Entering mid-August, Merdeka mood begins to permeate in the air. Radio waves begin blasting songs with patriotic themes, news and websites begin churning patriotic-themed articles and news, and our Jalur Gemilang begins to flutter on the homes and cars.
Yet, the mood is sombre. As the nation enters her 65th year in existence, there seemed to be a lethargic feeling amongst Malaysians on what is Malaysia and what is patriotism.
Substance Over Form
One of my former supervisors at work, one that I had disliked intensely at one point of time, often mentioned the phrase “form over substance”. I never did understand what he had meant, until I begin to open my eyes to look at the society that we are living in.
You want to show good performance? You touched up your reports, glossing over material that shows mistakes and screw-ups that you had made. To hide your mistakes, you point fingers at others for their errors, even though theirs may be a minor transgression as compared to yours.
That’s basically what we are seeing in our society. And in the case of patriotism, it is very similar.
The Patriotism of Form
We see the ‘patriotism’ of form. Or rather, the triumph of form. As a nation, we are more ready to identify our race first instead of our nation. Ask anyone on the street, they are likely tell you that they’re Malay, Chinese, or any other races in our multicultural Malaysia, except in August. Whilst our race is our cultural identity, our background, yet, it triumphs over our national identity.
There are also those of us who, when asked of our nationality when we are overseas, instead of proudly saying that we are Malaysians, shied away and claimed that they are Bruneians or Singaporeans.
Admission of Guilt
Yet, finger-pointing to one side alone bears no justice. Flag-waiving Malaysians like myself do bear responsibility to this lethargic malaise. Often, many flag-waivers unabashedly hound these Malaysians for not conforming to our values. This action hurt us more than we realised, as we failed to realise that there’s many facets to patriotism, or rather facets to nationhood.
Years ago, an opposition party leader claimed that he did not want to fly the Jalur Gemilang because it was the symbol of the ruling party. Several other people linked to the opposition had even tried to revive the Sang Saka Merah Putih, the pre-Merdeka left-wing flag that is believed to have first being flown at Gunung Semanggol by left-leaning nationalists. They were all criticised, hounded.
Yet, a friend told of a story that’s at least a decade old. His friend, a peddler of sort, came to him trying to sell Malaysian flags to him. The peddler tried hard to push his sales, even trying to shame him for not flying the flag. My friend was pissed off and told him a white lie, that he is a reservist (he’s not).
Ask Not What Your Country can do for you, But What You can do for your Country
US President John F Kennedy was quoted in his inauguration speech said “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. You might think that he said that just because he was the President. During World War 2, as a scion of a political dynasty, they could have easily avoided joining the military service. Or if they were to be drafted, the family would have political strings pulled that they need not to serve in combat duty. Yet, JFK served in combat in the Pacific, and was awarded for valour in combat. His eldest brother, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, was killed in action when his patrol bomber exploded in air during a top secret mission during the same war.
Perhaps, that is the lesson that Malaysians need to learn. Do what we can for our country, before we force our demand on this nation. Malaysia for Malaysians. But how about Malaysians for Malaysia?
Post-Script
Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, India, and Pakistan celebrate Indipendence Day in the month of August.
Danny Liew 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.
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