Fairy's MyIndo.com: The Simple Senses of Patriotism

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The Simple Senses of Patriotism
by Farah 'Fairy' Mahdzan (30-Aug-2003) \| Readers Say

Every 31st August, Malaysians celebrate Hari Merdeka and commemorate the day of independence from the British. This year Malaysia turns 46 years old.

I decided to teach my young niece and nephew how to appreciate our beloved flag by giving them one of their own. However I was given cold shoulders when I tried giving Adani my mini flag.

Hmm, she didn't like it very much. Ahah, I know just what she wants!

Now there's a big smile if I ever saw one! Folks, if you ever want your kids to proudly carry the country's flag without so much as nose-turn, you have to cleverly entice the little buggers. You seduce and reel their sense of budding patriotism with candy-bearing flags!

As a child I had my share of owning these cheap plastic flags. What better way to attract kids to wave the national flag other than to stuff the transparent flag handles with little colored candy pieces! No sweet tooth kid could possibly refuse this ingenious product!

I bought the flags above for a mere 80 sen each. See, they don't even cost one ringgit; you can certainly afford to clean out the mamak sundry shop of its candy flag stock and give one to every kid in your neighborhood as a sign of Merdeka goodwill!

The sweets within were cheap colorful sugar globs, each carrying flavors that ranged from lame lime, ludicrous lemon to awful orange. After swallowing one, I reacted by trying to throw the rest out to save my little niece and nephew from the torturous taste and, possibly, food poisoning.

I gave up however after I got jumped on and pummeled to the ground as my niece and nephew wrestled their flags away from my hands.

Leave my candy flag alone! It's mine!

The Malaysian flag today has 14 stripes of white and red, and its large yellow star bears 14 points. But did you know that the flag originally had only 11 stripes and the star, 11 points, prior to 1963?

As history has it, Malaya (now Peninsular Malaysia) had achieved its independence from England in 1957, but it wasn't until 1963 that the country named Malaysia surfaced when both Sarawak and Sabah in Borneo, and Singapore were invited to join the young nation.

This new Southeast Asian nation of 14 states was supposedly named "Malaysia" because the names of the 3 new states which had joined Malaya started with the letter 'S'.

(Word also has it that Indonesia was mighty peeved off about the formation of this new country.)

Three additional stripes and three more points on the star were added to our flag to represent these then-new states.

In 1965 however (due to some political tension that I can only imagine), Singapore left Malaysia to become its own country. Although the little island left Malaysia, the number of stripes and star points on the Malaysian flag was never reduced to represent the remaining 13 states; instead the 14th stripe and point had been assigned to the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur.

The only change that has happened to the Malaysian flag since 1963 was its official naming in 1997: Jalur Gemilang, which literally translates as "stripes of glory."

Every year when Merdeka Day inches near, the government encourages people to hoist up the Malaysian flag as a sign of their love for the country, either on their cars, at their home or office compounds.

I know for a fact that commercial vehicles this year are required to zoom around town with a flag during Merdeka season. Many companies also go all out to lavishly decorate their offices to celebrate the important occasion.

As much as I'd like to stick a flag on my car, I think it's an insult to the flag should it fly off the car when I hit 90km/hour.

I have reasons to believe that the adhesive base that is supposed to keep your flag stuck to the windscreen isn't very strong.

A friend of mine spotted three flags in a single morning lying torn and dirty on a busy highway, having fallen off their owner's vehicles. I have far too much respect for the Jalur Gemilang to ever let that happen. So my flag shall remain ever so clean and dignified stuck to the end of my bed post.

But really lah, I think anyone who drives a Proton car should be excused for not sticking a flag on the tops of their cars come Merdeka day. I make this statement because of this one simple fact:

If you have to look at this crescent-and-star symbol every time you have to drive somewhere, and if anyone has the cheek to say you're not patriotic just because you don't carry a flag come Merdeka time, then I think these people deserve a nice good wallop.

Owners of the Malaysian national car are patriotic all year round!

It's not too late yet to grab a flag to decorate your house, bathroom, bedroom, woodshed, garage, classroom, etc. Malaysian flags are getting cheaper by the year. That car flag for example used to cost around 5 ringgit, and I bet in some establishments these small flags are still being sold at that price (unpatriotic, greedy fools). I found them for RM1.99 at my local Giant supermarket, however, and I jolly would not pay more.

