CANBERRA (Dec 06 - Feb 07) and SINGAPORE (Feb 07) With Sam and Hong Yi at the steps leading up to the Postgraduate Village at Burgmann College. Sam is of course, my friend that I knew from OCF Perth, and we knew Hong Yi while at Burgmann. He's Singaporean, studies Computer Science at UNSW, and is on a MINDEF Scholarship! Really appreciated their friendship throughout the 2 months I was in Canberra, especially those nights when we went to the McD's at Braddon... because dinner at college was (occasionally) quite bad.
Our room at Burgmann College. I was at Block G of the Postgraduate Village... shared the apartment with a dude from Sri Lanka - his name is Hesavan - and he studies Computer Science (also!) at Adelaide University. But of course, we had our own rooms. :) Just showing you the fridge... which was woefully under-utilised because we were already provided with 3 meals a day. Actually, come to think of it, these were good days. Eat my meals, just dump the plates etc back to the collection point, and run off back to work, or my room. Unlike back at Perth haha.... but Perth's good too - in many other ways.
Even has a stove for cooking! The only time we used this during our 2 months here was during the farewell dinner for Ngoc, who left on 15 January I think. Kim was here doing her Pad Thai, which actually tasted not too bad!
Ahh my room... in its usual mess, as my Perth friends might come to expect as a natural condition by now. Room's much bigger and nicer than that in Nedlands (but not complaining here!), and it even comes with a heater (upper right-hand corner) for those cold nights in Canberra. Yes, we did have our fair share of below 10 C nights, even during summer here.
My study table in my room.
Entrance to Block G, Postgraduate Village.
Our lounge area in the apartment. Hesavan's room is on the left, mine's on the right-hand corner.
My own office at the Department of Political & Social Change, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. Will miss this office - I dare say out of 7 days in a week, I'd stay in my office up till 11pm or even midnight+ for about 4 days. Ostensibly to do work, but most of the time, it'd be chatting with friends or having compulsive checking e-mail phenomenon.
Photocopying and printing room... or what is called the Equipment Room. Was thinking that I actually fell in love with the photocopier cos everything was free to print heehe. This room is pretty special too, cos we'd bump into each other in this room... and sometimes we'll hang around here to chat about everything under the sun - from what people were doing before they came to Canberra, to the Ministerial reshuffle in January.
If you look closer at the printers (on the right), you'll see a paper stuck on one of them. It writes - "Paper jammed on Tray 2. Please use PSC1 (i.e. the other printer) instead. TQ". So I remembered how this incident is so indicative of how we arts people work. It's like, when there's a technical problem of some sort, we'll just stick a piece of paper on it, and hope that some technical person will solve it... one day. So I was bringing Sam with me to tour my department, and I was telling him this problem that we've been facing for 2 days. And Sam deftly dislodged the stuck paper and everything was working a-ok instantly. Let's just say we arts people ain't very hands-on haha. At the main entrance of RSPAS. It's called the Coombs Building, and it is made up of 3 inter-linked hexagonal buildings - if you bother to look at the map of ANU, it's Number 9 on the map. So I remember I'll always enter this building with a cup of cappuccino in my hand (taken from Burgmann College), and how when I left the building late, the security guard would always wish me g'night. :)
The signboard that is standing in front of the Coombs Building.
With David Jansen - he was also a Summer Scholar at the same department 2 summers back. He used to be from Newcastle University, and now he's back at the ANU doing his PhD. Remembered he bought me coffee at the tea-room in the Coombs Building during my first week, and we had lunch together in a cafe at the School of Art on my second last day. David's doing his PhD on government security providers in post-1998 Indonesia, and yeah, we had quite a lot of conversations about Australian politics, immigration policy, Kevin Rudd and so on.
