The annual flag season amuses me greatly. There they go again, I think to myself. It's that time when powerful hands turn on the tap, expecting a rich flow of patriotism.

In mid August I was walking along the KL Seremban highway and I noticed that patriotism was taking a low profile this time around. When driven around - including to Cyberjaya and a few other locations - it was obvious that the rather painfully strident calls to fly the flag had fallen largely on deaf ears.

Vehicles with the Jalur Gemilang were few and far in between. Those that had adorned the flag, did grab my eye. There were two vans bristling with flags like porcupines, spotted on different occasions, charging merrily along the KL-Seremban expressway.

Malaysians being Malaysians, can suffer from sudden attack of arthritis in their hands, when called on to pay for something they are used to receiving for free. So one would be led to ask the question; what is the price for patriotism? Therein lies the rub.

How do you gauge something so intangible and yet so potent? I'm one who's very reticent about displaying patriotism on one's sleeve. It's not something to broadcast abroad. The spirit of patriotism arises unbidden, when some occasion or event taps into that well.

The finest and the most recent example of that was when Byran Nickson took the ten metre platform for his turn at the Athens Olympics diving event. We were watching something else on TV when a call from another member of the family rushed us into changing the channel to watch a Malaysian participant of that event.

What a shock it was when he finally materialised. So high up and so tiny, cutting a lonesome and desolate figure. The crowd roared at the sight and took him to their heart. Totally oblivious to their presence and the noise, Byran raised his hands and leapt in tight turns and hit the water with a splash. We joined in the groans.

However, his final effort was beautifully executed and again the crowd exploded as we too did; unfortunately it was not enough. He failed to get through to the next round by a whisker.

Millions around the globe were as one in those transcendental moments; a collective celebration of the human spirit.

A 14 year old boy had done what politicians would give an arm and a leg to do; just by giving his best. Stack that up against an Umno caught up in election fever. Some put themselves on the auction block to the highest bidder.

At the right price

It has even reached the stage where consortiums have reportedly been formed to organise the bidding: Malaysia Inc turned ugly with chilling implications.

Former prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad had warned more than once those who sell their votes would be prepared to sell their country. For the right kind of money what is there to stop these people from peddling their influence to foreign parties?

What's happening in Umno should not be seen in isolation. It's part of conspicuous consumerism growing like an uncontrolled noxious weed. Knowingly or otherwise, its spirit was succinctly captured in a Celcom jingle, which in part went like this: 'Show me your money, that's how it's done, Gimme, gimme what I wan', gimme gimme what I wan'.'

Let's look at patriotism from another angle; in connection with the Kuala Selangor fireflies, which must have taken millions of years to evolve. Their lights were winking out to the level of extinction, when the Sultan of Selangor sounded the alarm.

Shamefully, only then did our elected representatives sit up and take notice. Straight away some councillors were ordered to the area and directed to come up with solutions within three days. Now there's genius for you.

As though that was not enough, the offending factories lining the river banks and polluting the waters for heaven knows how long, have been offered a voyage down the waterway. One would presume that overcome by the tragic sight, the culprits would break down in tears, confess to everything and pledge restitution.

Politicians' ways are truly mysterious.

In the meantime, the Department of Environment reportedly went into hiding to escape the press. Now follows another story awful enough for patriotism to hang its head in shame; Pulau Tioman.

They are threatening to damage coral reefs; some estimated to be 1,000 years old, in the island's surrounding waters for the construction of a marina which is also likely to kill off the fascinating sea life there; all providing the main pulling force for divers from across the world.

That the potential destruction of that priceless heritage provoked such an outpouring of public rage surely is a concrete expression of love for country. And to think that the project is sanctioned by the Federal Marine Parks Department is the cruellest cut of all. Indeed pagar cannot makan the padi much more than that.

What separates these culprits from the common vandal is the estimated cost of RM40 million for the project. On the heels of that scandal another graver and more immediate one hit the headlines, that of the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang.

Some vital facilities had been neglected for so long that surgery could not be carried out in a number cases as the air conditioners were constantly breaking down, leaving the doctors to slog under highly stressful conditions.

They reportedly had to work in crammed conditions, with several of them sharing a consulting room. This is supposed to be the country's second busiest hospital, whose authorities have lodged complaints with the Health Ministry, but to no avail.

Who is to say that the other government hospitals nationwide are immune from such neglect?

When the story exploded in a local daily, there was the usual expected flurry of running around from officialdom.

In the name of research

Whether anything comes out of this treadmill exercise remains to be seen. The pot boiled over with another incident, adding to the despair over the state of the nation. The Malaysian Examinations Syndicate (MES), no stranger to controversies, bought itself yet another storm.

This time cutting a question from a workbook and pasting it on the English paper for UPSR.

When this reached the public domain, a fair bit of heat was rightly generated. However, when the Education Ministry's Director General Abdul Rafie Mahat sanctioned this highly questionable technique, saying that it encouraged pupils to undertake research, the brown stuff really hit the fan.

Now, flowing from the same logic and since all ethical considerations seem to have been chewed up and spat out, why not open the doors to wholesale copying. Students can enjoy the company of their text books and do some research as they tackle tough exam questions.

How lovely that would be. An orgy of straight A students and all schools boasting a 100 percent pass rate. Wouldn't we be the envy of the world? Stitch all the incidents together and the picture is not really pretty. Moreover, the fear is that more nasty revelations are likely to surface.

So, it ill becomes politicians to piously preach patriotism to us. Hoisting the flag is not the only measure of patriotism.