Flying a flag upside down denotes distress. No, I will not fly it upside down. I have spent more than a quarter of the century defending it, of course alongside my brothers in arms of all shades and colours. From dawn to dusk, from reveille to the retreat. We have raised the flag at dawn and lower it in the evening with pomp and pride, complete with a bugle call.

Year in year out, I have seen it happen. It really brings a lump into your throat, when the flag is lowered during the retreat. You will be standing there at an attention with the tips of your fingers at the the visor of the peak cap. Thinking of all the guys who have gone before me and all the guys who have left the service. I cannot tolerate seeing a torn Malaysian flag, neither can I stand seeing a faded Malaysian flag. Many a time a Malaysian flag has been mistaken as an American flag, "You American?" Especially so in Somalia. It is great to yell out,"No, I am a Malaysian." Even foreign soldiers salute our flag during retreat when they are in our strong point.

Maybe it is easy for people who have not been touched by the flag, to fly it upside down. I think it is a fad, influenced by the movies. I have worn a flag patch on my shoulders with pride. I have been shot at when wearing that flag patch on my shoulders. I did not forsake my charges, that small patch of a flag did not allow me to flinch. It carried all that is what a Malaysian soldier was meant to be. We could not disgrace that flag. It stood us in good stead, in our moments of danger.

That flag is not the government, it is our nation. People tend to forget that, the injustices inficted cannot be blamed on the nation but the government of the day. Destiny and the fate of the nation is in your hands. You are the ones who can decide what kind of a nation we can be.The bad things that we experience is bestowed upon us by our elected representatives, who are more interested in maintaining the status quo. Changing it, well you have seen what you had done on the 8th March 2008. You can do that again. Of course, everyone of us wants to be treated equally, even though it is not being practised, rolling over and keeping quiet is not it. Neither is flying the flag upside down.

I was a soldier once, old habits are hard to break, I will not fly it upside down, it will be flown in my blog with pride, right side up