With Dr. Edward Aspinall, one of my two supervisors. Ed's now in Aceh - which is where his major research interest lies in - the separatist conflict going on there. I owe him quite a bit, considering that he provided the main suggestion that it'd be quite fruitful to research on why there has been a coup in Thailand, but none so far in Indonesia since democratisation in 1998. My original research proposal submitted in August 2006 was something quite different. As for my paper, I've finished writing the first draft (8000 words), and yeah, still have some major editing to do, which I must admit I'm pretty lazy to do now that I'm back in Malaysia. The title is - "Coup-Making and Democratic Transitions: A Comparative Analysis of Civil-Military Relations in Indonesia and Thailand since 1997".
One of those conversations I remember at the top of my head:
Ed's like suggesting some possible avenues I could delve into for my research.
Ed: "You don't look very convinced with what I'm saying, Will". Me: "I reckon that's because I look like that all the time".
And we both burst out laughing... haha.
With Dr. Greg Fealy - my other supervisor. Admittedly, I didn't get to meet him as often as I did with Ed because Greg was away all of December and early January. But during those conversations we had, he did suggest some plausible avenues where I can try to get my paper published, and he's also now editing my first draft. So my plan is to do my editing when I get his feedback. Greg's research interests relates to the role of Islam in Indonesia, and more broadly, Islamic politics.
With Hesavan my housemate in Canberra - this also happens to be the last photo I took in Canberra before I had to rush to the airport with Hong Yi driving. Really nice dude... had quite a few chats about our respective adopted cities (Adelaide and Perth), the conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan governments, about Hinduism and Christianity and so on. :)
My Canberra to Perth flight was scheduled to depart at 1930hours, and we reached the airport at 1910hrs!! The Qantas ground staff nearly didn't want to take my check-in luggage, and this woman went on a tirade on how "Qantas has a boarding policy that does not admit anymore luggage after less than 30mins to take-off". Well, of course I know that, but the way she was going on and on about it was quite urm... never mind heehe. But yeah, thank God that I was still able to get on the flight. Like she said, "Mr Lee, you're a lucky man today". You see right, I couldn't miss the flight because there's only one direct Canberra-Perth flight everyday (at 1930 AEDT), and I had a flight to catch to Singapore at 1630 AWDT the next day... see the problem there if I miss the CBR-PER flight? :)
Singapore, 6 Feb 07: With Jon, Jiamin and Vivian at Siam Express... Bugis. Jon's of course, a good mate from OCF Perth, and the girls are friends from OCF Sydney / UNSW, whom I first got to know during Convention 2005. Don't eat the eat-all-you-want buffet at Siam Express, please!
After dinner, we went to a jazz bar... think it was called Jazz @ Southbridge. Quite good live jazz music they have there. Spent the night at Jon's place, where he revealed to me "The Secret", to leave it deliberately vague hahaha. And was treated to breakfast at McD opposite Lido Orchard the next morning before heading back to JB. Thanks dude!
Singapore, 6 Feb 07: Earlier in the day, I went to NUS to have lunch with jianwei and daryl... was also hoping to get either one of them to borrow for me a book which I need this semester, and then I'll zap the whole book in JB to save costs. :P Anyway, I had lunch with jw at the Engineering canteen I think - the Arts one was closed for renovation :( Then when we were at the Central Library, we bumped into Yee Kai... he's like an old friend from Catholic High... we did Malay at the 3rd Language Centre together - now doing Sociology at NUS. Yeah was really very happy for the coincidental meeting. Chatted quite a bit, and you know, it's really funny now reminiscing about different people in CHS, where they are now and so on. Then daryl came to join us... and then we all went to the Science Faculty to look for Pierre, who was my Sec 1 & 2 classmate. Then we chatted more again about how was I doing in Australia, about their NS experiences... yeah was a good time of sharing.
Anyways, from L-R: Pierre (from 4-9), Yee Kai (from 4-7), me, and daryl (both from 4-8). Think there was some kind of friendly rivalry between the 3 classes, because we were allegedly the "smartest" classes in the level... but we're now all just old Catholic High boys who look back on our secondary school days fondly. And of course, my love-hate relationship with Whitley Secondary (the school next to Catholic High), and the girls in there heehehehe.
