When Malaysia cut a deal with the Russians during the purchase of the some fighter-planes, a nifty little clause was included to send a Malaysian on a learning visit to the Russian space station. In a swift stroke of a pen, Malaysia bought the most advanced jet in the world, and also entry into outer space.
Its been recently revealed that the trip
wasn't a free ride: RM39 mill was spent on a host of associated supporting activities. I can imagine what they are: the early campaign to select the candidate to represent Malaysia, the costs of the experiments conducted in space, the ensuing campaign to ensure Malaysians were kept abreast of everything that happened, and possibly, the post-trip campaign where the experience is being shared.
Was it worth it?
I would argue it was. While the right-wingers among us will argue that the money could have been better used to feed the starving underprivileged, or to subsidise education, or to do a million of other things supposedly better for the "people", it ignores the fact that the act of having a Malaysian in space is good for the people too, albeit in subtler, indirect ways.
Aspirations and dreams. For some, these are fluffy intangibles, unworthy to be compared with the reality of starving children, school-kids without books, or the poor old man left alone to die on the street. But without either, there will be nothing to bring this country to the next level -- a level where, perhaps, children will no longer need to starve, kids will have free textbooks, and social security systems will look after us all when we're old.
Aspirations is the desire to want something. I aspire to be the best in school. I aspire to go to med school. I aspire to be a doctor. I aspire to discover the cure for cancer. Dreams work in a similar way, but usually need a trigger to become active; you don't dream of something you can't imagine. And you don't aspire to something that you
think you'll never achieve. By sending a man into space, the Government has given a generation of Malaysians, maybe two if we're lucky, a reason to aspire and dream.
Space, the final frontier. An unimaginable mass of emptiness. The realm of Star Wars, American space shuttles, and Russian space stations. Suddenly, Malaysia is a part of that realm, in our own small way. We have a man in space! Its not the act of putting a man in space which forms the trigger for aspirations and dreams, its the fact that that man is a Malaysian which is.
A generation of youth will have in their minds the same: if he could do it, why can't i? Certainly, nearly everyone will eventually change their minds as they mature (every kid wanted to be an astronaut, even myself, but i ended up dreaming to be a lawyer), but the reach of the mind of something beyond reach has a good chance of leading to a reality that is not too far removed from the objective. If you never aim for the bullseye, you will never hit the target board. A Malaysian in space -- thats the bullseye, big, fat and red, for thousands of Malaysian young.
Of course, none of this can be quantified today. RM39million has essentially been put on an ideal, a hope. Those who would criticize would argue this is false hope. I will say,
there is nothing false about hope.
