To be Fair

If one building truly symbolises the democratic system that Malaysia practises, it is the Parliament House, built in September 1962 near the Kuala Lumpur Lake Gardens. The building cost RM18mil and was the brainchild of Malaysia's first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Officially opened in 1963,the House of Representatives and the Senate are located in the building.

We took this picture from our room in Hilton KL. You could see that the complex consists of two parts: the main building, which is a three-storey building, and its 18-storey tower annexe. Within the building are two national assembly halls: the Dewan Rakyat (Parliament) and Dewan Negara (Senate). Although the designs of the two halls are the same, the smaller Dewan Negara has nice stained glass windows with traditional Islamic motifs.

Politics is my parent’s main sparring topics over the dinning table for all meals of the day. When LKY was still prime minister of Singapore, he was worried sick over the increasingly greying population of Singapore. To make matters worse female graduates were then (and by the way still are) getting married later or even never. He thus proposed a holistic embrace of the Confucianism philosophy and emphasized selectively on very specifically chosen topics especially the concept that suggests home is where women should belong. Of course Confucianism is much broader that this. But when Editorials of major press, which some are proxy of governments as so we were told even as children, started singing praise of the wisdom of this one single concept, it was like adding pepper to the spicy curry chicken served at dinner.

My mother, a full time working mom, made it clear to all who were present at the dinner table, including her five young daughters, that today’s modern women has every right to determine who they want to be. The concept of freedom of choice was planted then in my young mind, thanks to that particular dinner. But for some strange reason no one has ever challenged my mother’s order that vegetables and fried fish are good for children, despite the concept of freedom of choices.

My father on the other hand championed “corporate governance” before Enron scandal made this term essential. His mood turns feisty if reports on corruption, racial policy and power struggle amongst our local politicians were served on the independent press for the day. When the largest local Chinese newspaper Nanyang was acquired by MCA, my father and his friends over their local kopitiam lunch, made a joint pact to stop their home subscription . While I treat parliamentary debates as noisy board room squabbles, he reads insights into every move and every policy that is passed. Over desserts, my dad will give his commentary and condemn the evil forces.

To be fair it is not all dooms days for him. There are Jedi knights in his eyes but their population is currently too small for him to change his view that dark side will prevail. My mother has a different opinion. She believes that good will trumph and though today’s cumulative results are just too insignificant for us to appreciate right now, the mountain is being moved at small steps every day.

Our cabinet has recently completed their debate on the 9th Malaysian Plan (9th MP) and is our prime minister Pak Lah’s answer to the nation to propel us one step closer to our vision 2020. I asked Dad if he thinks our nation will achieve the vision on time. He thought for a while, and said “Pak Lah has got to need more support”. Guess for the many dinners to come, we will continue to hear Dad’s commentary on the inroad Jedi knights are making.

A new parliament house is built in CyberJaya. But our grand dame will stand tall at the hilltop of the Lake Garden overlooking Kuala Lumpur, as she has always been since 1962. After all she is only at her prime 44.