We Malaysians never failed to have things to talk about. Last week's goss was our entry into F1's race next year. The Lotus F1 team got the 13th entry after BMW Sauber bowed out of the race.
Most people that I spoke to had their reservations over the idea. The argument is simple - why spend such amount of money when it could be used to improve the lives of the poor.
The Government's involvement was said thru Proton as its subsidiary, Lotus will be the team constructor. The entry, the promoters claimed will be a great branding for the 1Msia theme (notice how everything can be associated to 1Msia?). But who's paying the bills? Bills that will come in millions, if not, billions of ringgit, and not for one year, but for many, many years as long as the team is still competing.
My colleague said bringing the race to Msia already yielded that kind of exposure. How having a competing team will increase that is questionable. Alex Yoong was the first Msian F1 driver, and what did that do to profile Malaysia?
Another friend also rightfully noted that Singapore's F1 GP race was conducted without even having the trouble of building the track, and what did Malaysia do? Spent billions to build SIC and ended up having to cope with several years of gestation before making a profit. And how long did it take for Singapore to reap its efforts? One year. Talk about same cloth, different signs ...
Couple days ago, there was a news piece on taking nasi lemak as one of Malaysia's own unique cuisine. Such simple idea drew debates from all corners. Personally, I feel politicians have such simplistic notion on how to improve the country. Make nasi lemak Malaysian owned, and we draw the foreigners in! Remember how the pendet dance got us into trouble in the first place? (well to be fair, it wasn't us who started it; it was channel's hiccup...)
I always wonder why we use resources for short-term results? It's such a knee-jerk reaction instead of a properly thought out plan. Every time the country is faced with a specific issue, political leaders would suggest some 'injection' that supposedly 'cure it' (for the time being). When the world wonders at the liberal state of the country after reading news of canning punishment because the person drank in public, or a ban on pubs and clubs in a major state, we suggest our own F1 team to divert the profile. But do we ask ourselves if it will work, or yield the results wanted? Will our children and grandchildren be happy 10 years down the road, knowing that Malaysia has (or had) its own F1 team?
Honestly, I'm quite tired of the 'sandiwara' that takes place on the media day in and day out. Makes working in the industry even more tasteless. I'm still asking where have all the intelligent persons I know gone to? And why they are not the ones framing the national policies? Or perhaps, I'm the one that needs some enlightening cos' I don't comprehend at all where the country is heading ...
