Leg Co - the old days
Nothing much today. I spent my Friday desperately trying to complete my Sunday article for the Golden Legacy column on Brunei Times about the history of the Brunei's Legislative Council. You have to buy tomorrow's Brunei Times if you do want to read it with the nice photographs.
For those who don't want to wait till tomorrow to see the photos, attached are two of them. The first is a Legislative Council meeting in 1948 with Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin chairing and the second in 1952 with Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin. Compared to the grand and opulent building of today, those days were very much less.
For those who don't want to wait till tomorrow to see the photos, attached are two of them. The first is a Legislative Council meeting in 1948 with Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin chairing and the second in 1952 with Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin. Compared to the grand and opulent building of today, those days were very much less.
Comments
The contrasts between the good old days of LegCo and now is amazingly phenomenal. Today, what is more interesting is the globalisation of news through all media - be it the newsprints, radio television broadcasts, or the widely-accessed powerful Internet - with reports of Parliamentary sittings in the Mainland China People's Congress, in Taiwan and nearby Singapore (still debating Budgetary issues).
In Malaysia, the ruling National Front led by the Malay political party, UMNO, is being seriously challenged by the smaller but stronger Opposition parties within the People's Alternative Front.
And in the much older and more systematic democracy of the United States, what could possibly be either the First Black (Senator Barack Obama) or First Woman Presidential hopeful in Hillary Clinton are fighting tooth and nail to win the Democratic Party nomination to challenge Republican nominee, Senator John McCain. I am rooting for Barack Obama most definitely! In fact, I have always predicted since he first made his CNN Speech during the Democratic Convention five years ago that his charismatic youthfulness will lead him to the White House. At 46 years of age, it will be a really PHENOMENAL feat of the Century!
Back home in Brunei Darussalam, we have our very own Rozan Yunos. And the one and only HRH Crown Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah as the youngest Senior Minister in the whole wide world, of course!:)
So it has been a pretty thrilling and exciting weekend for all Malaysians when the youngest opposition politician, a 27-year old mother, Nurul Izzah, made her grand debut in the 12th General Elections and shockingly defeated a very seasoned former Minister, Shahrizat Jalil, with a whopping 2,000-vote majority win in Lembah Pantai constituency near Kuala Lumpur. Her mother, Datin Seri Wan Azizah, also won big in last Saturday's March 8 elections. The prime-mover and mastermind in the grand scheme of things for the biggest victory ever by the opposition parties in the history of the country is none other than the 'comeback kid' Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Parti Keadilan Rakyat Adviser and Malaysia's former Deputy Prime Minister during Tun Mahathir's Premiership.
What relevance has above news got to do with us Bruneians, one asks? Well, in most quarters of the Bruneian "Rakyat", particularly between the ages of 25 - 65, they are craving for such democratic processes as the General Election to be re-introduced in this country. And the Voice of the People or "Suara Rakyat" most certainly cannot be ignored in this golden age of Globalisation and increasingly-powerful media of the Internet, I am sure you would have to agree with me, BRo:)