Perth, October 2006: At James Voon's dim sum factory... raymond, me, and jon. 2006 was the second year that OCF Perth took part in UWA's Spring Feast... and yeah, we're really grateful to James for selling us char siew paus and dim sum at rock-bottom prices to sell at UWA so we can raise funds for Convention. So we have to wear these shower cap-like caps before we enter the area where they manufacture buns etc. This must be a stoning-pose or something that we took haha. Always quite tiring to organise Spring Feast, but also happy times as well. :)
CHINESE NEW YEAR travel plans This CNY, let's just say, paradoxically, I'm going to the cradle of Malay civilisation. Will be leaving JB early 16 Feb, and only back again on 22 Feb.
16 night - Genting 17 night - KL, in the Damansara area to be exact. 18 night - Ipoh 19 & 20 night - Kota Bahru, Kelantan. Will definitely want to make the crossing to Sungai Kolok, the border town on the Thailand side. :) 21 night - KL, back in the Damansara area. 22 - back in JB.
Estimated distance covered: at least 2000km. For the record, I don't have any relatives in Ipoh or Kota Bahru. Will be driving with my family. Quite looking forward to this, but also pray for journey mercies as traffic will be very heavy this CNY with the balik kampung exodus and all.
BAPTISM tomorrow Actually, I'm not feeling particularly excited or anything like that. But definitely happy that I'm making this public commitment tomorrow. I know my mum is very happy about tomorrow though - I followed my folks to their cell group on Thursday, and my mum was sharing that tomorrow will rank up there with her wedding, as the rest of the family is getting baptised - dad, me, brother, and sister. Then there's also an element of doubt inside me, not too sure of what exactly... but of course, it's going ahead as planned tomorrow :) Our church chairperson came to give us a workshop on baptism on Wednesday night, and should be a couple more after tomorrow.
Doing the bible reading tomorrow - a very long 42 verses - John 4: 1-42. Should go and read and pray about it now :)
Uncle Henry, my cousin Shahan, mum and grand-aunt Bertha. Bertha brought up my mum from birth until she was like 20 years old or so. My maternal grandma was too poor to raise my mum, so she was "given away" to Grandaunt Bertha, who's my maternal grandfather's sister. My maternal grandfather died when my grandmother was still pregnant with my mum, so neither my mum nor I have ever seen him. I know he's a Jack though, and my cousin is named after him. Bertha is Uncle Henry's mother, so my mum grew up to be very close to Henry... even closer than her own brothers.
Bertha turns 93 this year, and she has dementia... something which she caught about 3 years back or so. So now she can't recognise anyone, but she's still very alert and all. This was taken in a old folks' home in East Kew I think.... she can't stay with my relatives because they all work, and she's gotten lost by walking out by herself a couple of times already. Visited Grandaunt Bertha again with Shahan when I was in Melbourne in November 2006. This was taken on our way to Ballarat. We saw this bloke by the side of the road tending to his sheep, and yeah we stopped by to say hi. Very nice guy.... was really generous in showing us his house (really a shed), and his life story. Hope he's still doing a-ok.
With mum and dad... taken around the same hills on our drive to Ballarat. I love this photo big-time. Hoping to enlarge it soon. :)
So the really nice bloke I was talking about very kindly gathered all his sheep together by feeding them, so that my mum could take a photo with the sheep close-up. I think I'll never forget his act of kindness.
Mum and I with more sheep... heeheh.
Mum and I at the 12 Apostles. Still remember how we rented a Nissan Pulsar from Europcar... and with unlimited kilometres, we drove from Melbourne to Geelong, Great Ocean Road, 12 Apostles, then went back inland.... stayed over night at this small town called Colac... then the next day we stopped by Ballarat. Actually, we're trying to organise another trip this year... should be in Perth and WA... going to do our driving thing again haha... most probably in July 2007.
