Does K.L. Stand For “Kita Lambat”?

My husband and I caught the musical ‘Broken Bridges’ on its opening night last month. It was a very powerful musical and great performance by the actors. The venue, KL Performing Arts Centre or KLPAC, had good facilities and the sound system was great.

It’s a shame, then, that it started 15 minutes late. The show was scheduled to start at 8:30pm but the lights only went out at 8:45pm. When I called the Box Office to book our tickets, I asked them how long the show would be and I was told “no more than 2 hours”. So we had fully expected to be done by 10:30pm, but it was 10:50pm before we got out of KLPAC.

This seems to be the norm in Malaysia, which is so unfortunate because we have such great facilities. Even the Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS which houses the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and other great musicians didn't start on time when we were there in April. And this is supposed to be a world class venue.

It was the same story when we watched Grease at the KL Convention Centre earlier this year, as well as STOMP at Istana Budaya last year. It seems that Malaysians just don’t care to be on time. And this is further perpetuated by institutions that constantly penalise those who arrive on time and reward latecomers instead. (Hmm, sounds a bit like our Sistem Membayar Saman Kereta. But I digress.)

About 2 years ago, we watched the musical Mamma Mia at Esplanade in Singapore. What a difference. The show was due to start at 2:30pm and we had been informed that once the show starts and the doors close, they will not open again until intermission. Oh, they stuck to their word.

Because we knew that it would start bang on time, we were quite panicky when our flight into Singapore was delayed. As soon as we got off the plane, we ran! We ran on to the MRT trains, in between stations and finally when we got to the station closest to the Esplanade, we ran for what felt like 100 miles all the way to the Box Office to collect our tickets, then to the coat check to keep our luggage and up to the entrance to our seats.

Panting away, we were so relieved the doors were still open. We found our seats, sat down, took a breather, and - literally - within half a minute the lights went dim and the doors closed. I looked at my watch: exactly 2:30pm. That was a close one! And they were true to their word when they said once the doors were closed, they stayed that way until intermission. That was great because then we weren’t distracted by latecomers finding their seats in the dark and getting in the way.

I suppose it helps when you have a reliable and efficient public transportation system. But really, let's not make excuses. If we wanted to we could still be punctual, right? (I admit I, too, could be more punctual.) I mean, if we can't rely on public transport, we just have to allocate more driving time. What would it take to make us Malaysians less tardy?

All I know is, the next time we want to watch anything at Esplanade, we’ll just fly down in our Alfa. More control over departure and arrival times.