The betrayal of Sheik Muszaphar Shukor!

A normally silent-in-elegance AAB exclaimed his disappointment at his failure to chitchat with cosmonaut Sheik Muszaphar Shukor at the ISS.

Malaysiakini reported that due to bad weather at Moscow the transmission link between the Mission Control Centre there and the ISS could not be established during a 10-minute window when the ISS passed over Russia, and thus prevented audio and visual signals from being transmitted directly to Malaysia and re-routed to Seri Perdana.

But AAB said he will do it tomorrow. Apart from wishing the cosmonaut Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, the PM also intends to ask Muszaphar about his feelings and health besides the progress of the assignment he had been tasked with.

He said: "He is not there for a holiday to view the earth from up there. He has certain tasks to perform while in the ISS."

Sheik Muszaphar Shukor – Angkasawan Malaysian yang Pertama, cosmonaut, astronaut, hero, lang chai, pride of Malaysia and Malays – but also referred to scornfully as space participant, first class space passenger, US30 million dollar man, RM100 million Bolehnaut, astronothing, cosmonaught, anak kepada seorang Datuk (memang dipilih lah), and various nasty terms and derogatory descriptions, which you may find at Malaysia-Today blog.

I am not sure whether Malaysiakini has been sniping at him too, because whenever it published a news item (except for the most recent one about AAB’s disappointment) it would describe Sheik Muszaphar as “a doctor and part-time model” ;-)

Why has it necessary to do that – why not just a doctor, considering that the ‘part time modelling’ has been what it is, just a ‘part time’ activity? Once is OK, but when it’s reported with a high degree of regularity, kaytee begins to wonder whether there has been an unseen sneer accompanying that unusually long and totally unnecessary description of Muszaphar’s job?

That many have been angry at the unnecessary RM100 million ticket, especially when ministers have been preaching about belt tightening, cannot be denied, that an equal many have been against the trip for the sake of being against anything of UMNO’s conception is also true, that some have been pissed off because it’s always a Malay selected for such glory trips and who would be subsequently and disproportionately be honoured or rewarded is real, and that some have been plain jealous is undeniable.

For example, kaytee has been green with envy because I won’t be able to transmit “Baikonour Kontrol, kaytee has a message Русские мати, улучшают фиксируют вверх ваших дочей когда я возвращаю”.

Rough translation = Russian mothers, better lock up your daughters when I return ;-)

But poor Sheik Muszaphar Shukor!

Khianat, betrayed! Yes, Muszaphar has been badly betrayed!

And who has been his betrayer or betrayers?

The ministers and their top officials!

The trip, yes admittedly RM100 million, has already been paid for, so what the hell can we do except to make the best of it. Someone has to be selected and if it’s lang chai Sheik Muszaphar, so be it.

But trust those ministers and officials to trivialize, de-dignify and belittle the entire expedition.

What did they do? They idiotically seized the occasion to talk about teh tarik and roti canai in space and some kampong game!

Look, I love teh tarik and roti canai myself but would such an occasion, to send the first Malaysian into space, deserve such shallow experiments? Has that been the best Malaysia could offer after investing RM100 million?

The PM (whether Dr Mahathir or AAB) has been badly served by those morons, who have been completely out of their depths. They had since 2003 to plan some decent space experiments, perhaps with a couple of things we have been really good at, like palm oil and rubber, to see what effect zero gravity may have on … yadda yadda yadda ... and what did we get ... teh tarik and roti canai!

Well, that’s the punishment for the PM for having incompetents put in positions beyond their intellectual capacity.

Sheik Muszaphar has been betrayed by those intellectual imbeciles who have hijacked the agenda for their own interests. The subsequent introduction of some cancer cell experiment was such an obvious after-thought that it was too late to repair the serious PR damage.

Khianat, betrayed!

So, have those ministers and officials learned?

Apparently not, because Malaysiakini tells us that Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Jamaluddin Jarjis (the bloke who had problems with an Indian Malaysian because apparently, to him, she was of a lower caste as she has dark skin) said from Moscow that our next cosmonaut, Faiz Khaleed, will be doing more challenging tasks on his flight.

And what will those ‘more challenging’ task be, pray may I ask?

According to the New Straits Times, Jamaluddin said: "This could involve him doing a space walk or conducting repairs to the spacecraft."

‘... space walk or conducting repairs to the spacecraft ...’?

How the hell does this unbelievable bloke get to be Minister of Science, Innovation & Technology? Even if the Yanks-Russians allowed, WTF good will that do for us? Why are we indulging in those silly stupid gimmickries?

My uncle – yes, I have many uncles ;-) – told me a real story of his times when a Malaysian team participated in a macho 4WD safari type race (sponsored by a cigarette company) where participants had to bridge rivers and ravines in deep jungle and overcome swamps and various natural obstacles blah blah blah. When one of the Malaysians was interviewed about the race, the best he could offer was, and apparently he crowed about it, the Malaysian team introduced ‘pot luck’, yes, kongsi makan at the end of each day, as if that was a brilliant innovation in a hunky macho type competition.

Back to the Science (or should it be Innovation?) Minister - Then he added: "I hope to submit a proposal to Nasa (the US space administration) by this year that in addition to his training with the Russian Space Agency, Dr Faiz will also be able to undergo training with them.”

Would this be to prevent the Yanks from labelling poor Faiz as a ‘space participant’ and instead upgrade him to ‘payload specialist’? Maybe another US$10 million for this?

If those clowns have absolutely no clue of what to do, at least shut up!

So, the moronic bull has started, leading also to the betrayal and eventual humiliation of Faiz Khaleed.