For some reason, Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh has really taken umbrage at a 59-year-old Penang hardware store owner accused of hoisting the Jalur Gemilang upside down.
He is so angry that, in a video he posted on his Facebook page, Akmal gave the authorities two days to charge the hardware store owner, failing which he said he would would “teach this ‘ah pek’ (uncle) how to correctly put up a flag” himself.
From Nyonya Tua to “ah pek,” Akmal is fast turning out to be the Donald Trump of Malaysia, giving colourful nicknames to the people he takes offence against.
In America, Donald Trump’s “talent” for labelling his opponents as “Sleepy Joe,” “Pocahontas,” or “Crooked Hillary” helped him win the presidency. The jury is still out as to whether Akmal will be able to emulate that success.
In any case, it seems two can play the name-calling game. In response to Akmal’s tirade against the Penang hardware store owner, Siti Kasim has in turn labelled him as “Umno's Gollum,” in reference to the Lord of the Rings character who was so obsessed with the ring he coveted that he would do anything to get his hands on it.
Anyway, back to the matter of the upside-down national flag — personally, I think it is a very bad idea to take any action against the hardware shop owner for flying the flag wrongly because, like National Unity Minister Aaron Ago Dagang said, the incident was most likely done unintentionally.
In engineering, there is a maxim called Hanlon’s Razor, which states: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.”
In simpler words, whenever something untoward happens, rather than assuming it is due to sabotage or bad intentions, it is always best to assume that it happened because people did not think it through properly.
If we think it’s sabotage, the solution we propose will likely not address the problem — or worse, it might be even more damaging than the problem itself.
It is only if we think the problem occurred due to incompetence that we will be able to solve it correctly.
Afterall, there are around 7,778 public primary schools in Malaysia while The total number of secondary schools is around 2,439. In total, there are roughly 10,000 schools in the country that raise the Jalur Gemilang once every week.
Considering the average number of school weeks in Malaysia is around 35 weeks , in our schools alone, the national flag is probably raised 350, 000 times annually.
Even with a 99 percent success rate in hoisting the flag, do you know how many times we are likely flying it wrongly every year?
3500 times.
That’s right — with just a 1 percent failure rate, our flags could be flown wrongly — perhaps upside down — 3500 times a year in Malaysia.
Why is this the case?
Murphy’s Law — which says anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
If it’s possible to fly the flag upside down, somebody will do it eventually, simply because Murphy’s Law guarantees that what can go wrong will go wrong at some point.
We might think that surely flying the national flag is such an easy thing to do that you can’t get it wrong unless you are deliberately trying to insult the country. But not misplacing your keys is also an easy thing to do — yet has anyone never misplaced their keys, despite it being so simple to avoid?
Akmal might believe the hardware store owner should be made an example of because his mistake was intentional, but we must remember that we can only punish people for their actions and expressions, not their intentions.
If we start punishing people for their intentions, all of us will have to be punished on a regular basis.
If we punish the Penang hardware store owner for his actions, we must also remember that the national flag is likely being flown wrongly — perhaps upside down — 3500 times a year in Malaysia.
Right now, we don’t notice this much because the problem is usually fixed quickly once spotted. But now that the hardware store owner has been arrested, many people will become hypersensitive to such incidents. As soon as they see the flag flown wrongly, they will take a photo or video and make a police report.
If this happens, what will the police do? Arrest thousands of people because a precedent was set with one hardware store owner?
If the police don’t arrest others, they’ll be accused of double standards. But if they do arrest people for flying the flag wrongly, then they’ll be arresting people simply for being human.
As Wee Ka Siong said: “Public intimidation of this kind will only backfire. Instead of encouraging Malaysians to proudly display the flag, it will make them think twice. Why risk flying the flag if a mistake could lead to personal threats or self-incrimination?”
While it is undeniable that the national flag is a sacred symbol of the nation that deserves the utmost respect, we have to align our desire to honour it with reason, fairness, and reality.
The reality is that people will make mistakes when flying the national flag. It is unreasonable and unfair to punish everyone who makes a mistake, no matter how much we cherish and love the Jalur Gemilang.
The better solution is to assume people have simply made an error when they fly the flag wrongly, and advise them to correct it.
As they say, to err is human , to forgive divine.
Only if they refuse to correct it after being informed of their mistake should we assume they are trying to insult the flag — and proceed with appropriate action to punish them.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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