British and Parliment

While on the bus going home yesterday, I watched al-Jazeera on my handphone (or cellphone to the Americans?). Mr Tony Blair was giving his final speech to the British parliment.

What grabbed my attention was not his speech, but rather the background. The layout of the parliment was very similar to what you would see on Malaysian television showing Malaysian parlimentary debate. If it wasn't for the clearly-white-people seating there, I would have thought it was in Malaysia. Another thing that I noticed was unlike the Malaysian parliment, the Brits don't have those huge tables for the members.

Mr Tony Blair was resigning. He was succeeded by his deputy (wasn't he?), Mr Gordon Brown. Again, very much like how Dr M 'relenquished' his power to Pak Lah.

I guess I shouldn't be suprise by the similarity, after all, Malaysia was once one of the British Empire.