My mother watches Taiwanese soaps on Astro, one of her favourite being Yi Nan Wang. It’s a long running soap, stretching to hundreds of episodes. Occasionally, I’d sit with her and watch snippets of it. There is very little drama in what I’ve seen : it’s conversation, conversation and more conversation.

Once when I was visiting my mother-in-law, another Taiwanese soap, Taiwan Ah Seng was on air. I asked her if she followed the series and she said, “Taiwanese shows are quite boring. There are lots of talking and if you don’t follow the series, you won’t know what’s happening.”

It’s yakkety-yakkety-yak. Now if only the Taiwanese lawmakers would take a leaf from their movie makers, things like this won’t happen :

FIGHT CLUB: Taiwan legislators fight due to a disagreement over a bill in parliament in Taipei. The brawl is by no means the island’s first, with legislators throwing stones and lunchboxes in previous sessions after failing to see eye to eye. (Reuters) Nicked from here.

Looks like Taiwanese Parliament is more exciting than their drama serials. In comparison, our Malaysian Parliament appears tame. Our august MPs only call each other names like monkey and bodoh, thump their hands on the tables, boo loudly at one another or nod off during proceedings; they never ever resort to violence like the Taiwanese legislators.

But even as I write this, I recall one MCA meeting where members threw chairs at each other. That is truly a blot in history, a shameful blot.

If fists have to fly, let them fly in the movies.