A new beginning in Ipoh

For three days from 17 to 19 December, 2004, a Unity Congress of Parti KeADILan Nasional and Parti Rakyat was successfully convened at the hall of a Chinese temple Tow Boo Keong in my hometown Ipoh.

I was there too and very happy to see that the Muslim-majority multiethnic delegates and observers gathered to discuss and debate the future of our nation at a place where I used to played marbles (po-chi) and table-tennis (ping-pong) when I was a child in Ipoh. Ipoh was also the town where progressive Malays founded the Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM) on 17 October, 1945 to demand and struggle for Merdeka! when there was no Umno yet.

Opposite the Tow Boo Keong temple is the equally historic Methodist Girls' School (MGS) where two of my elder sisters graduated.

The two parties were also successfully merged into the Parti KeADILan Rakyat.