Saturday, October 14, 2006
Bangladesh is one up on us
Several years there was a sudden urgency within the bowels of government to produce a Nobel Prize winner by 2020, no doubt intended as a delicious cap to our expected attainment of developed-nation status by that magical year. What glory it would be, if we can produce one “individual” who could stand heads and shoulders above his peers and bring home the prized Nobel Prize in a scientific field within the next 14 years. Of course, the inevitable process of setting up committees and planning teams were announced to the media with a flourish, with Ministers no less, jockeying for opportunities to get the then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed to endorse this campaign.
Talk of nurturing and producing a scientific mind capable of making astonishing breakthroughs in the fields of chemistry, biology and physics was the rage. Never mind our universities and our research facilities are mere shells, rigidly administered by politically-sanctioned managers who believed, with a zeal, that the individual thought process amongst young men and women, must be left at the doorstep when they step into a class room. Never mind that Malaysia was making no headway in trying to attract Malaysian scientists who fled a sterile and stifling environment at home to make great personal and academic strides in countries like Singapore (yes ,Singapore), Australia, The United States and Europe. What mattered, you see, is if you can shout “Malaysia Boleh” within a earshot of the political masters and get some publicity in the newspapers about our noble plan to win the Noble prize.
But just like a comet rising majestically in the skyline, illuminating the earth for just an instance with all its incandescence before disappearing from view, our noble Nobel Prize campaign seems to have gone that way. A new Prime Minister is in power now and priorities change. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was all for technological advancement; his successor is more interested in more mundane matter such as agricultural pursuits. True, the Prime Minister had loudly proclaimed his interest in advancing the biotechnology sector but his boys does not seem to have made any headway there as well. But that is a matter to be discussed at a later time. Talk of Noble Prizes is no longer even whispered about. It remains part of the Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed baggage which needs to be consigned to the dusty confines of some dark and dingy recesses of Putrajaya.
I was compelled to write about this when I read how Bangladesh - a country that sends thousands of manual workers to Malaysia so that we may have some service at the gas pumps, get our cars washed, our roads repaired and factories functioning – erupted into joy when one of their own was just announced as the winner for the Nobel Peace Prize. I think there is no need for me to elaborate really about the state of our education system which is in the clutches of UMNO. I do hope that a Malaysian-born scientist will one day be able to win that award of awards one day. I would not be surprised if such a delightful scenario becomes a reality. It would really be amusing to see how Malaysia would react if a former Malaysian wins it for Singapore. What an irony that would be! ¶ 7:17 PM
Talk of nurturing and producing a scientific mind capable of making astonishing breakthroughs in the fields of chemistry, biology and physics was the rage. Never mind our universities and our research facilities are mere shells, rigidly administered by politically-sanctioned managers who believed, with a zeal, that the individual thought process amongst young men and women, must be left at the doorstep when they step into a class room. Never mind that Malaysia was making no headway in trying to attract Malaysian scientists who fled a sterile and stifling environment at home to make great personal and academic strides in countries like Singapore (yes ,Singapore), Australia, The United States and Europe. What mattered, you see, is if you can shout “Malaysia Boleh” within a earshot of the political masters and get some publicity in the newspapers about our noble plan to win the Noble prize.
But just like a comet rising majestically in the skyline, illuminating the earth for just an instance with all its incandescence before disappearing from view, our noble Nobel Prize campaign seems to have gone that way. A new Prime Minister is in power now and priorities change. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was all for technological advancement; his successor is more interested in more mundane matter such as agricultural pursuits. True, the Prime Minister had loudly proclaimed his interest in advancing the biotechnology sector but his boys does not seem to have made any headway there as well. But that is a matter to be discussed at a later time. Talk of Noble Prizes is no longer even whispered about. It remains part of the Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed baggage which needs to be consigned to the dusty confines of some dark and dingy recesses of Putrajaya.
I was compelled to write about this when I read how Bangladesh - a country that sends thousands of manual workers to Malaysia so that we may have some service at the gas pumps, get our cars washed, our roads repaired and factories functioning – erupted into joy when one of their own was just announced as the winner for the Nobel Peace Prize. I think there is no need for me to elaborate really about the state of our education system which is in the clutches of UMNO. I do hope that a Malaysian-born scientist will one day be able to win that award of awards one day. I would not be surprised if such a delightful scenario becomes a reality. It would really be amusing to see how Malaysia would react if a former Malaysian wins it for Singapore. What an irony that would be! ¶ 7:17 PM
