The flag flies high

It’s hard to miss the weighing scale, rocket and blue eyes flags flying these days.

We have reached the height of the political season with the announcement of the dissolution of Parliament by Prime Minister on Wednesday (April 3).

It’s even harder to impart positive thoughts when sharing our political ideology with the young ones with so many campaign ads in print, electronic, radio, TV and at ceremahs during an election year.

Difficult it may be but most parents are committed to bringing up children to be compassionate, thoughtful and open-minded.

But let’s face it. Parents are humans too – it’s difficult to be completely unbiased when it comes to politics.

Let’s hear this conversation of a father and his 6-year-old son:

Son: What are those flags, dad?

Dad: Signs of a corrupt government.

He gave an analogy of what a corrupt government is – like when you play monopoly and the bank overcharges you and pockets the money or let foreigners who don’t belong on the board buy property and collect at GO.

“There is nothing wrong with parents acknowledging and owning their bias (if they have one). The important thing for parents to keep in mind is to allow their kids to have their opinions and ideas about politics and the political system,” said Dr Robi Ludwig, a psychotherapist and award-winning journalist.

Weeks before Qing Ming (or tomb festival), many voters received a meaningful SMS (at least to me) from politicians reminding them how they were indebted to the good and great deeds of their ancestors and that they should remember their forebears while observing the tomb-visiting season.

Yes, the point is covering the history of the founding of a nation and the struggles that nationhood entails -- and also how our government came into being. This appears essential when it comes to talking politics and government to children these days.

The history of how and why our government was set up the way it was is a great lesson to impart before launching into the ‘hot’ issues.

This is important because teaching children to think that politics and government is just another mundane current affair is making light of its real significance and may also be dangerous to young minds.

Even among adults, it’s not easy to discuss current political events and issues or elections can be “neat and clean” without heated arguments.

We do not wish to overburden young children with negativity beyond their control.

The smear campaign and hitting-below-the-belt tactics used to pull down someone with an opposing view such as attacking them on a personal level, is not really what we want to teach our children about.

Our job is to air our views so that our children can hear our thoughts, ideas and opinions. We discuss views and why we believe in them. We teach tolerance -- not hate-mongering and character assassination.

Our task is not to indoctrinate our children into thinking exactly like us but instead make them realise the importance of being aware of the various election issues and what the candidates stand for.

In doing so, we are communicating to them that as they mature and become voters themselves eventually, they need to develop their own political opinions and cast their ballots as responsible citizens.

Stories of children and even adults being bullied and insulted because of their political beliefs are not unheard of.

This shows most of us are not even able – perhaps not willing – to handle non-controversial political discussions in a rational manner, what more to say of heated arguments over political ideologies.

While adults try to avoid religious and political discussions at social events to keep the peace, why not teach our children the same thing?

We learn from the Scriptures that we are to look at children as people separate from ourselves who are passing through our lives on the way to theirs. They are lent to us for a while. They are not ours in any ultimate sense. We have been given the privilege of launching them but we don’t steer the ship forever.

Let children be children. Don’t bombard them with too many negative thoughts and adult concepts.

I like this 8-year-old’s thoughts on Merdeka Day some 10 years back:

I wanted to fly a flag also on my mother’s car. I think it’s so nice to see the flags flying. But my mother does not like the idea. She says flying flags does not really show a person’s love for the country -- the flags should fly in our heart wherever we go.

True enough, this morning we passed by a car with more than 10 flags flying high. They overtook us and the passengers popped out their heads and made monkey faces at us.

So it’s more meaningful to let the flag fly high in our hearts.

We went to the church spring cleaning. I saw many uncles and aunties happily cleaning the church. I saw flags flying in every heart and every corner of my church.

I used to like August very much. Why? Because on the first day of the mouth, it’s my birthday. In the middle of August, it’s my grandpa’s birthday, then on the last day of the month, it’s Merdeka Day. There has been a reason to celebrate on 1st, 15th and 31st. But my grandpa had gone back to the home of the Lord. Now, August has become a month with a reason to remember my grandfather and my country on the 1st, 15th and 31st.

I remember. I listen. I watch. I learn. I see. I feel. I move. I smell. I touch. I love. I run. I jump. I yell. I sing. I dance. I am not a great person. Malaysia is my country. I am one small star. But my mother says that’s wonderful too.

Our God, being very journalistic, has instructed us the how, the when and the where to communicate excitement, joy, humour, wonders, and glory to children:

“…impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” - Deuteronomy 6:7

Be guided.