We don't need another 'hero'

Okay ... we'll have a Malaysian going into space tonight. A first for the country. For crying out loud, how do you feel about it?

I may be prejudging the fellow but if all he's going to do is play lima buah to test the effects of the lack of gravity on stones or throw a party in space to celebrate the Raya, then he's just a passenger in space, a sheer waste of the Malaysian tax-payers' money. Fooey!

However, if he is to study the effects of microgravity and space radiation on cells and microbes, as well as conduct experiments with proteins for a potential HIV vaccine, then well and good. It may not be the latest in cutting edge research but I'll support the angkasawanaut in this endeavour.

But ultimately, I just feel that the whole episode is just a waste of time and public funds. An extravagance of the government. A sideshow to divert us from the realities of the socio-political problems on this earth.

We don't need a passenger in space when we can't keep our own two feet firmly on this ground anyway. Everywhere which way we turn, we hear of positive discriminations, corruption and inefficiencies within the various arms of government. Efforts should be directed at addressing these ills in government and the real-life problems in society, not divert our attention elsewhere.

I bet you, the population in this country will go ga-ga over this spaceman for the next 10 days. And when he returns - or maybe, even before he returns - I assure you, a Datukship will await him. What nonsense. Bah!

And he can't even be original, can he? Guess what he said? "It’s a small step for me, but a great leap for the Malaysian people." Haven't we heard something like that before in 1969?

And I'll tell you what can possibly happen next. He'll say how deeply affected he had been by this trip. He'll then say that he had become more religious and closer to God because he has been given the privilege to see the world in a different light, that God is great to have created a world called Earth, and that he was touched by God up there. Sigh .... it's all going to be so predictable.

I'm speculating again and I hope that I'll be wrong. Who knows, he may even claim to had heard the call to prayers from outer space. He'll come back deeply changed. He'll then withdraw into his inner self, don a turban, grow a beard, wear green robes and start preaching to his fellow citizens. We don't need that but it's deeply possible that that can happen.