This is with mum, and my cousins Jack and Joanna. Jack and Joanna are two of Uncle John's three children. John is my mum's own brother - same dad, but different mothers. Uncle Henry and his family visited Malaysia from 13 Dec - 30 Dec, for a family wedding which our family also attended. Uncle John and Aunty Phyllis visited Malaysia last month... and on both visits, I was not in Malaysia to be with them! haha. Was in Canberra doing my thing. According to dad, the first thing they looked for when they came into JB from Singapore was to look for chikus and bananas, which my folks gladly obliged.
Dad, my cousin Anna Lisa, mum, and Uncle John. Anna is Uncle John's youngest child - but still older than me by one year! This one was taken at Uncle John's place... very very close to Monash Clayton.
Family dinner at Uncle Henry's place - they stay at Hawthorn, which is where I always put up when I'm in Melbourne. From left to right: Mum, cousin LeShan (Henry's eldest son), cousin Joanna, Aunty Siew Kin (Henry's wife), Uncle Henry, cousin Shahan, myself and Uncle John. Think my dad was taking this photo. heeheh.
And as I was looking through the Melbourne photos, I came across a whole set of photos of my silly but very dear sister. Her name is Joy. Decided to include some of these photos here.
I don't know why she loves to do these poses! haha. But anyway, she's only turning 14 this year - so it's like an 8 year difference between the two of us.
And then I saw an even bigger collection of photos taken with her classmates / friends at school. Now, don't ask me what the teachers were doing when these photos were taken haha.
Here, I realised that yes, I do have a lot of grouses against the way things are done in Malaysia - from self-serving politicians who masquerade in their datuk-ships, to deplorable roads, to our "democracy", to rude and impatient drivers and so on etc. But then, I don't actually suspect my sis and her mates do have such issues on top of their heads all the time. Ahh.... youth.
Back home in JB! :) Very good to be back. Must treasure my 3 weeks here before I fly off on 25 Feb, 7.45pm.
Thanks to Kelvin and Ruth who sent me back from Perth Domestic back to Nedlands. I also had very good conversations with our new housemate, John Chong, on Thursday night. Had lunch at Broadway on Friday with Kristi, Glenna, and Steph, and before that I went to uni to do a psychology experiment that gave an extra $10 for lunch. heheh. Small pleasures. Bought back 2 boxes of Krispy Kreme from Canberra for all of them to share. For more pictures on that, haha, I saw that Kristi has some pics on her blog. :) Glenna drove, Steph and Kristi also tagged along to drop me at the international airport. I enjoyed catching up with so many people during the short 14 hours I had in Perth.
Flight was good. And thank God I didn't fly the 1225pm flight to Singapore, because that was delayed until 5pm!! I was on the 4.30pm Qantas flight, which left on time, which also meant we arrived earlier than the Qantas morning flight. Flight was good... I spent all of the time watching movies, Thank God You're Here, the Simpsons.... and had good conversations with the dude next to me too. He's going back to Austria (i.e. Singapore, then to London, then Vienna)... and he spent 1 sem at UWA as an exchange student. Did all Anthropology units.... and so yeah, we had some common ground there to talk about... it's always a pleasure when you get to talk to nice people on an otherwise boring flight. I was also blessed with a nice public servant from Department of Human Services to talk to on my Canberra-Perth flight.
Touched down at 2043hours - 2 minutes earlier than scheduled! Was out at 2104hours. And I actually had to wait about 10-15mins before my family came. Was very happy to see them again. They also managed to take delivery of our new car (a Perodua Myvi) that day, which I had the honours of driving back home! Had a meal in JB... was good & not expensive Chinese food. Very good stuff.
When I was back, I had the opportunity to see the Melbourne photos that we took in September. My dad and mum went to Melbourne for a 2 week holiday in September, of which I had the chance to fly over to be with them for a week. Very lovely holiday, when I look back on it. I'm happy that I had the chance to be with my folks during that September week.
