Yet another case of the Jalur Gemilang being flown upside down has occurred today at a Segamat Hotel in Johor today.
Police have begun investigating a social media post showing the Johor state flag hoisted upside down at a hotel in the Taman Yayasan Commercial Centre. Segamat police chief Ahmad Zamry Marinsah said a report was lodged yesterday, and initial checks revealed that the flag had been put up by two hotel employees in conjunction with Merdeka month.
“One of them, a foreign worker, had mistakenly hoisted the flag upside down. He corrected his mistake immediately after being alerted by his colleague,” he said in a statement.
As I have mentioned before, the incidences of the flags flown upside down or wrongly in the country will never end.
It will never end because of Murphy's law : “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” If it is possible that the flag to be flown wrongly, it will inevitably be flown wrongly at some point - this is just the law of nature.
The flag is raised weekly in our schools alone, and we have around 10,000 schools across Malaysia. Each flies the flag for about 35 weeks a year. That amounts to 350,000 times the flag is flown in schools every year.
Even if schools get it right 99.9% of the time, do you know how many times the flag will still be flown wrongly? About 350 times.
And this is just schools. The flag is also flown at government offices, private businesses, and yes—even police stations.
If the police persist in investigating or arresting people for such mistakes, they will eventually end up investigating students, teachers, civil servants, and perhaps even one of their own officers when a flag is found upside down at a police station.
This entire bewildering episode of investigating and arresting people for flying the flag wrongly began a few weeks ago when a hardware store owner in Penang mistakenly hoisted the Jalur Gemilang upside down. He corrected it immediately, but unfortunately, his mistake was recorded, went viral, and drew the outrage of Umno Youth chief Akmal Saleh.
We don’t know if it was because of Akmal's pressure or otherwise , but what is for sure is that the hardware store owner was eventually arrested.
Akmal wrote on Facebook page two yesterday ago ( 17 August) : “Sayang saya pada agama, bangsa dan tanah air ini tiada nilainya”—or that his love for religion, race, and country knows no bounds.
I believe he said this to justify his outrage in the matter of the upside down flag. but this is really an issue about subject, but proportion. As the Oracle of Delphi warned long ago: “In everything, moderation.” Even virtues like love, when taken to excess, become vices.
While we should encourage love for our country—especially during Merdeka month—this love should not become so extreme that it creates fear and anxiety in others. No Malaysian should be afraid or anxious about flying the national flag, especially on the month of Merdeka.
To be frank, I believe the police made a mistake in arresting the hardware store owner. The police exist to serve humanity. To arrest someone simply for the crime of being human goes against that very mission.
And because of that arrest, the police are now trapped. If they continue the same approach, they must investigate thousands of people—including, eventually, their own officers. If they stop, they risk looking inconsistent and unfair.
The only solution is for the police to end this practice once and for all. I think it is time that they issue a clear statement:
- Malaysians must fly the flag correctly.
- But if a mistake happens, and it is corrected immediately or upon prompt, there will be no investigation or arrest.
As the saying goes: “Sesat di hujung jalan, balik ke pangkal jalan.”
From Merdeka until just a few weeks ago, the police had always treated such cases with common sense. That is the pangkal jalan—the right path. They should now return to it.
If they do, the police will once again be seen as an institution that protects humanity, rather than one that punishes people for being human.
And if they make this change now, they will do so just in time for Merdeka.
As Buddhism teaches: “They who abandon what is wrong for what is right brighten this world like the moon freed from clouds.”
If the police could just do that - accept that they have made a mistake in the last couple of weeks and return again to the pangkal jalan, I think they will go a long way in brightening the merdeka celebration in our country this year —like the moon freed from the clouds.
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