Citizenship Badge Outing

On the 23 rd of March, the 12th KL Boys’ Brigade Company had its Citizenship Outing. On this day, 54 boys and 4 officers went to visit the Malaysian Parliament. Clad in their full ceremonial uniform, the boys were all excited to go for the outing. For most of the boys, it was their first time visiting parliament.

At 09.30 a.m., Corporal Hoshea Tiang fell all the members in at the half basketball court. Then, all 8 NCOs helped conduct uniform inspection on all those who were going for the Citizenship Outing and pointed out mistakes in their uniform and how to amend those mistakes. Then, Corporal Eng Hong conducted a briefing about what to expect during the outing later on, the level of security at the Parliament House and the do's and don’ts. Then we were allocated our buses. At 10.15 a.m., we departed for the Malaysian Parliament House.

We arrived at the front gate of the Parliament Complex at 10.40 a.m. After verification of various formal documents which included the letter of permission to visit Parliament was verified by policemen on duty at the gate, we were dropped off at the front gate and we then proceeded on foot. While in the Parliament Complex, we passed by various buildings which had various functions. Corporal Eng Hong explained the importance of the buildings to everyone once we gathered. Then after we went to entrance seven which was the entrance for visitors to the debate hall of the House of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat) of the Malaysian Parliament Complex. We took a group photo before we entered.

Upon entering the Parliament House, due to the rising threat of terrorism throughout the world, we had to go through multiple security measures which mirrors the security one would have to go through at the airport. We went through metal detectors and our bags were put through an X-Ray scanner. We had to leave our belongings in lockers provided before going upstairs into the debate hall. We were briefed regarding what to do when we enter the debate hall by an employee of the Malaysian Parliament House. We then entered the debate hall of the House of Representatives.

The hall was enormous and about the size of a cathedral. 222 seats were arrayed in a massive ‘U’ shape facing the speaker of parliament, YB Tan Sri Pandikar Amin and the two deputy speakers of the House of Representatives. Here, they debated about various issues relating to the nation. While we were there, they were discussing about plans relating to the LRT 3 project, second phase of the MRT (Mass Rail Transit) project and many more. Here the boys listened in to the session in progress and observed the running of the parliament. After an hour, we were directed out by the staff into a gallery while a staff explained what we saw to us. She explained that there were actually 222 members of the House of Parliament, voted in through a general election held once every five years and how the Parliament functioned as a whole. The boys listened attentively and took the opportunity to raise questions relating to the running of the Malaysian Parliament as a whole and what they just saw in the debate hall.

At 12.30 in the afternoon, we boarded our bus once again and went back to school. Upon reaching, we went to the canteen had our debriefing. Some boys stepped forward and shared their experiences. Then Corporal Eng Hong held a debriefing and briefed everyone regarding the requirements to pass the Citizenship Badge, basic level. After that, we sung the BB Vesper, and then we parted on our separate ways.