KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 — For many, a flag is not merely a piece of cloth but a symbol of national and territorial pride.
This can lead to an intensely emotional response when a group of people feel that their flag has been disrespected — as was the case with Malaysians, involving several incidents where the flag was wrongfully used earlier this week.
The police are investigating an incident where the Malaysian Basketball Association was pictured displaying a flag with a five-pointed star and 10 red-and-white stripes instead of the Jalur Gemilang at its 28th Milo Lum Mun Chak Cup.
During the same basketball event, a Perak player was also pictured wearing a jersey with the state flag on it upside down following a manufacturing error.
The cases brought to mind several blunders that happened when Malaysia hosted the SEA Games in August 2017, including printing the Indonesian flag upside down, a broadcast mismatching the flags of several neighbours, and even featuring the wrong one for the country’s own athletes.
Malay Mail looks at several such incidents involving Malaysian flags, all of them happening this year alone:
Burning of Jalur Gemilang in Manila, January
Elly Pamatong, the self-proclaimed founder of a group calling itself United States Allied Freedom Fighters of the East posted a video of the public burning of the Jalur Gemilang on Facebook.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs swiftly condemned the action, and pointed out that anti-Malaysia comments made by the individual were offensive and baseless.
This prompted the Phillipines Embassy to express its regret, saying the flag-burning incident was committed by a private individual who was known to have done many controversial things in the past and that his actions do not represent the official position of the Philippines.
Flag hung upside down at Pahang school, August
Following public anger, the police concluded that the incident was an honest mistake made by a foreign worker at a school in Pahang, said Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador.
The police said the act was not meant to cause embarrassment or serve as a protest and called on all parties not to make baseless statements and exploit the situation without understanding the facts.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission had also warned internet users against re-sharing the photo, after finding that videos and photographs of similar incidents that were unintentional or had happened a long time ago, were also being shared on social media.
Flag hung upside down at Penang house, August
The police opened an investigation and recorded statements of an elderly woman, after a report was lodged over the Jalur Gemilang that was hung upside down at her father’s house in Teluk Air Tawar.
The 61-year-old woman alleged that an unknown man had helped her 89-year-old father, a police retiree, to hoist the flag since the latter was not around. The flag had then been taken down.
Old photo of upside down flag in Seremban police station, August
The police were forced to deny that the Jalur Gemilang was raised upside down at the Seremban district police headquarters, with Seremban police chief ACP Mohd Said Ibrahim saying that a photo from 2016 was re-circulated by unscrupulous parties.
He said the incident had occured due to a technical error, but was resolved immediately then.
Separately, Johor police also vowed to take action against those who intentionally misuse the national flag whether physically or online.
Its chief Datuk Mohd Kamarudin Md Din listed some of the laws available to the police as: Section 504 of the Penal Code for intentionally insulting or provoking someone to break the public peace; Section 14 of the Minor Offences Act 1955 for using any indecent or abusive words or behaviour with the intention of breaking the peace; and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for wrongful use of network facilities.
Monochrome flag in protest, August
Property tycoon Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew posted a picture of the Jalur Gemilang in black and white on his blog to protest the inclusion of learning the Arabic calligraphy of khat in vernacular schools.
Lee, the founder and executive chairman of property developer Country Heights Holdings Bhd, admitted asking an artist to make the colour change on his behalf, to “express his feelings”.
The altered image, which has since been removed, was uploaded along with a post by Lee highlighting his recent blog entry on the inclusion of khat writing lessons in Bahasa Malaysia textbooks for Year 4 students.
He eventually apologised for his behaviour on Facebook and took the post down, but not before calls were made for his title to be stripped.
Flag hung upside down at Langkawi shop, September
Police arrested a 60-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman, owners of a sundry shop, for hanging the Jalur Gemilang and Kedah flags upside down at their shop.
They expressed regret over the incident and admitted to the mistake which was unintentional, and had then corrected it.
