WHEN the US invaded Iraq in April 2003, and upon entering Baghdad, their soldiers alongside Iraqis, toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein.

Before it was brought down, a US soldier had climbed on top of the statue and wrapped the US flag over the head of the statue.

If the Iraqi crowd had earlier joined the cheering of efforts to topple the statue, they reportedly went silent. The US military leaders then realised the disastrous PR exercise it had caused and promptly got an Iraqi flag to replace the US’s.

There were, however, many conflicting reports on the incident – one side claiming that it was celebrated by numerous Iraqi civilians.

Others however claimed that it was staged and that the pro-West media exaggerated the presence of cheering Iraqis and that the placement of the American flag on the statue affirmed that it was not about the toppling of Saddam but rather an American invasion of Iraq.

Award-winning British journalist the late Robert Fisk described the event as “the most staged photo opportunity since Iwo Jima.”

Raising the flag on Iwo Jima is an iconic image marking the of the Pacific War/World War 2.

While the controversy of the Iwo Jima image was more of whether it was staged or otherwise, the draping of the American flag over Saddam’s statue was much more conflicted and dismissed the idea of the Americans liberating Iraqis.

Subsequent unrelenting insurgencies proved that the narrative that the Iraqis largely opposed the American presence was not misguided, though some may have welcomed the military assistance to topple Saddam.

Kadhem Sharif Al-Jabbouri, an Iraqi wrestler who hated Saddam for imprisoning his family, who was the first to take a sledgehammer to the statue to bring it down, was disheartened to see the Americans draping their flag over Saddam’s statue, insisting he was the one that told them to replace it with an Iraqi flag.

In later years, Kadhem expressed regrets, saying he wished he hadn’t done it despite his anger with Saddam and wanted to rebuild it and only fear of reprisals had stopped him.

Such is the impact of the foreign flag on an Iraqi who was keen to see the fall of Saddam, it is unimaginable to think how other Iraqis less angry or supporting Saddam would have felt over the incident.

Closer to home, during the tail end of Tun Abdullah Badawi’s rule, circa 2007/2008, some of those who were unhappy with his administration expressed it by carrying the Malaysian flag upside down on their blogs that ruled the social media sphere at that time.

It didn’t gain much traction, and even some of the worst of Abdullah’s critics found such an act a desecration of the national flag and the stunt was roundly condemned. But that did not change the fate of Abdullah’s administration.

In 2019, in protest against the introduction of Khat or Arabic calligraphy in vernacular schools, some activists decided to paint the white stripes of the Malaysian flag black.

It received such widespread backlash that he apologised and deactivated his social media accounts.

In 2010, Israeli soldiers, armed to the teeth, forcefully boarded the aid-carrying MV Rachel Corrie, which was bound for Gaza, in international waters.

They subjugated the Malaysian and Irish activists on board and commandeered the vessel to Ashdod, a port in Israel.

While the activists were unable to put up much protest, the Malaysian activists demanded that the Israeli soldiers not defile the Malaysian flag they had flown on the vessel and return it to them.

Fortunately, the Israeli soldiers did and a potential conflict was averted.

While it would have been a foregone conclusion of who would have fared worse in the event of escalated discord; the Israeli soldiers, still smarting from international condemnation over its attack and the killings of activists on another Gaza-bound vessel, the Mavi Marmara, obviously did not want more controversies.

Such is the power of flags and their impact on the human psyche that to dismiss or trivialise incidents involving national flags is imbecilic, unwise, if not outright unpatriotic.

The spectrum of anecdotes shared should remind all and sundry that what had happened in Teluk Intan over the waving of the flags of China during the Guan Gong festival was unacceptable, whichever way one chooses to look at it.

Firstly, it was an event organised by a Malaysian association and it should have been responsible enough to have asked the Chinese nationals not to wave their nation’s flag.

Secondly, if it wanted to show camaraderie between the two nations, why the absence of Malaysian flags? Even then, if it was already permitted by the authorities, the Malaysian flags should outnumber that of China’s. Indeed, everyone would be counting.

Thirdly, while it is not fully prohibited for flags of other nations to be waved, it must suit the occasion – international sporting events or in diplomatic compounds and on official diplomatic cars.

Otherwise, most times, foreign flags would always be flown/waved alongside that of the host nation especially when they are bilateral events.

Unfortunately, those who had come to the defence of the China flag being waved had instead questioned why the Palestinian flag could be freely waved in Malaysia.

It is obviously attempting to deflect a wrong by claiming another wrong had been committed as well. Those using this line of argument further proved their lack of patriotism and insisted on defending an obvious wrong.

And that these flags were waved at a time when China had been quite aggressive in Malaysian territorial waters made the matter more delicate.

Palestine stands as a symbol of oppression and waving its flag is a show of solidarity, of Malaysians’ humanity and opposition to genocide. One doesn’t wave the Israel flag as that would have been considered in support of its genocide.

At the height of the South African apartheid, no one waved the South African flag as it was the administration that committed the apartheid. Instead, if all the South African flags were used, the international community would have worn images of chains and shackles alongside.

To wave China’s flag when it doesn’t suffer from oppression or bullying of another nation would conjure a different conjecture, that of glorification, and if Malaysians were involved, then it would remind the rest of Malaysians where their pride lay.

Those concerned that criticisms towards the China flag-waving would impact tourism are indeed shallow in their reasoning unless they were imbeciles. Chinese nationals who love their nation would have understood the severity of such actions.

And yet, some Malaysians, cabinet members included, still couldn’t.