysian who took an oath to serve the people and protect the constitution but breaks it through corruption and theft that harm the rakyat.
For these people, I’d consider supporting any efforts to string them up on some tall flag poles. The big ones at Padang Merdeka seem perfectly suitable. Sign me up if somebody wants to start a petition to achieve this noble goal.
Going nuts over flags
We’re not the only people who occasionally go nuts on flags. The US, the self-branded land of the brave and home of the free, wants to criminalise flag burning, yet another salvo in its escalating political and cultural wars.
This, in spite of its own Supreme Court having decided that even burning their own country’s flag is constitutionally protected free speech and is not illegal.
Another country currently awash with flags is the UK, or more specifically England, which is going through its own tumultuous period of civil unrest with many of its white citizens demonstrating against immigration and wrapping themselves in the English flag of the Cross of St. George.
Its perhaps the height of comedy that many of the people flying the Cross of St George don’t quite realise they’re just one of many nations flying that symbol, named after a man who was part Turkish and part Palestinian, who’s been dead for over 1,700 years and who, surprise surprise, never even set foot in the British Isles or any other part of Europe at all!
👍👍👍😂😂😂👍👍👍😂😂😂👍👍👍
Flags can make you do crazy things, and perhaps crazy people gravitate to flags in equal measure. You can make flags say whatever you want them to say. But that’s how flags are – we read whatever we want into them, and for some, wring whatever profit, often political, possible from them.
I, meanwhile, will just enjoy the birthday of my family member and the birthday of the Malaysian federation, too. No flags – whether waved or flown or strung upside down or, horror of horrors, burned!
Just lots of gratitude that we’re still here in peace and some level of harmony, because there are still many more reasonable Malaysians than the toxic ones.
And long may that last.
It’s actually a risky habit to have. If you fly the flag one year, but not the next, people may read some nasty things into that. Similarly, if you fly it slightly wrong, you can set off some rabid reactions from politicians who’ve laid exclusive patriotic claims for said flags.
Upside-down controversies
The period leading up to our National Day celebrations a few weeks ago was full of controversies about some people flying the Malaysian flag upside down. It became political fodder for the usual political lowlifes, who gave it oxygen to last for days and days.
And it became racial of course, in good old Malaysian political traditions.
I heard from some non-Malay friends that many Chinese Malaysians refused to put up the Jalur Gemilang because of the politicisation of the incidents of flags being flown incorrectly by some individuals or organisations.
If your reaction is “that’s horrible, see what you have done, are you happy now Mr. Politicians?” then you haven’t been paying attention.
The division among Malaysians is not the unexpected and unfortunate outcome of the episodes – it’s exactly the outcome that these politicians wanted.
How did it come to that?
Flags are double-edged swords. They’re meant to unite people to a cause, such as a country or a political party or even a sports team. And this they often do well.
Symbols of unity or division?
But uniting people for some causes also often means uniting them against some other people and some other causes. The blue and yellow of Ukraine unite the Ukrainians against the white, blue and red of the Russians, and vice versa.
The same applies to the flags of Manchester’s United and City football clubs.
Just as a flag can be an instrument of unity, it can also be an instrument of division. The flags themselves – whether of organic fibres or forever plastics – don’t do any of these. The people who wave them do this.
Our own Jalur Gemilang isn’t a litmus test of how good a Malaysian you are. There are many other criteria that really matter, such as being a good human being first and foremost.
Flags may change, but the things that our good conscience or moral compass ask of us don’t.
Flying them doesn’t mean you’re a good citizen. Flying a foreign flag, as long as they follow a few simple protocols, isn’t a big deal. I don’t get triggered by seeing China’s flags in Malaysia, just as I’m not triggered to see Palestine’s flags in Malaysia.
I don’t see the symbolism that those flags carry as being unacceptable. But I would object to flags that represent symbolism that I do find objectionable, as is my right and prerogative.
Symbolism matters, but there must be more than just simple nationalism in it.
Cultural baggage
For example, I don’t have a problem seeing the Union Jack or the Rising Sun or China’s red flag and yellow stars, as long as they don’t dominate against our own flags. But I can understand these flags being offensive during our past of colonisation or the communist Emergency sponsored by the People’s Republic of China, or back in the days of Japanese Occupation in World War II.
Times have changed. Context matters. Seeing a flag flown wrong by itself doesn’t trigger me. Actually, there aren’t that many ways of flying a flag wrong except upside down. And even then it may not be wrong – it could be a distress signal and request for assistance, or perhaps to signal disagreement with something your nation does.
Most of the instances of the Malaysian flags being flown upside down came about through simple mistakes being exploited for political gain. It’s an easy way for lazy and mean people to point fingers at others to question their loyalty and patriotism.
Nope, I don’t buy their argument. I’m old school – I still believe the ultimate disloyalty, apart from treason, is a Malaysian who took an oath to serve the people and protect the constitution but breaks it through corruption and theft that harm the rakyat.
For these people, I’d consider supporting any efforts to string them up on some tall flag poles. The big ones at Padang Merdeka seem perfectly suitable. Sign me up if somebody wants to start a petition to achieve this noble goal.
Going nuts over flags
We’re not the only people who occasionally go nuts on flags. The US, the self-branded land of the brave and home of the free, wants to criminalise flag burning, yet another salvo in its escalating political and cultural wars.
This, in spite of its own Supreme Court having decided that even burning their own country’s flag is constitutionally protected free speech and is not illegal.
Another country currently awash with flags is the UK, or more specifically England, which is going through its own tumultuous period of civil unrest with many of its white citizens demonstrating against immigration and wrapping themselves in the English flag of the Cross of St. George.
Its perhaps the height of comedy that many of the people flying the Cross of St George don’t quite realise they’re just one of many nations flying that symbol, named after a man who was part Turkish and part Palestinian, who’s been dead for over 1,700 years and who, surprise surprise, never even set foot in the British Isles or any other part of Europe at all!
👍👍👍😂😂😂👍👍👍😂😂😂👍👍👍
Flags can make you do crazy things, and perhaps crazy people gravitate to flags in equal measure. You can make flags say whatever you want them to say. But that’s how flags are – we read whatever we want into them, and for some, wring whatever profit, often political, possible from them.
I, meanwhile, will just enjoy the birthday of my family member and the birthday of the Malaysian federation, too. No flags – whether waved or flown or strung upside down or, horror of horrors, burned!
Just lots of gratitude that we’re still here in peace and some level of harmony, because there are still many more reasonable Malaysians than the toxic ones.
And long may that last.
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