This is not a fictitious story that I made up.

I have it from a reliable source (who was there) that three Malaysians attended the AustralAsia Post Harvest conference in Napier, New Zealand held just last week

This Malaysian delegation was made up of one man and two ladies. He was holding a Doctorate degree whilst the other two probably still doing their post-graduate degrees. They were from Mardi, UPM and UKM, all supposedly ‘reputable government research and academic organisation institutions.

These three were supposedly selected to attend this international conference which had representatives attending from all over the world . All countries represented either had speakers who presented research papers or put up posters (preliminary findings on their ongoing research works).

This included our neighbours Thailand (which put up posters for research on rice and pomelos) and Indonesia. All, that is, except, Malaysia!

Apparently Malaysia was the only nation represented where there was no contribution in any form at all. Does this not then make us wonder then how our universities’ world rankings are ever going to go up at all?

One can''t help getting the impression that these three people were sent there (on taxpayers' funds) for a holiday instead of attending an overseas conference. As a taxpayer, I am furious as to why these kind of things are still allowed to happen.

I do hope that these few were not trained nor educated overseas using taxpayers' money as well. A sheer waste that would have been. By their own action (or should I say, inaction) they have also caused irreparable damage to our nations' reputation

I am writing this because I am furious (as a taxpayer) and embarrassed (as a Malaysian) that such nonsense is still allowed to prevail. Don't these people have any conscience at all?

Do they not have to submit a report to their superiors or institution on their ‘holiday’ trip? I suppose everything will return to normal when these people return home. Nothing has changed or will change.

So how can any of us still believe that we will be a developed nation by the year 2020? With a mentality like this, I would dare say that the chances are next to nil.