Steven Perian KC reflects on growing up in Brickfields, his Malaysian identity and how the values formed there continue to inform his work as a King’s Counsel practising in England and Wales.

On 31 August 2026, Malaysians will mark 69 years since the declaration of independence in 1957. Merdeka Day celebrates a defining moment in our history. It also gives us an opportunity to consider what being Malaysian means and the responsibilities that independence continues to place upon us.

When I consider what it means to be Malaysian, I think first of Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur.

I grew up in the municipal quarters there. My father was a labourer with Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur. He supported ten people on a very modest income. His only means of transport was a bicycle, and it was on that bicycle that he taught me to ride.

I was a Tamil boy from Brickfields. I could not then have imagined that I would one day practise as a King’s Counsel in London. As I was growing up, I understood that education mattered. It offered the possibility that ability and hard work could open doors that my family circumstances might otherwise have kept closed.

Before I had the opportunity to study law, I worked in a number of different jobs. I pulled cables in Port Klang and worked as an office boy. Friends later agreed to act as guarantors for the study loan that enabled me to come to England and read law as an external University of London student.

I did not make that journey alone. My own effort mattered, but so did the friends who were prepared to support me in a practical way. They gave me an opportunity that my family could not have provided. That experience influenced how I later came to think about education, opportunity and our responsibility to others.

I have since lived and worked in London for many years. Living abroad has made me more conscious of my Malaysian identity and of the values formed during my early years in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia remains present in how I see the world and how I relate to people from different backgrounds.

Being Malaysian gives me a strong sense of belonging and responsibility. I am proud of our country, its people and its diversity. Pride in Malaysia should be accompanied by a willingness to consider what remains to be done and how each of us can contribute.

Living abroad can make it tempting to remember only what is familiar and comforting about home. I do not think that is useful. Pride in a country can exist alongside honesty about the areas in which it must do better. My concern for fairness, integrity and wider opportunity is not a criticism made from outside. It comes from wanting Malaysia to fulfil its promise for all its people.

The values formed in Malaysia continue to influence my professional life.

I have more than three decades of experience at the English Bar in serious and complex criminal law, commercial fraud and economic crime. My wider practice includes international arbitration, mediation, public law, corporate governance and cross-border disputes.

Work across these fields has taught me that law is never an abstract exercise. Legal problems may be expressed in technical language, but the decisions made affect people and institutions. They may determine a person’s liberty or livelihood and influence public confidence.

Whatever the field, I have learned to look beyond the legal description of a dispute and consider its actual consequences. Evidence must be examined carefully, assumptions must be challenged and power must remain subject to the law. Professional judgment must also remain independent of status, wealth or influence.

My Malaysian upbringing has been particularly important in my international and cross-border work. Growing up among different ethnicities, faiths, languages and traditions meant that difference was part of ordinary life. It taught me to listen before forming conclusions and not to treat an unfamiliar approach as wrong merely because it is unfamiliar. That understanding continues to inform how I approach disputes and work with people from different legal and cultural backgrounds.

Being Malaysian does not alter my professional duties as a barrister practising in England and Wales. I do not enter a courtroom or tribunal as a representative of a nationality. I enter as counsel, required to exercise independent judgment and fulfil my duties. Personal history nevertheless affects the questions we notice and the assumptions we are prepared to challenge. My beginnings made me conscious of how intimidating legal institutions can appear and why every person must feel that their case has been considered on its merits.

My appointment as Queen’s Counsel, now King’s Counsel, was an important moment in my career. I did not regard the title simply as recognition of work already done. It brought a greater responsibility to exercise independent judgment, maintain high standards and contribute to the administration of justice.

That appointment did not make my beginnings less relevant. It made me more conscious of how unusual the journey had been and of the people who made it possible. Professional distinction should not be an end in itself. It should increase one’s willingness to serve and uphold standards.

My background affects how I understand that responsibility. Growing up without wealth or influence made me conscious that legal and public institutions can appear remote to those who lack either. Equality before the law has little meaning if a person’s ability to obtain justice depends upon resources, connections or social standing.

I do not romanticise poverty. It restricted choice and placed considerable burdens upon my family. My parents and sisters nevertheless taught me the dignity of work, the importance of perseverance and the need to use opportunities responsibly. Those lessons have remained with me throughout my professional life.

My own journey has also made me conscious that talented young people may not always see the legal profession as open to them. This is one reason why legal education, advocacy training and mentoring matter to me. No individual can remove every barrier, but each of us can help others recognise possibilities which may not yet appear within their reach.

My admission to the Malaysian legal profession gave my connection with the country a further meaning. I became the first English King’s Counsel to be admitted to the High Court of Malaya. This allowed me to contribute as a member of the Malaysian legal profession, not simply as a Malaysian who had established a career in England.

I have sought to make that contribution through legal practice, education, advocacy training and law reform. Experience gained at the English Bar can be useful to Malaysia, but it does not provide an automatic answer to every Malaysian question. It must be considered in the light of Malaysia’s own Constitution, institutions, history and social context.

My work in England and my Malaysian identity have developed together. England gave me professional opportunities and experience. Malaysia gave me my earliest understanding of diversity, fairness and the importance of opportunity. Those values continue to influence the lawyer I am and the contribution I hope to make.

The Rukun Negara remains central to Malaysia’s future. It affirms aspirations for national unity, a democratic way of life and a just society. Its five principles are Belief in God, Loyalty to King and Country, the Supremacy of the Constitution, the Rule of Law, and Courtesy and Morality.

For a lawyer, the Supremacy of the Constitution and the Rule of Law are directly relevant. Courtesy and Morality also matter because the authority of an institution depends not only upon the powers it possesses, but upon how those powers are exercised and how people are treated.

These principles should not be confined to formal occasions. They are practical standards for public life and for the way in which Malaysians treat one another.

Malaysia’s diversity is one of its greatest strengths. Preserving that strength requires more than tolerance. It requires mutual respect, an understanding of our different histories and traditions, and a commitment to ensuring that disagreement does not become division.

Independence is not only a matter of history. It carries a continuing responsibility to build a country in which every Malaysian is treated with dignity, the rule of law is respected and public office is exercised with integrity. Access to education and opportunity should not be determined by wealth, ethnicity, faith or family background.

As I reflect upon my own journey, I return to the importance of education. Many Malaysian children from families of modest means have ability and ambition, but do not have the same opportunities as those born into wealth or influence. Their future should not be determined by family income, ethnicity, social status or connections.

I still remember my father teaching me to ride his bicycle. That memory takes me back to the circumstances in which I grew up and to the opportunities that education later gave me.

My hope is that every Malaysian child will have reason to believe that ability, hard work and education can open doors. Our responsibility is to ensure that this belief is supported by real opportunity.

That is what being Malaysian means to me.

Selamat Hari Merdeka to Malaysians at home and abroad.

Steven Perian KC is a King’s Counsel of England and Wales practising at 2 King’s Bench Walk Chambers, London, and a Partner at Rosli Dahlan Saravana Partnership, Malaysia. He is consistently ranked as a Leading Silk in The Legal 500 UK Bar.