Got myself a hair cut today - was only RM 9. heehe. Compared to the A$20 - the cheapest - I saw in Civic, Canberra. And basically drove around with my dad to do business in the Myvi. So many people has the Myvi... it's like everywhere on Malaysian roads. Ok lah, I'll let the photos do the talking now. Oh yes one last thing. Unfortunately, due to "technical" issues, our baptism is now postponed to the 11 Feb. But it's good! I really do need the time to talk to pastors, and pray about my baptism. Haven't really had the time to sit down and reflect, as I have been fairly busy with my work in Canberra.
And did you hear? I miss Canberra. aww. :)
Some photos of our new car... it's a Perodua Myvi 1.3 Ezi edition I think. heheh. It's actually not too bad I reckon. It has good pick-up, in spite of being a 1298cc car. And yeah the design is not too bad, esp. for a Malaysian brand.
I've got a big gripe about this! The controls in the centre look very plastic-like. Can't they do a wooden-finish or something like that. :)
More photos on (1) my September 2006 Melbourne trip with my parents, and (2) more Canberra photos during my last days there in the next two days :)
Had the opportunity today to go for a Phd candidate's pre-fieldwork seminar - he's in our department. From my mates tell me here, the first year is normally spent on preliminary research and your proposal, then you will present a pre-fieldwork seminar where everyone who is working on your broad area (in this case, Indonesia) will be invited to critique and comment on your methodology etc. Then you go out to do your fieldwork for slightly more than a year, and then another year+ or so writing your thesis. If you don't have the relevant language (i.e. in this case, Bahasa Indo) you spend another year or so doing intensive language courses in ANU and also in Indonesia before everything begins.
So Velix Wanggai's thesis is on Indonesian decentralisation: Ideas, Power and Policy-Making from 1998 to 2006. During the Soeharto era, power was concentrated mainly in Jakarta but since his resignation, there has been a great impetus to hand over power (e.g. over resources) back to local governments. Some say this has promoted democratisation, but others contend that these new arrangements have been hijacked by the "old" elites for essentially the same purposes as before, e.g. rent-seeking would be major one. But I do agree with Velix that most studies on decentralisation so far has been focused on implemenation - i.e. the focus becomes on political parties. So far, there has not been much on the role of ideas, the role academics, bureaucrats, think-tanks etc play. People were then commenting on whether is it plausible to draw such a tight dichotomy between ideas / knowledge and interest, or if they are really two mutually reinforcing things. Hmm anyway, was a good eye-opener.
On another note, I had quite a big shock when I found out that I was invoiced nearly $2000 higher than what I'd have expected to pay this semester. Some of my friends had no increase, one of them had an increase. I've never known that the school fees would increase because the policy has been that you pay the same school fees annually as the year that you first entered, i.e. for me 2004. I suspect the system stuffed-up our records, as most people didn't have an increase. But it's pretty distressing and I haven't heard from the International Centre yet.
3 days before i leave Canberra, 4 days to Singapore!
I was in favour of the death penalty when I was still in Singapore and Malaysia, but ever since I came over to Australia, I'm convinced that the death penalty is barbaric and inhumane. I don't think that implies I became "Westernised" or anything like that, but I believe life is precious and no one deserves to have his/her life snuffed out just like that. Furthermore, if that person wanted to rehabilitate him/herself, there's no way that can possibly happen. The death sentence, once being performed, there's simply no U-turning back.
That is not to say I don't acknowledge that the drug problem is a serious one. Yes, it is and it is something that governments should tackle head-on. But surely there are better ways to do that than to impose mandatory death sentences? The Singapore system is such that there's no room for judges to make any discretion of any extentuating circumstances, cos the law automatically provides for the gallows once u traffic 15 grams of heroin, so on and so forth. Besides, the person doing the trafficking is more often than not just a drug mule. Hanging the trafficker but not going after the masterminds = not solving the problem at all.
