and this is very impressive

i watched the debate this afternoon in the House of Commons. i'm not sure if NST or The Star will report on the ongoing claims crisis in the UK, but it's a big thing over here and is the subject of many column inches, from highbrow magazines like The Economist down to the popular flicks like FHM and Cosmopolitan.

basically, it's a bunch of MPs who are claiming too much money from the government (and by extension, the taxpayers) for frivolous items - like diapers and fixing water pipes under their tennis courts. the worst offender claimed thousands of pounds to pay for interest on a loan he took to buy a second home. the trouble is, he had already finished paying for that home.

that was probably the only legally wrong claim. most other claims are legally right, but morally very questionable (you'd expect that from claims for a toilet brush holder). you can see a spreadsheet here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rvWgEEGK9xuUQBR1EFcxHWA

so the Speaker faced lots of pressure to quit today. he dealt with it poorly:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/18/gordon-brown-michael-martin-speaker

here are my impressions, compressed into soundbites:

1. every country has corruption. even Malaysia, and we must not hide from this fact. the wonder in this country is that the media is actively exposing corruption and the public is actively getting angry about it. this will never happen where i come from.

2. only in a First World country can an MP say this to the Speaker, and not go to jail, and rather become viewed as a hero:
"When will Members be allowed to choose a new speaker with the moral authority to clean up Westminster and the legitimacy to lift this House out of the mire?"
this is right after that MP proposed a motion of no-confidence in the Speaker, but it was postponed to tomorrow.

3. everybody from both Conservative and Labour agree that they have been wrong and have committed morally wrong and legally questionable claims - and are profoundly sorry and appear apologetic and ashamed. this is a bit much - praising those thieves who are caught with their hands in the cookie jar - but nevertheless, acts of contrition are the least anyone can do when caught. again, it'll take something special to incorporate this (or is it indoctrinate this) into malaysian mentality.

***

on the bus coming back tonight, i overheard two people talking behind me. this isn't a bus heading to a swanky part of town, it was a bus headed to a suburb, which means that these two are the average Joes of London. their English sounded a little foreign, like they've been here not too long. they don't look white collar at all.

what were they talking about? modernisation, industrialisation, Egyptian pharoahs and their pyramids and how they managed to build them without tools - finally agreeing that tools are the building blocks of modern society, without which we are lost.

this is the conversation between two 20-ish year olds, in the back of a bus, around 10pm, on a Monday night, heading home.

what are our Malaysian 20-ish year olds talking about as they head home?