Ubah!
Some fellas think New Malaysia needs a freshly updated flag, as seen below in a Malacca basketball court.
Do its five points of the star represent Penang, Perak, Selangor-FT, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan? (The southernmost state with its own Bangsa Johor is perhaps a different kettle of fish.)
We cry … dripping Malaysia ‘flag’ teardrops … for our beloved country in this distressing new era of Hope.
People seem to have become so easily ‘konpius’ of late — bendera negara sendiri pun dah tak kenal. Or maybe there was never really any ‘confusion’ as such but only deliberate aggravation … but by whom, from whom? (Fill in your favoured conspiracy theory.)
Bintang Lima
The most famous five-pointed yellow stars are featured in the flag of the People’s Republic of China. Could they be the inspiration for Malaysia basketball association flying its own bizarre version?
Belonging to the same Five Stars gang are the colourful logo, below, of The Star (Wong Chun Wai’s newspaper) as well the canton of the Singapore flag which you can see further down this page.
Sitting squarely in the stars-and-stripes design category, our Malaysian flag looks uncomfortably like a hybrid between the American and Liberian flags.
Liberia is a small country along the west coast of the African continent and was the land where black slaves from the American cotton plantations sailed to settle after they were freed. Liberia began life as a settlement of the American Colonization Society and in 1847 declared itself an independent state.
The Jalur Gemilang is also reminiscent of the British economic colonialism legacy that is the East India Company.
BELOW: The Liberian flag has 11 stripes just like the Malaysia Baru Ubah flag
Cross vs Crescent
Meanwhile in the rest of the world, the Swedish flag might well be the one most beloved everywhere there is an upwardly mobile middle class … the Ikea logo adopts its national colours!
I.K.E.A
I = Ingvar
K = Kamprad
E = Elmtaryd, a small farm where company founder Ingvar Kamprad was born
A = Agunnaryd, name of the Swedish village that Kamprad grew up in
I personally think Norway has the world’s most attractive flag design and colour scheme; the rest of the Scandinavian country flags similarly wear a cross.
By the way, I like the Norwegian flag purely for aesthetic reasons and not because I’m taking any side in the clash of civilizations.
BELOW: The Norway flag (blue cross on red background) is a reverse of the almost equally pretty Iceland flag (red cross on blue background)
Green is popular for flags of Muslim countries which, more often than not, also sport a crescent moon.
As a matter of trivia, Canada’s present maple leaf iconic pattern (below) looks much spiffier compared to its earlier old flag incorporating fussy UK details.
In my humble opinion, the best flag is one which kindergarteners are able to draw and enjoy colouring.
Young children, for example, would have a difficult time drawing Canada’s pre-1965 flag, or the flags of Sri Lanka and Bhutan which are practically impossible to draw or even to trace.
It is no coincidence that the Umno flag has something in common with the national flags of Singapore and Indonesia. All three share the Nusantara theme — red and white were the colours of the old Majapahit empire.
The Sang Saka – at one time proposed for Malaya – also looks like a member of this family, i.e. red atop white in equal halves.
The historical painting below depicts Captain Francis Light planting the Union Jack on Pulau Pinang to Christen it as the Prince of Wales Island in 1786.
A more recent photograph is that of a morose Penang flag that reflects the sad condition of the tiny island state under more than a decade of DAP rule.
The politics of flag
There was a time when the Jalur Gemilang appeared to be the ultimate fashion accessory among the Bersih crowd out for a boisterous day in town.
Dapsters just love to drape themselves in the flag as can be seen from the many propaganda posters churned out by the New Hopers, including those fakely posed, cutesy photos of patriotic Bangsar Malaysia kids.
I wonder how the hardcore DAP supporters feel about the flag now.
BELOW: Harapan in Putrajaya … most definitely a one-term government
Helen Ang 
Since we are plantation slaves to oil palms, we can consider, if need be, a copy of perhaps the Canadian flag (we copy everything!), (Saudi) green on both sides where the Canadian reds are, with an oil palm in the middle where Canada’s maple leaf is.
While I am at it, I am somewhat troubled by the fact that our national anthem sound exactly the same as a Hawaiian hula hula number “Mamula Moon”, which appeared older than our nation. The Indonesians have been singing their versions of Mamula for ages, you find all that and more all over the internet.
We might want to consider coming up with something original, it is not beyond our capability, we are “superior” folks, at least some of us are…
Like getting our flag wrong, we should hammer the right one into the heads of those who make any mistake. We should either challenge others for copying our anthem or admit our mistake or even theft, and make amend, think about it!
I really don’t believe that it was a mistake as claimed. it was a deliberate act to make a political statement. it is really a disturbing scenario.
Well that flag was a digital version displayed on the screen and the police are calling up the IT company for questioning.
Wrong flag fiasco: Cops to call up IT company
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2019/11/542681/wrong-flag-fiasco-cops-call-it-company
Beside the five-pointed star, that digital flag also has 11 red and while stripes, not 14.
If there was any political intent behind it, the 11 stripes could indicate a reversion back to Malaya minus Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore.
Besides the flags of China and Singapore, a five pointed star or five pointed stars appear on the flags of many countries, including the United States, the former Soviet Union, Texas, Vietnam, North Korea, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and many more.
Either that, or it was a case of IT Scheiss on the part of the IT company.
However, I think Malaysia should update the Jalur Gemilang to have a 13 pointed star and 13 stripes, since Singapore had left a long time ago.
14th state the Federal Territories lah.
Think you want to say Feral Territories.
Ain’t that most of Malaysia, wild country going to the dogs.
Beginning with those running dingos of the DAP…
Bendera negara sendiri pun tak kenal, lebih baik jangan jadi warganegara!
I don’t know about you guys, I certainly won’t get worked up over a flag – though I won’t get down on one knee if “Manula Moon” is played like some in the US would do, it is too much work for me.
I won’t get emotional over either a flag or an anthem. A flag is just something albeit quite colourful, on a piece of cloth or paper, an anthem is some kind of music that may sound quite “stirring” to some… Neither would bring any tear to my eye or raise any spirit of patriotism, pride, or whatever.
I get given handfuls of flags every year during a certain time, I politely accept them, then stash them somewhere in the car, I won’t let the paintwork be blemished if I stick any piece of plastic on my car, that’s more important to me, sorry..!
National flag, anthem, the state, the nation,nationhood, etc are just constructs that require the imagination of some to run away, and even take off to other often delusional planes…
I have no imagination. No offence, I let the next person get emotional, get worked up, go to war, and even die for those constructs, good luck, and thank you!
Until there is a discussion, someone gets worked up, hopping mad, etc, I don’t actually give a thought about how many spikes there are on a durian, I probably can’t name all the states or provinces there are on our one big oil palm plantation.
If anything, I would like our patch of land become great first, we achieve just a few genuinely great things, load the land with a great many civilised folks – and not warring tribes of primitives, etc etc before we feign great pride etc etc each time a flag is waved or anthem played.
If not, what are we waving the flag to, what are we singing an anthem to – if not in the very least a harmonious a piece of land free of race and religious bigotry and strife?
Why does it matter how many spikes there are on a durian if the durian is rotten? You can take one spike off or add one on, but the durian would still be rotten. You can sing any anthem till the cows come home, but the state would remain rotten.
God Save Malaysian Baru from Mahathir!
And God Save Malaysia Baru from the running dogs of the Lim Lynasty and the DAP Lies-R-Us Machine!