Is changing the National Flag necessary?

For several decades, the New Zealand tried to decide whether they should change the current flag. This flag debate started before May 1973, and still continuing until now. Alternative designs have been proposed, however, none of the ideas meet the Kiwi´s satisfaction. The New Zealand Parliament then held the two stage binding referendum on 2015 and 2016. The Kiwis were asked to vote the preferred flag design. The response for the referendum was cold, there was no great enthusiasm shown among the public. However voters have decided to retain the current flag, by a vote of 56,6% to 43,1%.

Is changing the national flag necessary?

Flag is one of the essential of the country. It´s something that represents a country, the symbol of pride. The government spent so much money, time and thoughts on the flag, whether they choose design A or design B as their national flag. Some countries put their iconic objects — what their country is famous for — on their flag design (for example: Maple leaf on Canada´s flag). Some countries put the symbol of how many states in their country are (for example: The 50 stars on United States flag represent the 50 states of the USA). Some national flags are so iconic that a nickname is being given to them (for example: The Union Jack). But for some countries, their flag is similar with another country that people can´t really distinguish them, resulted in conflicts like wrong seating in the world summit or wrong flag during international championship. It could be upsetting for some people, especially when their flag is similar to neighboring rival country and people mistake them to be another country´s citizen. No wonder some group will try to change their current flag design that is similar to another country´s to something that can fully represent their country. The case is, even though some national flags can be considered as “half-assed” or “lazily made”, designing a national flag that everyone in the country can approve is no easy job. It´s not cheap either, the flag referendum plan in New Zealand costed $26 million. Not to mention the attachment people have to the old design, the current national flag.

As an Indonesian, i could understand why the government wanted to change the flag. Indonesia, like New Zealand, is not internationally well known. Our flag is very similar to two another more well-known countries (Monaco and Poland). On the Grand Prix 3 2010 in Turkey when the first Indonesian racer Rio Haryanto stood on the podium, the event organizer had to flip the Poland flag to match the Indonesian flag. When i attended the Studienkolleg, during opening party the university prepared the tables and the national flags on it. Even we Indonesians are confused whether it was Indonesian or Poland flag. It´s upsetting when people mistake your own national flag. Moreover, New Zealand flag is similar to Australian flag (which is their rival country), so it´s more upsetting for some Kiwis to be mistaken as Australian, since Australia is more well-known internationally.

But even though i could understand the reason behind the flag debate, i still don´t think that it´s necessary for New Zealand to change the current flag, considering the cost and the time spent to decide on the new design. The government should have allocated the time and money they spent on this “worthless” debate for more urgent matters. Besides, the Kiwis don´t even care. Only the politicians do.