Patriotic is defined as "inspired by love for your country ".
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With the Merdeka day is just around the corner, many have yet to fly the Jalur Gemilang. Hardly can we see Jalur Gemilang on the streets, let alone at houses and buildings. From my office at 40th floor in the heart of KL City Centre, where I can see almost all the buildings in KL like those in Bukit Bintang, Jalan Sultan Ismail, Pudu even as far as Kampung Attap, sad to say that I see only one (1) Jalur Gemilang at Bukit Aman. Even, last weekend, I drove at Jalan Kuching and passed by UMNO building near PWTC, I did not see any Jalur Gemilang on the building except a big banner on UMNO's 62nd Anniversary (perhps they are too busy at Permatang Pauh). There are Jalur Gemilang pasted in some blogs but it is pasted upside down as a sign of distress. I am not sure what went wrong? This has never happened before. This has led the City Hall Director General to lash out at city folk for not showing their patriotism by flying the Malaysian flag in this Merdeka month. I read his statement in today’s News Straits Times and this has made me wondering, what makes one patriotic or not patriotic or less patriotic?
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http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/Streets/Wednesday/Stories/2332605/Article/index_html
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If we are to look at the definition above, there are a lot of ways to show our patriotism and that makes Jalur Gemilang flying is not the only way to show it. So, the City Hall DG's statement in the NST is definitely not accurate. How can we become not patriotic just because we do not fly the Jalur Gemilang during the Merdeka (Independence) month? I mean he could have said that the KL folks are less patriotic.
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Every year, without fail we celebrate our Independence Day. Apart from the prayers held at each religion’s worship place on the eve of 31st August, which I consider as a ritual ceremony held for a formality purposes, there are not much program that can be seen to cultivate the spirit of togetherness and love for the country. Most of our programs during Independence Day celebration reflect what we have post-independence when I think we should have more programs to remember, acknowledge and more importantly to appreciate the difficulties and the hard time our forefathers went through to bring independence to our nation. I mean program that reflects the pre-independence. We should have more programs that remind us of the pre-independence day and to show our gratefulness on the independence that our nation achieved on 31st August 1957, which is more spiritual in nature rather than having concerts, parties and a mere countdown moment, which to me serves no purpose other than to enjoy, which in the end brings more harm than good. We are not able to inculcate the good value in our younger generation through concerts, parties, or anything in that nature. If we want concerts, we can have it some other times. If we want parties, we can also have it some other times. In fact we have more than enough night clubs for the people to enjoy themselves, even every night for that matter. So, why can’t we spare the month of August each year for programs that really brings good to the nation building?
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Let us ask ourselves this question. What do we learnt on every 31st August? I am not sure about others but hardly have I learned anything. Day in day out we talk about nationhood, preparing the younger generation for the future etc, etc but how can we have a better future if our younger generation is pampered too much and not made to understand what our forefathers went through those days? It is like someone who was born rich. If the father is rich, I mean filthy rich and he decided to pamper the children by giving whatever the children want because he thought that he can afford, the father is actually causes more harm than good to his children. This is because the children will never ever learn how difficult it is to earn money or more importantly they will never ever appreciate the money that they have because they get it so easily. They are not able to be independent and if we ask these children to go out and earn money themselves, I bet they just can’t find way to do it or if they manage to do it, it won’t last long. So, it is the same thing in building our younger generation for the future. That is why it is utmost important to make our younger generations to appreciate what our forefather went through, so that they will appreciate our independence more and more and if we are able to instill that spirit in our younger generations, we should not worry about our nation’s future.
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So, to me the type of program that we organize is much more important than flying the Jalur Gemilang to show our patriotism towards our beloved country, Malaysia. It serves no purpose to have everybody and every house and building to fly Jalur Gemilang if at then end of the day, it does not help us in anyway in building our younger generation. What is more important when we talk about patriotism is the internal factor (what we have in ourselves) rather than the external factor (flying the Jalur Gemilang and have the Merdeka countdown).
.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/Streets/Wednesday/Stories/2332605/Article/index_html
.
If we are to look at the definition above, there are a lot of ways to show our patriotism and that makes Jalur Gemilang flying is not the only way to show it. So, the City Hall DG's statement in the NST is definitely not accurate. How can we become not patriotic just because we do not fly the Jalur Gemilang during the Merdeka (Independence) month? I mean he could have said that the KL folks are less patriotic.
.
Every year, without fail we celebrate our Independence Day. Apart from the prayers held at each religion’s worship place on the eve of 31st August, which I consider as a ritual ceremony held for a formality purposes, there are not much program that can be seen to cultivate the spirit of togetherness and love for the country. Most of our programs during Independence Day celebration reflect what we have post-independence when I think we should have more programs to remember, acknowledge and more importantly to appreciate the difficulties and the hard time our forefathers went through to bring independence to our nation. I mean program that reflects the pre-independence. We should have more programs that remind us of the pre-independence day and to show our gratefulness on the independence that our nation achieved on 31st August 1957, which is more spiritual in nature rather than having concerts, parties and a mere countdown moment, which to me serves no purpose other than to enjoy, which in the end brings more harm than good. We are not able to inculcate the good value in our younger generation through concerts, parties, or anything in that nature. If we want concerts, we can have it some other times. If we want parties, we can also have it some other times. In fact we have more than enough night clubs for the people to enjoy themselves, even every night for that matter. So, why can’t we spare the month of August each year for programs that really brings good to the nation building?
.
Let us ask ourselves this question. What do we learnt on every 31st August? I am not sure about others but hardly have I learned anything. Day in day out we talk about nationhood, preparing the younger generation for the future etc, etc but how can we have a better future if our younger generation is pampered too much and not made to understand what our forefathers went through those days? It is like someone who was born rich. If the father is rich, I mean filthy rich and he decided to pamper the children by giving whatever the children want because he thought that he can afford, the father is actually causes more harm than good to his children. This is because the children will never ever learn how difficult it is to earn money or more importantly they will never ever appreciate the money that they have because they get it so easily. They are not able to be independent and if we ask these children to go out and earn money themselves, I bet they just can’t find way to do it or if they manage to do it, it won’t last long. So, it is the same thing in building our younger generation for the future. That is why it is utmost important to make our younger generations to appreciate what our forefather went through, so that they will appreciate our independence more and more and if we are able to instill that spirit in our younger generations, we should not worry about our nation’s future.
.
So, to me the type of program that we organize is much more important than flying the Jalur Gemilang to show our patriotism towards our beloved country, Malaysia. It serves no purpose to have everybody and every house and building to fly Jalur Gemilang if at then end of the day, it does not help us in anyway in building our younger generation. What is more important when we talk about patriotism is the internal factor (what we have in ourselves) rather than the external factor (flying the Jalur Gemilang and have the Merdeka countdown).
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While we are physically independent, mentally we are not.
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In conclusion patriotism is not measured and should not be measured by just flying Jalur Gemilang. While it can make the celebration merrier and more happening, what is more important is our spirit. We need the spirit that appreciate the independence rather than a mere spirit to celebrate the independence.
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In conclusion patriotism is not measured and should not be measured by just flying Jalur Gemilang. While it can make the celebration merrier and more happening, what is more important is our spirit. We need the spirit that appreciate the independence rather than a mere spirit to celebrate the independence.
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