For anyone in Malaysia who reads the recent news, one can't avoid reading about our nation's pride and joy for sending a Malaysian (Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Sheikh Mustapha) into space.

Of course, they are some critics from Malaysia and internationally who deemed the Malaysian as a space tourist, which is promptly corrected by our ministers who insisted that Dr Sheikh is an astronaut and later settled for the title cosmonaut.

This is of course very typical of us to insist on the rightful and most prestige title, which is evident by almost a full-page article published by The Star on Oct 9 with definitions from English dictionary to prove that Dr Shiekh is truly a cosmonaut and not a space tourist. Rest assured that this letter is not about titles or whether Dr Shiekh is qualify to own up to the given titles.

This is about cost. I am very curious on just how much does this whole exercise costs us as Malaysian. I have done some research, thanks to our friendly Singaporean newspaper, the Straits Times.

"The US$25 million (RM84.3 million) agreement for a Malaysian to fly to space was negotiated in 2003 with a US$900 million deal for Malaysia to buy 18 Russian fighter jets."

We have spent an appalling US$925 million, or RM3.1 billion, to send one Malaysian for a 11-day return trip to space with a throw-in deal of 18 Russian fighter jets (Actual condition and value of the jets are unknown)

Can you imagine how much our nation can do with RM 3.1 billion if spent on education or health services? I personally felt that the cost is not justifiable and if our very own Malaysian by his or her personal merits was accepted by Nasa or Russian Space Agency to fly to space, I would be very proud and it is indeed something to celebrate.

This is just exorbitant spending with really nothing much to prove. We have not achieved anything by paying a huge sum to sent one Malaysian into space when the money can be better spent.