It is unlawful for anyone to insist upon another person to pledge loyalty to the government of the day. A citizen's loyalty should lie with the country or the nation, but not with the government.

The reason for this is that a citizen owes a duty of allegiance to one's own nation or country, and not to the ruling elite. His loyalty does not lie with the government. A government in any country may come and go. It does not enjoy political immortality, as Thompson CJ, the Chief Justice of Malaya in the 1960s, put it.

It is the ruling party which secures the majority vote in a general election that forms the government. If it loses its majority vote in any general election, the opposition party which happen to obtain the majority in the election will form the next government, and the former ruling party will in turn become the opposition.

That is why Thompson CJ in one of his famous judgments delivered in the 1960s expressed the view that a government does not enjoy "political immortality".

He enunciated that, in a parliamentary democracy, it is perfectly in order for any citizen to advocate the overthrow of an unpopular government, and to persuade the other citizens to change the government of the day by lawful and constitutional means. Such an act cannot be labelled as "disloyalty". It is only when any person tries to change the government by unconstitutional means that he can be described as being disloyal to the nation or the country.

In fact, it is encumbered upon the citizens to change the government by lawful and constitutional means. They merely owe their loyalty to the nation, but not to the government. To compel citizens to pledge loyalty to the government is tantamount to extorting blind loyalty from the citizenry. It is far from reasonable for the ruling elite to do so.

Strictly speaking, it is unlawful on the part of the ruling elite to extract such blind loyalty from the populace. This is particularly so when public servants are involved, the reason being that they are invariably under undue influence of the ruling elite.