On Sunday, June 27, 2010, Public Law Lecturer Mr. Mark Cephas Tan took his class of Intermediate students to the Speaker's Square inPenang. It is truly unique in the sense that it is the one and only in this country.
Speaker's Square seems rather out of place here in Malaysia. It sounds more like a fancy foreign thing. We are indeed lucky and indebted to the Penang State Government for this privilege.
It was drizzling slightly and grey clouds hung ominously. Still, upon arriving there, there was a sizeable crowd. I spotted my friend among his Gerakan comrades. They spotted us too, and before long, we engaged in a conversation. The awkwardness with the new place quickly disappeared. More and more people came and gathered. The Gerakan group seemed poised to talk. Mr. Sanjay Kumar Kanchanlal, Senior Public Law Lecturer, joined us halfway with his wife.
With half the crowd folding their arms, the first speaker, from the Gerakan group took his place and started speaking. Catering to the majority of the crowd, he spoke in Mandarin about issues beleaguering the island and directed his jabs at its Chief Minister.
Though the drizzle showed no signs of stopping, the crowd increased steadily. I noticed a small group, distinct from the crowd, armed with notebooks, pens and some with cameras. As the speaker spoke on, they were jotting down notes and snapping shots. Immediately after the speaker was done, they surrounded him and posed questions, chimed in by snapshots of large cameras.
The chain of speakers continued with the second speaker taking the centre stage, also from the Gerakan group.
It was not long until a few senior citizens started to get rowdy and jeered at the Gerakan speaker. One passion driven uncle took the front page of a Chinese daily and pointed to the words out loudly. Together with his gang, they were rather affluent with Hokkien vulgarity. Later on, I learnt that they were Rocket supporters, and the issue at hand was politicised.
I had fun and some real insight. Regardless of our political affiliations, school of thoughts, I think (in general) Malaysians are not up to that kind of standard of maturity just yet.
Most people just want to talk, or they want to hear want they want to hear. No one is listening properly, and almost certainly, no one has bothered to research an issue thoroughly enough.
Though I believe the establishment of such a place is 'coming of age' for Malaysians.
There were also claims saying that the place is merely a political agenda of politicians. Despite its triteness, people still do not seem to grasp the saying that politicians are politicians, and the ultimate goal of any politicians is to gain power. I doubt the existence of a 'kind and fatherly politician’. They will have their own agendas, because that's what they do. However, we as the people could control and subject them to responsibility and accountability, through our identity as voters. So, to me, *even* if the Speaker's Square is part of any political agenda, there is nothing wrong with it. The people want it, the people like it. Politicians usually do what the people want and like to gain support. So we end up with a place where we can talk freely and exchange ideas and speak in the public because politicians built it, in their quest for power. Is it a bad thing? I doubt so. The voters are only fulfilling their function, and their function is to make them politicians *work* for power.
I'm already thinking of going for the second time.
~ Daniel Teoh ~
Intermediate Jan 2010
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