Sometimes if you're lucky, you'll get complimentary flags from whatever organization that was generous enough to be giving away free flags on the highway. Of course I have lousy luck with this so I simply bought mine this year. Plus those candy flags are not half bad either; absolute value for money and you achieve the same desired result: owning a Malaysian flag to wave around until your arms drop off.

Selamat Hari Merdeka Malaysia!

RELATED STORIES:

the Malaysian flag

Here's another resource on our flag history on a government website, written in Bahasa Malaysia.

Leave the national anthem alone!

In an effort to so-called modernize and "get with the times", the first line of the national anthem lyrics is to be changed this year from "Negaraku, tanah tumpahnya darahku," to "Malaysiaku, tanah tumpahnya darahku."

I personally think it's a shame to want to change that line though. There's a sense of nostalgia to the original lyrics and I certainly don't feel the need to change it.

This is as big as a blunder as it was to change the tempo of the national anthem from slow pacing to a fast march beat in 1992.

And now it has been decided that the song revert back to its original pace, albeit "marginally faster."

Oh, the horror of our fickle-minded leaders.

WHAT READERS SAY ABOUT The Simple Senses of Patriotism:

#22. MERDEEKAAAAAAAAAAA

those plastic candy flags are EVIL. I swear they're made of mud or something.. tak ada rasa apa apa langsung.
Posted by aslan on 30-Sep-2003, 20:57 MYT

#21. Drawing on my hazy recollection of grade school Indonesian history books: yes, Indonesia's founders proclaimed independence on 17/8/1945 and instantly gained acknowledgement for it from several countries, but the Dutch weren't about to give it up without a fight (which is funny, since that's pretty much what they did when the Japanese came).

Long story short, Indonesian troops fought for several years against the Dutch to preserve their independence, and with cajoling by other countries such as Australia, the UK and the US, things came to a head at the negotiation conference known as Konferensi Meja Bundar in Den Haag, 1949 (all Indonesian schoolchildren should know this), where the Dutch finally acknowledged Indonesia's sovereignty and pulled out (except from Irian / Papua, which remained a point of contention for well over a decade).

Based on the above, I'd say the reason the Dutch acknowledge their own date is pride, pure and simple. But that's probably just the Indonesian in me speaking.
Posted by Mr. Ardiasyah on 18-Sep-2003, 01:09 MYT

#20. Mr. A, it's interesting to note that the Dutch officially acknowledges Indonesia's independence as being 27th December 1949, not 17th August 1945 as proclaimed by Indonesians. I'd like to learn more about this.
Posted by Fairy on 9-Sep-2003, 18:14 MYT

#19.
my merdeka experience, last week, was great!
i love it!
Posted by bigg on 9-Sep-2003, 18:05 MYT

#18. He didn't mention reasons for surrendering, per se, but logically, it'd be silly if they did surrender to a country that attacked them for ludicrous reasons. Besides, it can be argued that Indonesia had it just as easy when proclaiming its own independence, so who were we (as in Indonesia) to judge? Like I said earlier, chalk it up to Soekarno's superpower fantasies.
Posted by Mr. Ardiasyah on 4-Sep-2003, 22:33 MYT

#17. Dirgahayu Malaysia!
Posted by Wira-d - Website on 4-Sep-2003, 11:34 MYT

#16. How was merdeka kat perlis fai?

Hmm betullah, sayang bendera tu kalau terabur atas jalan. bendera tu simbolik, paling penting bangga jadi anak malaysia dengan sepenuh hati.

kita ingat konflik malaysia-indonesia tu dengan harapan tak berulang lagi, semua rilek n lepak reramai. peace!

Posted by lissa on 4-Sep-2003, 11:03 MYT

#15. Mr. A, according to your lecturer, what exactly was Malaysia surrendering? If anything I think Malaysia gained something despite the scrutiny from Indonesia: its independence from Britain.
Posted by Fairy on 3-Sep-2003, 16:37 MYT

#14. Oh Happy Belated Independence Day
Posted by tasia on 3-Sep-2003, 09:20 MYT

#13. Hi Fairy..u org Perlis ke? alamak...sama la kita....
Posted by izaown on 2-Sep-2003, 21:48 MYT

#12. What I recall from my school history lessons (at least the Orde Baru-revisionist version), the Indonesia-Malaysia conflict was sparked by Soekarno's delusions of grandeur. He was on that whole anti-colonialism trip and regarded Malaysia as the British's "puppet state". And a couple of years ago, my lecturer told me that one of the reasons that ASEAN exists was to provide a means for the two nations to get along without either side losing face for "surrendering".

