The Angkasawan Programme is a political sham
Colin Charles beat me to the blog post but his writing mirrors the thoughts I have been having about the Angkasawan sham since it was announced some years ago. When the Angkasawan programme was first announced, I wrote and predicted in a different blog that the programme would be used as a political “feel-good” tool and as such, it would serve no practical result. I also predicted that the programme would not result in a candidate being chosen on a meritorious basis. Certainly, “rah-rah” Malaysians told me then to lose the cynicism. Well, place your measuring yardstick where it may lie today, but I will claim that the first prediction I made came true and the second prediction is one that I will still stand by (given that the Malaysian government has not made public the selection criteria for the astranauts sent to Moscow).
Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, the chosen Malaysian astronaut, is simply a passenger on a Russian space ship. The Russians have even officially labelled him “Flight Participant”, a designation used for space tourists. Sheikh is a space tourist, joining the ranks of billionares who have paid for such a journey with the stark difference being that, in this case, our yearly tax remittance are paying for Sheikh’s multi million dollar trip with no justifiable benefit. And as it turned out, we Malaysian citizens are even paying for an entire political delegation (including Minister JJ) who were present during the launch, presumably for the political mileage.
Most importantly, though, for those of us who are hardcore astronomy geeks (I founded the very first Astronomy Club in Multimedia University), this entire Angkasawan missions cries a loud and unadulterated “sham”. Are Malaysian scientists sending up any worthwhile science experiments? Are we conducting any research in partnership with other national space agencies (teh tarik doesn’t count)? Are testing any new technology or carrying out new research in space? If not, what exactly are we doing up there? Nobody seems to know … probably not even Sheikh himself.
So, USD$ 20 million is what space tourists pay for the right to be a “space participant”. How much did we pay? Some put it at USD$ 30 million, others at USD$ 25 million. Hefty price, indeed, to pay for self-congratulatory sentiments that don’t really add to anything more then hot air (pun intended), right?
Come on, isn’t anybody else sick of this debauchary?