In Indonesia, every August is the month of festival as a nation-state. It is about the Independence Day of 17 August. Early in the month, or even since late July, the mood of national celebration has, in a way, always been started. Everywhere you go, you will find flag vendors, the stand-by or roving ones. The national flags, the red and white, blow with the wind in every size. There are the outdoor-, indoor-, table- or triangle-size flags. Wood or bamboo flag poles are in display together. The roving sellers would push their carts around the housing areas. All red-and-white.
True that once awhile you will wonder: is there still any household in the whole country that is yet to own a flag? Would the case be that those flags made of cotton clothes are not reusable? Would all the good citizens throw their flags away after August last year? Do we need to buy all new flags this year?
Answers could always be so various. Some may simply have misplaced their flags; after all it is practically a one-time in a year occasion. Some may have their old flags simply too old or to craggy to be hung in the front-yard. Some may always like to have them new; the price is cheep, anyway. Let us just spare the best hope that all those old flags are not thrown away as floor wipes or the like.
Be as it may, flag has endured a very long history. Flag is an essential symbol of civilization from the East to the West. It was the Chinese or Indian that is said to have used flags for the first time. Chou Dynasty of 1122 BC was reported to employ white flags as the representation of the emperor. The moguls of India used flags as imperial insignia. The ancient Egypt and Assyria made use of them as well. From the very beginning, flags have been used and positioned in the very tip of the imperial convoys; propelled in conquered lands. Generals literally held the flags. If the flags were down, it meant defeat in war.
The historical record say it that the use of flags was also a legacy of the Saracens to the continental Europe. The green color associated mostly now to the Muslim world is derived from the Fatimiyyah dynasty of the first century of Hijriya. The star and crescent symbol among Muslims has only been popular in later times.
The fact is, the use and respect of flags to symbolized nationalism has thus been a long-tradition of every nation. You can try hard to find a country that has no flag to no avail. Every nation has a national flag. In modern politics, a flag is an issue either at war or peace. During the peace time, it is a statement of national pride. In war, the imperative of national flag is exceedingly fundamental, since the very existence of the nations in conflict are at the brinks.
You can read numerous books on war history or, visually better, war movies, depicting how flags were posed at the front. The flag bearers were those who braved the swords, cannon balls or bullets, very heroically testing the extreme chance of life and death. Should one bearer died, the other would take the job unquestioningly. During Chinese dynasties, flag bearers were protected people to an extent that touching them would be regarded as criminal offences.
It is true that national symbols can take many sorts of things. Yet, flags are more subtle and essential. For Indonesians, the state symbol is the great, eagle-like Garuda. Despite that, globally it is always the flag serving as a symbol of recognition of every nation. The national flag is tied up in a pole in government offices everywhere. National flag is available for display in work office of leaders or ambassadors. All UN member countries dispose their national flags in the UN Headquarter, standing high and equal in colorful rows, stating sovereignty and recognition.
Leaders visiting abroad convoyed with their national flags, posing in pair with that of the host. A flag is also very symbolical that when a group of climbers set foot in the summit of Everest, it is the flag that symbolized the conquer. The soldiers occupying a reef in conflict in the middle of an ocean would solemnly guard that inhabitable rock with a proud flag.
Flag is indeed a formal expression of recognition. To that effect, if a people dispose or pull out recognition of others, accepting or protesting, the flag would do service either way. Protesters of different nationals would burn the flag of the opposed and that has been a full statement at best.
Remember when our founding fathers and patriots fought against the colonial power of Dutch, those brave young heroes ran to the front against the shooting bullets to pull down the red-white-blue colonial flag just to rip out the blue part and put it high again. The red and white was on the air. The red and white is on the air. And that time, patriots fell down in smile.
Having said all that, a flag in its philosophical essence is merely a symbol. It could be extremely serious or nothing but a trivia. Beside sacred national flags, there are also those flags belong to soccer teams, multinational companies, political parties. Every child knows that pirates have also their own flags: the notorious skull in black. You are supposed to be afraid if you see one in a lonely voyage in a deep sea.
As a symbol, a flag could simply be a situational sign of anything. The white cloth being pulled up in a confrontation means peace or surrender. In some islands of Indonesia, it can also state that somebody just died. In Java, this color is not white but yellow. While globally, the yellow flag means that a plague is around and you should better go away.
The point is, a flag could state all kind of things, either the good one or bad, true or false. In an old house in the corner, you may find a flag being shown every day a year long, not only for specific celebrations. When you find the reason why, it would not be surprising if the dwellers are old people, those die-hard patriots celebrating each and every day freed from colonialism. During this month of August, red-and-white flags are ubiquitous, not only in front or around government offices but also private companies or buildings. Of course, also houses.
Some extravagant and over-sized houses, of civil servants, military officers or businessmen, may even have walled fences covered beautifully with long and extensive red-and-white clothes from one corner to the other. So vividly, that leaves you wondering: what is this symbolized for? Is that a statement of true loved to the country by rich citizens? Let us hope so.
Yet, when everyday you read news on corruption, that so many of the rich are in fact embezzlers or pirates of national budgets, you may worry that the extravagant red-and-white exhibition simply equals theatrical gambits of falseness. You may then worry that short after the celebration of 17 August, the house owners would be seen in TV with handcuff and sadly bowing heads, being brought to court for corruption trial. However, you may also worry too much.
Happy National Day, my Indonesia!
Jakarta, 13 August 2006
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