Malaysia Space Centre: A White Elephant?

I had my finest laugh when I saw this piece of news. How long more before we stop fooling ourselves and really come back to reality?



Here's my point-by-point analysis, since the MSM is only interested in toadying their political/business masters.

Title: PM: Centre shows our success in space science

Er, excuse me, what success do we have so far? Did we perform a space surgery lately? And oh, I heard that our finest cuisines are not even going to space after all? And it doesn't help when Datuk Dr. Mazlan Othman had to put her foot in her mouth when she could only come out with a very 'scientific' experiment. Was any of the scientific experiments to be performed in our space mission ever being mentioned?

BANTING: The newly launched Malaysia Space Centre signifies the country’s achievement in space science, said Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Eh, is the 'Malaysia Space Centre' the same as this har? I might want to bring my kids later.

The National Planetarium at Jalan Perdana, KL.

The Prime Minister said the Government was committed to enhancing the country’s capacity in space science research and innovation because Malaysia could not become a developed country without building on this important field.

Wah! 'Could not'. Yeah, we 'could not' but we still 'could' when we still do not know the reason behind the sugar shortage. We 'could' when we are still having our annual Mega Burning Fest. We 'could' when we legalise corruption, cronyism, nepotism, and oh, Mat Cemerlangs.

“To compete with developed countries, I believe we have to master the various fields of science and technology, including astronomy,” he said when launching the centre yesterday.

Alrite, you may have your point here. But please refer to the above rebuttal.

The RM100mil space centre is located on a 161.8ha plot of land in Kampung Sungai Lalang here and equipped with state-of-the-art laboratories to assist in work relating to satellite systems.

There goes our hard-earned tax-payers money again when we say that we can't afford to increase the salaries of our civil servants which includes our Royally Force.

It has the capability to monitor and communicate with the Malaysian astronaut who would be assigned to the International Space Station.

Erhmm, I can 'monitor' and 'communicate' with my family thousand miles away with MSN, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, Skype, [insert your favourite video conferencing software]. F.O.C. Sans TMNut Screamyx, of course.

Besides this centre, the Government has set up a national observatory in Langkawi, with the country’s first robotic telescope to enable the observation of space through the Internet.

May I question why the need of two centres? Langkawi, eh? Are you buying a sweet for your predecessor?

On the first Malaysian to go to space, Abdullah said that because the astronaut was a Muslim, the Government had to address how he could practise his religious obligations in space.

“We want our astronaut to show to the world that Islam is not a hindrance to development but can also explore space,” he added.

Ooopsie, they have shown it already:

Muslimin (22 years ago. 22? A familiar number?):

Read more here.

Musliman:

Read more here.

Children? Animal? Anybody?

Abdullah later talked via video conferencing with astronaut candidates Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, 34, and Kapten Dr Faiz Khaleed, 26. Both are currently training in Russia.

I am amazed of the media-hype when some ministers clicked on a mouse or had video conferencing. I guess that is why blogs=devil. FYI, as mentioned above, I have my video conferencing with my family almost every now and then. Anyone interested of doing that with me?

Who are they fooling?

Related post: Flip-Flop-F**k: No Teh Tarik and Roti Canai In Space After All