Monday, October 15, 2007

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.

17 comments:

  1. Dentist Faiz Khaleed will be doing more challenging tasks on his flight, viz. extracting the teeth of fellow cosmonauts under zero gravity conditions. If successful, space dental clinics will be set up whereby people with toothaches will have to pay USD30 million to have their molars extracted.

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  2. You mention the word "cosmonaut" 4 times - 3 for Sheikh Muszaphar and once for Faiz - when it is clear to all and sundry - with Nasa speaking in an authoritative capacity - that he is no more than a "space participant", in other words no better than a paying passenger. In your eagerness to please the govt and Sheikh Muszaphar, you deliberately used the word "cosmonaut" and thereby INSULT THE INTELLIGENCE of your readers! You rightly give our Ministers in particular Sc & Tech minister jamaluddin Jarjis (Najis would be better)a drubbing, but I don't blame them for skipping the event, as it is not an event at all, but an ego-seeking trip by AAB and UMNO to hype the event so as to divert attention from all their ongoing problems! And Providence is right in making the weather in putrajaya bad so that AAB would not be able to speak to the "space participant" and use it as an opportunity to hype the occasion...next time you refer to Sheikh Muszaphar as cosmonaut or astronaut, please remind yourself that UMNO is using the backside of the Russians as malaysia's face! Malu lah Malaysia!!!!

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  3. If any of you caught the post launch media event in Khazakstan, the Russians were commenting that, should Malaysia want to send more persons into space, they will be happy to sell us the entire Solyuz setup.
    Our minister there is not smart enough interpret the answer to be 'No! Shut t.f. up!'

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  4. We are not the first in space : That honour belongs to Yuri Gagarin
    We are not the first Asian in space: That honour belongs to Pham Tuan
    We are not even the first South East Asian in space: Pham Tuan beat us to it by more than 27 years.
    We are not the first Muslim in space: Salman al-Saud went there before us.

    Even the men from Mongolia and Afghanistan were there before us. But all of them realise it was a waste of time and money and never made a return trip. Maybe we will be the first to grab that honour.

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  5. Give Dr Sheikh a break..... He is a decent Malaysian with great ambitious and capable to be chosen as bolehnaut, cosmonaut, whatevernaut. Not easy to be chosen as one, you need a very healthy body, intelligent mind and etc. I don't see 'Malay' in him but rather a true Malaysian.
    It's a great achievement in nations science but a failure in nations politic who spent exhorbitant $$ of fellow rakyat hard-earned taxes for this mission.

    But somehow I could foresee he will almost certain going to be used by BN govt to spur support in the coming General Election, which is an unfortunate thing to happen.

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  6. I dont see Malay in him too.
    His blog is in English

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  7. Who was the first fruitcake that was sent into space?

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  8. Anonymous said...
    > Who was the first fruitcake that
    > was sent into space?

    That would be the Malaysian record; in case the reference to "part-time model" wasn't obvious enough.

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  9. KT,
    I wouldn't get too upset about the whole thing. It was all basically a circus right from the beginning, with some entertainment value, I suppose.

    But we shouldn't dump it on the err...space-flight participant-lah.
    It wasn't his fault.

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  10. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/10/16/nation/19181072&sec=nation

    Dr Jamaluddin later told reporters he would propose to the Cabinet to declare Oct 10 each year as Hari Angkasawan.

    I sokong, sokong and sokong. I hope it is a national holiday too. I would also like to suggest that the first day of Parliament in session each year be declared "Hari Bodoh" in honour of Dr Jamaluddin. Correct correct correct. Sheeeeeesh.

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  11. Oh man....I feel bad for the guy. I do. But then I feel even worst for me coz I have to pay for his space odyssy.

    So lose-lose situation here. For all of us.

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  12. Not one country in this world can do one thing that makes the whole nation happy. Not one government can spend its entire budget to please everybody. But the fact that those baffoons can do it is because babboons like you put them there. so if Malaysia spends millions on a space programme that you think is wasteful, ask yourself who gave them the mandate? enough said...

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  13. i;m not against the astronaut program. but when today i read how school children and civilians "inspired" by the launch and "radio" conferencing, and he is reported touch down today, i'm thinking why the program does not extend to 6 months instead. why the astronaut does not stay with the crew. The astronaut, if he's truly one as the russian and najib said, he should be "part" of the crew - the 16th expedition crew, isn't it. Why come back after 20 days with the 15th expedition. I will then salute this guy and proudly tell my foreign friends that he IS really an astronaut. Now how do i tell my friends, even rtm1 keep calling him space participant and stays only "mere" 20 days. what a big joke!

    another thing, since malaysians so "inspired", why negotiation in the sokhoi buy does not mention of russian assistance setting aerospace science center in malaysia, maybe rocket research or ISS communication station. isn't it this could help malaysian development space program in future , make this profesion viable in malaysia instead the inspire is just temporary (1mth then business as usual) or "hangat hangat tahi ayam". isn't russians friends of malaysians, even aab receive honorary from them. I hope i'm not dreaming here ........

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  14. jasgill:

    i second the proposal. i'm all agree if more holidays are given out. in fact, i'm more happy if there is a holiday call hari jadi aab, hari jadi jean, and hari perkahwinan aab and jean ....

    sokong sokong sokong ....

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  15. ha ha ha ... dah kata dah ada jugak orang yg macam ni. dah lah tu, be glad and proud that we have achieved something. ni tak, nak menumpang aje... kalau semua days tu cuti ha baguslah, hancur negara ni. Selamat Pulang ANGKASAWAN NEGARA!!!!!

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  16. korang yang speak very fluent english dalam ni..dok komen2 itu ini..sit back n relax and think.. kalau bukan program ni dibuat sekarang, then when will Malaysia has an ICON of astronaut? Yuri Gagarin is the ICON for Russian space research.do u think they dare to do more if they dont have Yuri Gagarin or maybe Gagarin mampus aka mati in the middle of his space exploration? look 25 years back, when Proton launched..if that time Malaysia tak buat Proton car, do u think we will have gutts to do Perodua,Modenas, Naza, Sepang Circuit, etc? My point is, i am agree this space thingy is cosuming millions of our money but for God sake please understand..our children, grand children will do better than Muszaphar because they already have an ICON..

    just my 10 cent opinion..

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  17. Im a singaporean ar....
    N i tink i agree on wat been said above. Kita jadi orang melayu nie kena la pandang jauh sikit. Setiap ape yg terjadi tu mesti lah ade buruk baik nyer. Setiap org mesti kena berkorban demi merangsang pembangunan negara dan BANGSA. Kalau korang semua asek nak duduk senang jer sampai bila nak maju. Aku org singapore but selalu bangga dengan kemajuan malaysia... pasal pertama sekali... kita semua org ISLAM dan MELAYU. Macam pat singapore nie... semua org cina... sampai melayu maju pon org cina jgak yg dapat nama dulu. Cuba la bersyukur skit ngan setiap kemajuan yg korang kecapi... aku sokong AAB. he is a good man siak... N to DR Sheikh Muszaphar... CONGRATS! N im sure org ramai will kutuk aku coz aku comment byk2 walaupun aku org sg. well....

    ni lah manusia kan?

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