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It’s Merdeka month.
The month when we put up the Jalur Gemilang, sing patriotic songs, talk about how far Malaysia has come and remind ourselves that, despite our differences, we are all Malaysians.
Which is why this latest flag controversy got me upset.
I agree with the Terengganu Menteri Besar. The Jalur Gemilang displayed in Batu Buruk without its crescent and star was probably a small issue. It wasn't deliberate. It wasn't an attempt to insult Malaysia.
So yes. Let's move on. But I do have a question. Why didn't we treat previous cases like this?
Last year, a Chinese uncle in Penang was arrested after the Jalur Gemilang was displayed upside down. The incident triggered police reports, an investigation and plenty of public outrage.
There was another case involving an upside-down Jalur Gemilang at a Chinese school in Port Dickson. Again, there were police reports and calls for action, even though the school said it was a mistake.
And then there was a case involving the Education Ministry when an incorrect depiction of the Jalur Gemilang appeared in an official report analysing SPM examination results. Yet there was no comparable outrage about disrespecting the nation. No calls for arrests. No accusations of treasonous intent.
There was an apology, yes. Then the mistake was corrected. And we moved on. Which is exactly what should have happened.
But if mistakes happen, shouldn't we extend the same understanding to everyone?
Why does the response sometimes seem to depend on the race or religion of the person who made the mistake?
Why does an ordinary Chinese uncle displaying a flag incorrectly become a matter of national outrage, while an incomplete flag probably raised by a Malay Muslim employee in a Malay Muslim dominant state, led by a Malay Muslim state government becomes something we simply dismiss as an innocent mistake?
And this is where the flag issue stops being about flags.
Because Malaysia has a much bigger problem - we keep seeing each other through the labels on our identity cards before we see each other as Malaysians.
Imagine if someone complains about loud speakers at the mosque. The reaction can be very different from someone complaining about a cross displayed in front of a church in a Muslim-majority area.
Why?
Often, the first thing we seem to notice is not the actual complaint. We notice who is making it.
Malay or Chinese?
Muslim or Christian?
Majority or minority?
"One of us" or "one of them"?
And suddenly the same complaint can be interpreted completely differently.
If a Muslim complains about excessive noise, perhaps it is a legitimate concern about noise pollution.
If a non-Muslim makes the same complaint, suddenly someone asks whether they are disrespecting Islam.
If a Muslim complains about something related to faith, perhaps it is framed as protecting religious sensitivities.
If a non-Muslim makes the same complaint, suddenly it becomes an attack on Islam.
Why?
Why can't a complaint simply be a complaint?
Why must we first decide who has the right to be offended?
This is the part I find upsetting.
We have always been different. We have different religions, different races, different languages, different cultures, different food, different festivals and different ways of looking at the world.
That's not our weakness. That's Malaysia.
What is upsetting is that, after all these years, we still struggle to look past the person standing in front of us and see the Malaysian underneath.
We still ask:
"What race is he?"
"What religion is she?"
"Are they Muslim?"
"Are they Chinese?"
"Are they Malay?"
"Are they one of us?"
And then we decide how much sympathy, anger, protection or punishment they deserve.
That's really sickening.
Because if our sense of justice changes depending on someone's race or religion, then it isn't really justice. It's tribalism wearing a patriotic shirt.
We love saying, “We are all Malaysians.” But do we really mean it?
Do we mean that a non-Malay Malaysian deserves the same benefit of the doubt as a Malay Malaysian?
That a non-Malay Malaysian can complain about something without being accused of having ulterior motives?
That a non-Malay Malaysian can be patriotic without having to constantly prove it?
That a non-Malay Malaysian can make a genuine mistake without immediately being suspected of deliberately disrespecting the country?
And that a Malay Malaysian who makes the same mistake can be held to exactly the same standard?
That's what equality should look like.
This Merdeka, perhaps we should put down the flags for a moment and ask ourselves a more difficult question: Have we actually learned to see each other as Malaysians?
Because 69 years after Merdeka, we really should have.
Perhaps that is the uncomfortable conversation we should be having this Merdeka month. Not just about how proud we are to be Malaysian, but about how Malaysian we actually allow other Malaysians to be.
Fa Abdul (fa.abdul.penang@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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