Anyway, happy independence day.
Posted by Mr. Ardiasyah on 2-Sep-2003, 21:31 MYT

#11. Yes Bagas, the National day of Merdeka is one very big deal for Malaysians.

This year the annual Merdeka parade was not held near Dataran Merdeka as it has over 4 decades but instead at the all new Putrajaya near the office of the Prime Minister.

Let's look at some photos! Check out this Link
Posted by Fairy on 2-Sep-2003, 14:26 MYT

#10. Thanks kusri for correction. Indos (indus, latin): Hindia, Nesos (greek, nesioi in plural): island(s). known broadly by an etnologist James Richardson Logan in 1980. btw, here in Tokyo, my malaysian friends went to the embassy pake baju kurong and teluk belanga, that's cool!. katanya sih ada makan-makan juga macam lebaran pulak
Posted by Bagas on 2-Sep-2003, 14:14 MYT

#9. Ellie, I celebrated Merdeka in Perlis (balik kampung). On the highway I saw lots of those car flags bersepah all over the highway!
Posted by Fairy on 2-Sep-2003, 11:01 MYT

#8. Selamat menyambut kemerdekaan!!! so Fai.. celebrate mana?
Posted by eLLieZ de`HearT on 2-Sep-2003, 10:32 MYT

#7. Kusri, the word Dirgahayu is also existant in Bahasa Malaysia though reserved for formal uses.

Sigit, what a weird coincidence! I have a large Indonesian flag and a small Malaysian flag (total opposite of you).

Jurjen, I sure hope my nieces and nephews don't throw out their candy flags and instead find creative ways to keep them.

Nash, thank you. I have it on my Ohio University Southeast Asian calendar that the Philippines celebrated an important day too, the National Heroes Day on the 31st of August.
Posted by Fairy on 1-Sep-2003, 20:15 MYT

#6. Fairy, it was very nice to know the history of your country. Happy independence day!
Posted by Nash on 30-Aug-2003, 19:18 MYT

#5. Selamat Hari Merdeka Malaysia! If the kids have eaten all their candies will they keep the flag forever? It is quite an insult to put the Jalur Gemilang in the rubbish bin, even it's just a cheap version...
Posted by Jurjen on 30-Aug-2003, 18:10 MYT

#4. Wah, jadi inget! Dulu waktu di sana hari liburnya dua kali, sekali waktu 17 Agustus, dan sekali waktu 31 Agustus. Jadi seperti ngerayain dua kali hari kemerdekaan

I have a big Malaysian flag at home, and a small Indonesian flag. Just a coincident.
Posted by Sigit - Website on 30-Aug-2003, 15:19 MYT

#3. Koreksi dong, Indonesia tuh dari bahasa Yunani (sama halnya dengan negara/daerah -nesia lainnya spt. Polynesia, Micronesia dll). Artinya, Indo=India, Nesos=Kepulauan, jadi Indonesia tuh maknanya, Kepulauan Hindia. Kenapa India? Jelas dong, kebudayaan kita kan dipengaruhi banget sama mereka ,sampai pujangga India peraih Nobel Rabindranath Tagore pas ke Jawa bilang: "I see India everywhere yet I don't recognize it". Begitu. By the way, Selamat Merdeka Malaysia or in Indonesian: Dirgahayu Malaysia!
Posted by Kusri on 30-Aug-2003, 14:19 MYT

#2. Bagas, makanya kan? Kononnya if we use the word "Malaysiaku" instead of "Negaraku" it's more specific and will make people feel more patriotic towards the country.

The national anthem should stay the way it is, in my humble opinion.
Posted by Fairy on 30-Aug-2003, 12:44 MYT

#1. Selamat Hari Merdeka Malaysia! semoga semakin jaya! btw, ape beza 'negaraku' dengan 'malaysiaku'. Sorry, I can't get the different nuance, because negaranya kan sememangnya malaysia Now I know your history, thanks fai! about 'Indonesia', it comprises 'Indos' and 'nesos' which means 'land' and 'sea' as we are the biggest archipelago nation in the world
Posted by Bagas on 30-Aug-2003, 12:37 MYT

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