Bolehland

This post is to express my disappointment at certain bloggers on carrying the ‘upside down’ Jalur Gemilang, an act that embarrasses the nationhood . Read Kickdefella and Harris.

Sometimes we tend to over react to certain things and let that emotions overrun and blind our insight at times. This is one good example. I am a patriot, and so are all of us, for sure.

But if we all love the country, then how come there are soooo many non-Malays (and a very few Malays) who want to leave Malaysia and migrate to somewhere else? How can you claim to be a patriot, when you abandon the nation for its problems? I am putting my foot standing firm on this soil for what comes and goes. If to say that the nation is screwed up, it is the leaders who are screwed and screwing up, not the nation as an entity. The country is defined not by the leaders, but by its people. The people who will eventually carry the brand name of the country, no matter how screwed up politicians one may have. For instance, US of A. It is a great country, the Americans are a bunch of friendly people ( self-centric at times!) , the country as a nation is a highly respected civil institution. But the leader there screwed things up. Many hated Bush for his arrogance and the wars that he lead. Same with Malaysia, ask any tourist and they will tell you how friendly Malaysians are. They won’t really be telling you about the corrupt leaders etc.

So can we hate Americans? Can we hate all the Jewish people for the fault of the Zionist regime? Can I say Islam is bad just because Bin Laden hides his terrorism ideology beneath it? Can we start burning American flags?

So yes, UMNO did screw us all for the past 50years or so, and now is busy screwing themselves up. So yes, PakLah is sleeping soundly while the economy runs wild. But that can never ever give us any right to play the fool with the national flag.It is the National Flag for god sake. Have some respect to it. You don’t fly it upside down just to ‘express’ your disappointment or frustration with the system. Do I go publicly smashing public properties as an act to ‘express’ my disappointment and frustration? Can I now start burning the flag so that the government can actually take me seriously in granting equal rights to its own citizen? Law is law, I have no idea of what the law says on flying the flag upside down, but in no way I can agree with you that it is right thing to do as well. Putting my nation’s flag upside down is akin to an insult to its people. A big tight slap of an insult on the face of Malaysians.

You can argue that the flag may just be a symbol , and it is okay to use the symbol to express some ideology. Well, a symbol is human’s way of putting into physical form of something that doesn’t exist physically, an abstract. Same like God. We humans can only feel His presence, and hence the many interpretation of His existence (aka Religion…don’t really want to jump there). We find things to associate with that one God whom we believe in.

I recall once, my friends and I were sitting at a mamak shop where the Malaysian flag there was torn and in a really bad shape. We made it a point to tell the workers from India at the shop to bring the flag down because it is an insult. Yes, to see in a narrow view, it is a group of Malaysian Indian youths, the same group that the Government machinery discriminates to the core, yet making it a point to defend the image of our birth country. How can one think of doing such a thing? I am emotional, forgive me, but what do you expect me to do when I see my fellow countrymen, those who claim to be fighting for justice etc, running down my flag?

Please stop making fun and insult my nation just because you are fed up with the leaders.

I AM A BLOOODY PROUD MALAYSIAN

We can all go on and on arguing if it is right thing todo or not, but let us all simply agree to disagree!