I refer to Proud and Tall's letter in Malaysiakini , Space programme worth every sen .

Proud and Tall said: "Even most advanced nations do not supply free textbooks to their children."

I would really be interested where he/she got their facts, The United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Netherlands, all provide free books to their public schools for the children to use as well as discounted foods or free lunches.

Many of these countries may charge a small part, usually less then US$50 a year from parents since their taxes pay for public education as well as their local and state taxes. However, low-income families need not pay a cent. On the other hand, parents in Malaysia do have to pay more for.

Also as for the space age, there is a bit of a difference - countries like the US and Russia were in a space race and these countries have invented their own space programmes. This is not to say what Malaysia has done was bad, but really let's be honest about it, all of it was not even our own technology but that of Russia and the US. In fact, the Malaysian had to go to Russia and Kazakhstan to be trained. Even China is training their own astronauts.

All Malaysia simply did was send a person born from the country to space. Now how is that any different from someone (like a famous singer) paying for himself/herself to go to space? Well, for one, they would not have used public money for it.

Was our astronaut a scientist who have been studying space for the last 10 years? Was he a flight pilot? What real experiments did he think up on their own and in what institution does he really belong to?

According to Wikipedia , the definition of an astronaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight programme to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft. "While generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists."

As you will no doubt notice the last part - "sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space". Thus even Wiki states that it is not a "real" astronaut. Malaysia's space programme is a sure way to teach the children to be proud of government waste.