Our urge to splurge...

Malaysian Houses of Parliament

Chambre des Députés du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg
It may not be a good example of comparing like with like. But our Houses of Parliament is certainly majestic by any standard and stood the test of time. The reason for the choice of Luxembourg is that it produces the best steel in the world which was used in building our iconic Petronas Twin Towers!

Luxembourg's equivalent is a humble two-storey building. I cannot help being reminded of Britain's No.10 Downing Street, London which is British Prime Minister's official residence, which no matter how we look at it, seems like a glorified terrace house! Of course, in comparison, our Malaysian PM's official residence is opulent with imported luxuries. It is our way of showing we are now better off than you, our colonial master.

Kuala Lumpur is too congested? No problem, we build a new capital Putrajaya, supposedly learning from mistakes. But it causes hardships to commoners to no end. The maintenance costs are likely to be astronomical.

The present Parliament building has its fair share of leaking roofs. Now, the Cabinet is considering building a new one in Putrajaya, estimated at Rm800 million, and we all know the figure is supposed to be a conservative one and likely to at least double over the construction period. With strong criticisms came the explanation that the PICC building is being considered as the building to be converted (also at high costs naturally) because it was under-used. Now, wasn't that an admission of mistake? So, it is so easy to manage our country - think big, spend the money and regret at leisure, after all, these are public funds at our disposal.

This letter in The Sun on June 25, seems to support my opinion to a certain extent, especially where he compares British Parliament building and ours :

Parliament building serves its purpose

http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=48564
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