Flying the flag upside down - evil!

August 20, 2008 2:17 PM

Frustrated with recent political developments, Malaysian blogger Kickdefella started an online protest of posting the Malaysian flag upside down on his blog, reflecting the use of an upside down flag as a sign of distress. Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi decries the move as 'evil'. More information at Global Voices Advocacy.
posted by divabat (22 comments total)

Do as you are trained... AND KILL THE MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER!
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:27 PM on August 20, 2008 [7 favorites]

I can't believe people would quote a movie as bad as Zoolander, although you could insert any Ben Stiller vehicle in there...
posted by KokuRyu at 2:54 PM on August 20, 2008

Zoolander bad? You can derelicte my balls, capi-tan.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:00 PM on August 20, 2008 [6 favorites]

Abdullah said the blogger came up with the idea to fly the national flag upside down hoping that others would follow suit, without thinking of the implications.

What implications?
posted by blasdelf at 3:05 PM on August 20, 2008

Is "kickdefella" a Malaysian proper name, or is it supposed to mean "Kick The Fellow"?

In either case, I like the moniker.
posted by everichon at 3:12 PM on August 20, 2008

everichon: It's the latter; "fella" is how it's pronounced in Manglish.
posted by divabat at 3:20 PM on August 20, 2008

Hawaiian sovereignty activists have long flown the Hawaiian flag upside down to protest the 1893 overthrow of the monarchy.
posted by flod at 3:20 PM on August 20, 2008

What do Japanese, Lyban, Austrian, Jamaican, Bangladeshi, Botswanan, etc. people do when they need to indicate distress?
posted by aubilenon at 3:24 PM on August 20, 2008 [1 favorite]

What do Japanese, Lyban, Austrian, Jamaican, Bangladeshi, Botswanan, etc. people do when they need to indicate distress?

Austrians turn the Mozart up so that it may be heard outside the vehicle.
posted by jimmythefish at 3:33 PM on August 20, 2008 [2 favorites]

And US soldiers have the flag emblem on their shoulder facing backward indicate moving forward.

Odd.
posted by Nick Verstayne at 3:36 PM on August 20, 2008

> And US soldiers have the flag emblem on their shoulder facing backward indicate moving forward.

It's worn that way because the flag is assumed to be to the wearer's right (the right being the position of honor in almost all things military), and being blown backward by their own forward movement.

I admit it looks a bit odd, though, if you're not used to seeing it.
posted by Kadin2048 at 3:53 PM on August 20, 2008

List of countries in which you can avoid being called "evil" when flying the flag upside down:

• Japan
• Scotland
• Botswana
• Nigeria
• Libya

posted by joelf at 4:14 PM on August 20, 2008

"As an example, he cited the new ruling of self-service petrol kiosks, which would cause unemployment and hardship, especially in poorer states."

Just from following the links, it was remarkably difficult to get any idea why these bloggers are so upset that they'd display an image of the flag upside-down, but it seems to have something to do with the fact that they live in a country where people can readily believe that they're likely to get into trouble with the law for displaying an image of the flag upside-down on their blog.
posted by sfenders at 4:22 PM on August 20, 2008

I tried to fly my flag upside down but all of the beans fell off of the plate.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 4:25 PM on August 20, 2008

Austrians turn the Mozart up so that it may be heard outside the vehicle.

Rock me Amadeus.
posted by rodgerd at 5:02 PM on August 20, 2008

US flags on aircraft tails are painted backwards on one side and forwards on the other. I know this because I once had to, very carefully, remove and then repaint a flag backwards on tail of a corporate jet after having assumed it should be the same on both sides. Sigh.
posted by bz at 6:11 PM on August 20, 2008

Like most Malaysians, I first heard about this through the government-controlled radio and government-controlled television. The governing coalition clearly has no idea how the internet works: they have, over a period of a few weeks now, given far far more publicity to this single unremarkable blog post than the blogger could ever have hoped to achieve on his own. They have given more publicity to blogging as a medium than Malaysian bloggers could ever have hoped to achieve. The PM admonishing people on national prime time television not to believe what they may read on a blog?! This, following by five minutes a news segment that was essentially a two minute free campaign commercial for the ruling party candidate up for a by-election against Anwar. The mind boggles. It has been nearly half a year since the ruling coalition was whupped by the opposition in part through effective use of the internet, and they still don't have a decent new media strategy. The future for BN looks grim.
posted by BinGregory at 8:37 PM on August 20, 2008

sfenders: There's been a lot of political turmoil, immediately prior and following the elections (where the Opposition garnered a surprisingly stronger foothold), and there's been general unrest. Self-service petrol kiosks is a new one, but there's been others.
posted by divabat at 10:23 PM on August 20, 2008

The world's media may well become far more interested in Malaysia over the next few months if indeed Anwar Ibrahim becomes the first person to become a head of state on the back of, to all intents and purposes, blogs and online media. Bloggers have been elected to parliament, mainstream media has been marginalised, previously unthinkable stories are being debated daily, what's going on in Malaysia is a hell of a story waiting to be told.
posted by niceness at 10:53 PM on August 20, 2008

Malaysia, it should be noted, is one of those backward Islamic shithole countries where you can go to jail for being homosexual. Or, in the case of Anwar Ibrahim, for being accused to be a homosexual by some random dude without any proof. That's enough to lock you away for years in that country.

(Just a thing to keep in mind before planning a vacation there...)
posted by sour cream at 7:20 AM on August 21, 2008

Malaysian election results thread previously, for context.
posted by BinGregory at 8:17 AM on August 21, 2008

A former roommate of mine used to get letters from her incarcerated brother with the postage stamp upside-down to symbolize "I love you" -- but also, it was an American flag stamp. I always thought it was a beautifully compact statement of his loyalties.
posted by aws17576 at 1:55 PM on August 21, 2008