My visit to Parliament House revisited

I was reading Malaysiakini’s letters dated Oct 26, which included one titled, ‘Income tax department too much’ by MSY. At the bottom were some letters relating to income tax matters. I thought one looked familiar, ‘Income tax laws archaic’, clicked, and was pleasantly surprised that it was my letter dated Oct 7, 2003!

It not only brought back memories of my one and only visit to Parliament House, a guided tour by YB Fong Po Kuan, but reminded me of a subject, ‘Hark Sing’ which I meant to post.

‘Hark Sing’ in Cantonese literally means ‘black star’ and I was wondering if my visit then meant I was one to some people. It refers to someone who brings bad luck to people he meets or something to that effect. The power that I wield!

The tour involved sitting by myself in the public gallery, away from a group of students and some other individuals, while YB Fong was taking part in the parliamentary session.

During lunch break, I joined her at the canteen where I met YB Theresa Kok. Then I was introduced to YB Wong Kam Hoong who was having lunch with YB Sothinathan, to discuss another matter which I complained about: the compulsory course for company directors, which was under Wong’s ministry then. He assured me that they would not take action against those who did not attend.

Before the afternoon session started, Po Kuan took me to the library. On the way, we saw YB Thong Fah Chong, at one of the sitting area along the corridor. He was then MP for Ipoh Timur (YB Lim Kit Siang is the present MP). She introduced to me, not directly but within hearing distance, that he is the MP for Ipoh Timur. He was obviously not particularly keen to know me as he actually turned and walked back towards the sofa!

In the library, while I was reading a book, in walked a lady whom I recognized as YB Tan Yee Kew. She sat a table away, facing me.

I could not remember at which point in time she took me to the Opposition’s Operations Centre and generally introduced me as a visitor from Batu Gajah. Call me sensitive if you like, as I was sitting on a sofa, facing the entrance to the Opposition Leader’s room, I sensed the door facing me being closed, obviously I was not supposed to be privy to some discussions which the then Opposition leader, YB Hadi Awang was seen in the room with a few others.

Honestly, I could not remember the sequence of events but out of the few people I met or had close encounter with on that day, both Thong Fah Chong and Hadi Awang lost in the general elections, MIC’s Sothinathan was suspended for openly criticizing a government policy, and MCA’s Tan Yee Kew was also suspended over showing a tape on sensitive party matters!

This is just one of my reflections over the coincidences. I got to know Po Kuan, AFTER she was suspended for six months, when I wrote a letter to express my appreciation for the principled stand she took and to offer encouragement and moral support.

However, I would like to think my letter to Malaysiakini in 2003 was one of the inputs, after Po Kuan’s raising of the matter, which resulted in the separate tax returns for husband and wife that we get since 2004! No booing please. I need some encouragement too!