Citizen Alert Hoist Malaysian Flag At Your Own Peril This 68th Merdeka Day Unless We Learn From China

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FALL-OUT from the upside-down flag issue continues. As the scenario gets ever more heated, one consequence is that Malaysians have become wary of hoisting the Jalur Gemilang for Merdeka celebrations.
The fear of unforeseen repercussions from right-wing nationalists and public backlash online has prompted many to think twice about displaying their patriotism.
This was highlighted by a post on X by Annoyed Malaysian (@annoyedmalaysian) who hinted at selective persecution.

“Advice to Malaysian Chinese and Indians – from now onwards don’t touch anything that has the Jalur Gemilang,” the self-confessed liberal secularist warned: “Your flag got one small stain also UMNO gangsters will show up at your door and police will arrest you.”
The current affairs observer also highlighted several incidents that have gone unpunished.  An image of an upside down Jalur Gemilang hoisted in the apparent vicinity of the Kota Damansara Mosque was attached.
The UMNO Youth Terengganu’s gaffe in using a Jalur Gemilang that had the wrong number of stripes in a social media post was also appended.

Both were used by the poster to ask the seemingly pertinent question – “why only the Chinese are accused of wrongly displaying the Jalur Gemilang?”

One commenter reflected his sense of unease at wanting to show his patriotism, claiming UMNO has “kidnapped the flag”. Instead, he will keep his love for Malaysia in his heart for fear of reprisals.

This was a clever electoral ploy by UMNO, claimed one commenter, by painting the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition as weak and unable to react accordingly in protecting the non-Malays which forms a strong base for its support.
He predicts that this ploy is with the aim of challenging PH as direct rivals in the next general election.

However, one commenter asked why not encourage Chinese and Indian citizens to fly the flag correctly instead of asking to refrain from doing so.
Isn’t the flag as symbol of unity? To which the poster conceded that this was, indeed, a great idea (though he has not modified his post to reflect this).

To put the current state of affairs into perspective, another poster shared on X how such a scenario was handled in a rather professional and sem fuss manner in China.
A short clip showed two policemen seeing a flag hoisted wrongly in front of a business premise. Instead of threats of arrest or some other brouhaha, the two officers simply corrected the flag and gave it a respectful salute once it was the right way up.

One commenter pointed out that in Malaysia the priority was to viral the image or video while highlighting the absurdity of the situation – “make accusations, hire lawyers, politicise the issue, organise peaceful protest in front of Sogo shopping complex, march to Istana Negara for audience with the Agong, before finally rectifying the upside-down flag”.

Lamenting that too many keyboard warriors were spreading messages of hate in Malaysia, one commenter argued that this would be a sensible and mature attitude to have.

As the fallout continues, one must wonder what does the Jalur Gemilang represent? Is it a symbol unity or has it been hijacked and weaponised by the right-wingers into a symbol of victimisation and oppression? –  Focus Malaysia

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