The lonely flag.....

We were the first on our street to put up the Malaysian flag. There is only one other house a few doors away from our house that has put up their flag upon seeing our flag flying with pride each time the wind blows it from side to side. It stands with pride in our front yard. It is our show of patriotism.

But, what about the others? Why aren’t our other neighbours putting up flags? Why aren’t anyone else in this huge neighbourhood putting up flags? Has everyone lost their sense of patriotism?

OK, someone might get cynical and tell me that not flying a flag might not necessarily mean that you are not patriotic, but, why don’t you fly one?

A few years back when there was a competition for the most creative way of putting up flags and a big prize was put up for the winners, almost every other car and house had at least one flag flying. How sad. Does it have to take a big prize in a competition to be put up first before someone would fly the flag, as if to show pride and patriotism for the country? How pretentious.

In my department, my Unit has always been the first to put up the flags in our office. I encourage my stuff to put up as many flags as possible, and as creatively as possible, and no, I have no prize to reward them. I buy the flags for the office each year to add on to whatever we had already accumulated over the years. I buy the flags each year with pride. It’s my show of patriotism. The other Unit in the office will only follow suit if the bosses encourage them to.

No, we put up the flags not because we have less projects to do and so can spend time decorating our office with the flags. In actual fact, our office has the most projects compared to the rest of the other units, yet, we take time to show our sense of patriotism. It makes us proud (bukan sombong, tapi bangga).

I think Malaysians nowadays, in general, are less patriotic then the times when I was growing up and when my mum was growing up. My mum use to lament about how our younger generations are no longer proud of the country. They do something only if there is a reward at the end of it.

OK, now don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that none of the younger generations are patriotic. I am saying that they are less than when we were their age. They are too busy chasing after the material things and to find out what's the latest gadget in town, and who's the first among their friends to get them.

To compete to see who flies the first flag? aaahhhhh! They might say that it is too old fashion. They would probably say too that I am outdated.

OK, now don’t start accusing me of saying that I am being biased. I say what I see and observe.

It is sad too that each year when the government calls for one night in a year to switch off all lights in support of Earth Hour in an effort to save the planet called earth, only a handful responds. Usually on my street, our house would be the only one observing the Earth Hour. How sad......

What does it take for us to show our patriotism for the country and our support to save the earth? Only when there is a reward for the effort? How sad........