Tingkat 4

It's amazing how the location within a government building can conjure so much emotion. Tingkat Empat, or the Fourth Floor, is one such place. It's a term popularised by former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in reference to the coterie of Oxbridge types based on the 4th floor of the PM's Department. Within anti-establishment circles, they have been caricatured as young, arrogant and pull the strings in the government's seat of power in Putrajaya. But this is not the place for me to discuss about my counterparts.

I don't work on the 4th floor. Like the Minister, I am based on the top floor - the 7th - of Block 5, Parcel D, in the Federal Government Administrative Centre in Putrajaya. The Ministry of Transport occupies the entire building. Really, there is nothing sinister or shadowy going on on the 4th floor (or for that matter anywhere else in the building). Those who occupy Tingkat 4 include the IT Department, the Accounts and the office of the Maritime Adviser, Kapt Dato' Rahim.

But 4th floor still holds a certain charm for me. It is the floor with connecting and covered bridges to all buildings within Parcel D, the squarish brick-coloured structure that looks more like a maximum-security prison than a government complex. The buildings in Parcel D there are designed in an "U" shape, with the Ministry of Transport on one end and the ACA in the other. Actually, the Ministry of Transport and the ACA are only about 200 metres apart.

I have always wanted to walk from my end of the office, pass the JPJ, Home Ministry, Human Resources Ministry, Rural Development Ministry,
and... I am not sure what else besides the ACA.

But I never got around to doing it. Besides, I think my chip-embedded name tag, which, ahem, opens (security-enabled) doors within the Ministry, does not do the same elsewhere.





But I can imagine strolling the entire stretch from Ministry of Transport right up to the ACA via the connecting bridges on the 4th floor. The journey will probably take 15 minutes or more. It will be an unusual sight for an othwerwise drape government complex - the fountain, the flowers, a field and the overall sense of serenity right smack in the middle of Parcel D.

I also like to use the 4th floor to get to the canteen (in the basement of another building) to spare my aircondition-soaked skin from the scorching lunch-hour heat. Or use it when it rains.

Yes, I do love the 4th floor.