the Angkasawan when he returns? I had
to go to JPA (the Public Service Department of Malaysia) and convince them
to create a position. The Angkasawan
cannot be an ordinary civil servant but
would be an Ambassador of some sort
to inspire children. He couldn’t be a
9-to-5 desk-bound civil servant. The
discussions with JPA took two years
before JPA finally agreed on an official
position. I had to think of all these things
four years ahead of time! Second example: To go into the ISS, we needed to
have insurance. This was the Russians’
pre-condition. It wasn’t life insurance
that we needed but a liability insurance,
in the event our Angkasawan presses a
button by mistake and endangers everyone else. But our government never
had this kind of insurance and initially
refused to provide for it. So I had to work
it out with the Treasury to get them to
understand. Then there were the other
elements – the programme itself, the
training, visa requirements. I tell you,
very good chance of engaging with the
public if we took that route. Instead, we
should open up the application process
and encourage people to apply. “Are you
sure?” he asked me. “How many will apply?” “Around 1,000,” I told him, very
confidently.
We received 11,000 applications.
We developed a selection funnel to
trim down the number of candidates.
The first was to require applicants to
have at least a Bachelor’s degree. Then
we put people through a physical test –
they had to run a certain distance within
a certain time. More people dropped
out. We had 2,500 people who agreed
to the physical test. After the run, many
were disqualified. Those who qualified
were given a basic medical exam similar to that administered for pilots. That
eliminated more people. So, it was all
self-selection, and I didn’t have to reject
people. I was actually starting to worry
if we would have anyone left at the end
of the selection process!
some cutting-edge scientific experiments in space. With the zero gravity
environment, we wanted to see the
breakthroughs that we could achieve.
The third objective was to introduce our
culture to space. We brought the Quran,
Malaysian food, and batik to space.
That’s what space is about – it’s the
cultures of 193 nations in world. Some
opposed me on that – they say space is
only about the technology and should
not involve religion, culture, education.
But I think space programmes should
be holistic. I agree with the Japanese,
French, and Italian approach where the
element of culture is very strong. Finally,
of course, our objective was to bring
space to the hearts of our people. When
our angkasawan is up in space, people
would have conversations about it.
When I talked about making Teh
Tarik in space, I was ridiculed. The press
did not give me a chance to explain that
Teh Tarik is about fluid dynamics. You
cannot make Teh Tarik in space, and
When I talked about making Teh Tarik in space,
I was ridiculed. The press did not give me a chance to
explain that Teh Tarik is about fluid dynamics.
it was the worst three to four years of
my career! I got up every single day and
faced a new set of problems.
Then, towards the end it became
very high profile and attracted other
problems. The press were upon us all the
time. We tried our best to avoid errors
but of course, we made mistakes and
the press made us suffer for them. The
programme became political, a glamour
exercise - it was very stressful.
Q: Was there any particular
reason that the selection of the
Angkasawan was open to the
public?
Tun Mahathir launched it in October
2003 before he stepped down as Prime
Minister and I opened it to the public in
January 2004. We were discussing the
selection process. Tun Mahathir proposed that we identify a select group
of people and train them. I had a different idea. I said that we would miss a
Because of our selection methods,
people couldn’t accuse us of favouritism.
So the selection filters became
more difficult – medical, physical,
psychological. We conducted profiling
- we wanted someone who would not
be intimidated in ISS and would be able
to stand up for themselves as well as
someone who would be able to learn a
new culture and language.
Q: Will there be an Angkasawan
II Project?
Of course, I already had this in mind
when I put the first programme together. But before you start the second
programme, you need to ask: What do
you want to achieve?
With the first Angkasawan project, we were very clear that one, we
wanted a project that would inspire the
youth to be interested in science and
to strive for physical and mental excellence. Second, we wanted to conduct
given how popular the drink is among
Malaysians, people would have learnt
about fluid dynamics without realising
it. On the ISS, many experiments had
to do with liquids – what happens when
you suck it, and so on. But the press ridiculed the Teh Tarik idea and ridiculed
the entire angkasawan programme. I
was never given a chance to explain and
I regret until today that I was not more
persistent in explaining why I had proposed the idea of Teh Tarik.
The next Angkasawan programme
cannot have the same objectives. We’ve
surpassed those. What is left are these:
either you demonstrate ground-breaking science or you demonstrate a technology that space-faring nations want.
If you don’t do either of these