Cargo Cult Science in Malaysia

Malaysia once again over-stretches itself by sending Sheikh to space. Even though the minister argued bitterly Sheikh indeed is a really cosmonaut and not a flight participant.

"Because the Russians said so!", he claimed proudly.

However little did he realize even though the Russians call Sheikh as cosmonaut, but in terms of rank, Sheikh is flight participant (aka Mr. Tourist). This naming is consistent with NASA's classification.

What are the differences? Simple, everybody in ISS is cosmonaut by the nature of their physical presence. The rank describes their job scope. Our Sheikh's job scope is as a tourist. Period.


URL here (Click on the UK flag to read the English version).

On the surface, Malaysia looks like an advanced country, because it is doing what advanced countries do. For example it is making its own car (but of inferior quality and finally has to beg a Mat Salleh company to bail it out), having someone to walk both poles, having a lot of tall and big buildings, and sending someone off to space.

The key question: will Malaysia truly become an advanced country by mimicking what those advanced countries are doing?

What are the ingredients of being an advanced country?

What I fail to see is steps taken to stabilize the economy, drive down the crime rate, improve inter-racial harmony, and raise competencies in universities.

Why? Because all these are hard to do, and the yields are so slow and marginal at any given time that you don't have 'the moment' to jump up and down and yell "Malaysia Boleh!" We want instant gratification, we just want that short moment of glory. What do we do for the upcoming endless darkness after the incandescence? Don't care, let's just raise the tax, up the toll price, and let hell loose. Who cares?

An article by Richard Feynman comes to mind, the Cargo Cult Science. Relevant excerpt:

In the South Seas there is a cargo cult of people. During the war they saw airplanes with lots of good materials, and they want the same thing to happen now. So they've arranged to make things like runways, to put fires along the sides of the runways, to make a wooden hut for a man to sit in, with two wooden pieces on his head to headphones and bars of bamboo sticking out like antennas -- he's the controller -- and they wait for the airplanes to land. They're doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn't work. No airplanes land. So I call these things cargo cult science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they're missing something essential, because the planes don't land. Now it behooves me, of course, to tell you what they're missing. But it would be just about as difficult to explain to the South Sea islanders how they have to arrange things so that they get some wealth in their system. It is not something simple like telling them how to improve the shapes of the earphones. But there is one feature I notice that is generally missing in cargo cult science. That is the idea that we all hope you have learned in studying science in school -- we never say explicitly what this is, but just hope that you catch on by all the examples of scientific investigation. It is interesting, therefore, to bring it out now and speak of it explicitly. It's a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty -- a kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you're doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid -- not only what you think is right about it: other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you've eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked -- to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated.

Even though Feynman talks about the way to do science, and the context of this blog is on how a country should be run, the essences are the same.

Change all occurrences of 'scientific investigation' to 'advanced countries' and re-read:

They're doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn't work. No airplanes land. So I call these things cargo cult science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they're missing something essential, because the planes don't land.