And by the way, the Australian government under John Howard is not doing a good job in reflecting our opposition against the death penalty either. When you oppose it, it's a matter of principle. You don't just simply select and choose who you think deserves to die "more". The Howard government, especially Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Attorney-General Philip Ruddock is probably very guilty of double standards, when they are vocal about death sentences for Van Nguyen (the Australian dude who also was hung at Changi Prison in Dec 2005), and the impending death sentences for some of the Australian Bali 9 drug-traffickers. BUT yet they are conspicuously silent when the perpetrators of the Bali 2002 bombings were sentenced to death, or even more recently, Saddam Hussein's execution.
The bottom line is, I reckon, you don't return an eye for an eye because revenge will then be an endless cycle, and I feel every life is precious to God. Yes, even Saddam Hussein's, despite his crimes against humanity.
Just heard from my mum last night that we managed to sell off our aging 14-year Honda Accord for RM 15 000. And they went to buy a Perodua MyVi - apparently it's like a very popular model back in Malaysia. Anyway, they said that it'd probably arrive next week or something - waiting time is much less than the 10 months when the MyVi was first launched in May 2005. We retained the old Honda Accord's number plate, so this car will have a rego of JAN 200 - we have been keeping that number for 25 years already - so this is the 4th car that would have this rego number - the first was a 1981 Honda Civic (dad's first car), then it went to a Proton Saga, and then it went to a 1992 Honda Accord, and now into a 2007 Perodua MyVi.
The colour is correct I think as the one you see in this picture - olive green, my mum said. Hmm I don't really like this colour... prefer black or silver, but hmm anyway... not like I'll ever get much of a chance to drive it around heehe.
My supervisor said I'm making good progress - but from the looks of it, I don't think I'll be able to finish writing by today, so most probably I'll hole myself up in the office across Australia Day, so I can give a complete draft to Ed by Monday. I also attended my first (and what will be my only) Indonesian Study Group seminar yesterday! http://rspas.anu.edu.au/economics/ip/seminars.php.
Yesterday's seminar was pretty interesting. Was about the Chinese in East Java, especially Surabaya. You know how we often think of Chinese Indonesians as one monolithic bloc? I didn't know there were so many different groups of Chinese Indo - especially the division between peranakanand totok. I knew peranakan is mixed Chinese and Malay marriages, but I never knew there was another group called totok - those who migrated from China with their families and still maintained much of their Chinese values and traditions. Yeah, and also the role of education (schooling systems) and languages spoken - and how that served to widen the divide between peranakan and totok Chinese during the Soeharto years. But the presenter, who was a PhD candidate in Linguistics I think, was saying that now the younger generations do not really differentiate themselves as peranakan and totok anymore, and are perfectly ok with the idea of inter-marrying each other. Which was like a big contrast to their parents and grandparents' attitudes towards inter-group marriage. Interesting seminar that was, especially if you're interested in identity studies.
Big day in federal Australian politics today that was.
Woke up this morning for breakfast, and splashed across all the major newspapers was: "Rudd gains ground on Howard"(The Australian). An exclusive Newspoll taken for The Australian has shown that if an election was held today, the Labor Party (ALP) would have won decisively.
Key highlights in the Newspoll: - Two-party preferred vote: 55% ALP, 45% Liberal Coalition. - Primary vote: 44% ALP, 39% Liberal Coalition. - 70% of voters surveyed indicated that they are unhappy with the way the Howard government is handling the war on Iraq, and that "it would influence their vote". - Preferred Prime Minister - Howard is still ahead on 41%, but Rudd is now at a razor-close 39%. - Rudd's approval rating is 56% now, up from 41% when he became Opposition Leader last month. 56% happens to be twice the amount of approval that Kim Beazley had just before he was dumped as Opposition Leader.
