Intellectual Discourse- Should Malaysia Continue The Astronauts Project

Thanks to my bro Lan King for bringing up this topic. (it is impossible for me to sms you back my answer, coz it will take me like forever)

Way back when Dr. M announced the National Cars projects, everybody questioned whether Malaysia at that point of time will be able to engaged in such a huge project.When Proton was born, still only so little people believed in it. Yes, technically it’s a Mitsubishi in a Malaysian name, but somehow the first step to produce our own national cars, has been taken. The long term target is to developed knowledge and skills among local talents, so that one day Malaysian cars would be competitive in global markets.

The same scenario applies when the nation decides to send The First Malaysian Astronauts to space. Despite all the promotions and encouragements, there are still voices who’s against the whole idea. Their justifications was, the project cost a lot to the nation, and Malaysia or MALAYSIANS for a matter of fact would not really benefit from it.  

So should or should not Malaysia proceed with the Astronauts Project?

My answer is a DEFINITE  YES. Why? Because, the astronauts project have encouraged and triggered a new phenomena among the young generations on space technology. Like Bill Gates once triggered the phenomenon interest in Information Technology. If 20 years back (when i was growing up) my teachers and parents only smile when I told them I want to be Malaysian first Lady astronauts, now they know they should not. Because it has proven that we can actually send a Malaysian to space. Although the costs are expensive, but it is far away from IMPOSSIBLE.

 So why stop when the first step has been taken? Why stop when we now have the exposure and the knowledge. Why stop with one astronauts.

Proton didn’t stop with SAGA, and now we have PESONA.

I admit that it is not as good as other imported cars and that means they SHOULD INVEST MORE ON RND.!!!, but still, we have shown the world that we can produce our own cars. It might not be as good as a Toyota or Mitsubishi what more Mercedes or BMW. BUT it is OURS. 

I am not in the capabilities to comments on how the astronauts projects will financially implicates the country given the fact that there’s a sign of an economic recession due to the current conditions of America’s economies.  Let’s look at it from another perspective, during the last economic recession, Malaysia stopped sending students abroad thank to the high costs caused by the currency exchange. However, it does not means that those excellence students were denied the opportunity for better education. They were absorbed into local universities instead.

The same set of rules should be applied for the astronauts case. I believed with continuous efforts, MALAYSIA BOLEH!

with that i rest my case.

p/s: Dr Mazlan of National Space Center has been my idol since I first saw her on TV when i was still in my primaries!!!