Received the below from email and would like to dedicate it to those boys and girls who think questioning the govt policies is whining, opposing/anti govt and or unpatriotic:
Patriotism
by Dr Dzulkifli, Malaysiakini
Using the Google search engine one day, I stumbled onto a website - Thinkexist.com - which revisits the concept of patriotism.
For starters, here's this: 'Dissent is the highest form of patriotism' - a quote by Howard Zinn, an American historian, author and political activist, who is currently Professor Emeritus in the Political Science Department of Boston University (born 1922).
I thought this was exciting for a start. While patriotism is traditionally understood as one's undivided and blind faith in and love for one's nation, this enlightened mind prescribes dissent as the pinnacle of it.
As dissent is the essence and cardinal principle of democracy - i.e the right to differ - it surely provides the dynamism and the check-and-balance that prevents the systemic rot that eventually demolishes any nation. But is it celebrated and revered in our democracy?
Just remember that the next time you dissent, for whatever reason, it should be deemed as expressing your democratic right for you are actualising the highest form of patriotism!
Moving on, Mark Twain (1835-1910), an American humorist, writer and lecturer, offers this quotable quote: "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."
That is in fact very sensible, subdued and restrained. This is rather obvious and about the fairest thing to say. The government deserves our support albeit conditionally. It will be given credit when due - even profusely, if it deserves this.
But if they remain oblivious, unrepentant and worse still, so bent on crooked and devious ways - like amassing wealth for themselves and their cronies - they do not deserve our support. Hence, our inability to profess support and allegiance.
Let us judge a quotation by Edward Abbey, another American, an uncompromising environmentalist philosopher (1927-1989), who put it cogently: "A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."
Wow! That's really cool and says it all.
(Malaysian examples snipped for relevance)
Patriotism, in the final analysis, is about defending the nation against aggression, especially from the misdeeds of the government of the day!