3 hours later in Canberra, John Howard announced a minor reshuffle of his cabinet. Amanda Vanstone is the biggest casualty, having being dropped as Immigration Minister. Kevin Andrews takes over Immigration from his outgoing portfolio as Workplace and Industrial Relations Minister, set to be a key election issue this year (industrial relations). Malcolm Turnbull has been elevated to the Environment and Water Resources portfolio - also another key issue for this year's elections, expected to be held in October or November.
Interestingly, the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs is going to be renamed Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Note the word "multiculturalism" has been dropped, and this reflects a distaste of the Howard government for that word. That's because they think that "multiculturalism" has become a lexicon where "everything is cool, and everything will pass as 'Australian'". Wonder will there be any significant changes in immigration policy in the coming months?
One thing's for sure though. The election race has begun! :)
Maxine McKew joins Kevin Rudd as his special advisor on strategy! Ok Maxine McKew is this news presenter on ABC who just retired after a long media career end of last year. I always watch Lateline on ABC, and if it's not Tony Jones presenting, its Maxine McKew. And Kevin Rudd is ALP leader, and the federal election is somewhere around Oct or Nov 2007. Goes to show how media management is so important to election campaigning nowadays. But anyway, here are some more pictures taken in Canberra over the past two weekends.
14 Jan 07: With Sam and Ngoc by the Lake (Lake Burley Griffin). This lake pretty sits smack in the middle of Canberra, and its really nice! Named after the architect of Canberra (it's a planned city remember?) - Walter Burley Griffin. Canberra has such nice cycling tracks... that snakes around for kilometres on end. Very much like an F1 racing track! Thanks to Ngoc who lent us bikes from her department at Population Health and Epidemiology. Yeah some departments at ANU lend out bikes for their visiting scholars.. how cool is that. heehe.
21 Jan 07: With Debbie at the National Museum. Really funky museum they have here in Canberra. Showcases a lot of Aboriginal History and stuff that is close to Australia, e.g. sports, Holden, Vegemite, animals, Federation etc.
In front of Old Parliament House. This was where Parliament sat from like 1927 to 1988. No longer used, but you can still go in there and stand where Menzies used to stand.
And if you look closer at this photo, the Australian War Memorial is right at the end of it - Sam and I visited the AWM last month. Anyway, the AWM, the Old Parliament House, and the current Parliament House are like in a perfectly straight line!
In front of the current Parliament House! See the flag pole at the top? My Lonely Planet book says the flag is as tall as a double-decker bus. You can also see one of the only 4 known original copies of the Magna Carta (c. 1215) at Parliament House. It is one of those important early documents that sets down the idea of constitutional law, and was a big influence in the drafting of other documents like the American Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
In the Senate itself.. of course, you can't go all the way down to where the Senators sit. I'm at the viewing gallery - quite surprised there are no glass walls in between - i.e. you can probably shout all sorts of nonsense when the Senate is in session, although I have no doubts you'll probably be evicted by police or something haha.
I'll not go into a long story of what the Senate does. Suffice it to note there are 76 members (equal representation for each state = NSW, VIC, TAS, QLD, WA, SA and 2 from each territory = ACT and NT. They are voted in by a Proportional Representation system (Single-Transferable Vote) for 6 years, although half of the Senate is up for election every 3 years.
Ok ok too much detail! Must be very boring to lots of people. heehe.
The Senate without me.
And where the most exciting action happens - the House of Representatives! The Speaker, David Hawker sits on the elevated chair in the middle. On the table in front of the Speaker, John Howard sits on the right side (from the Speaker's view), and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd sits on the left. So yeah, the Liberals sit on the seats behind the PM and the Labor Party behind Rudd. The Cabinet and the Shadow Ministry (ALP) sits on the front-row bench at their respective sides.
I love Question Time at 2pm when Parliament is sitting, cos its televised live across the country. And lots of actions to see! Heehe.
And me at the House of Reps. I must visit Parliament House again before I leave Canberra. 11 days before I leave Canberra. :(
