Unshaken

"Please do not go outside. Please stay indoors. Please close windows and make your homes airtight"

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, to residents in the danger zone of Japan's crippled nuclear power plant.

That is a sound advice by Edano, but I hope that part about making the homes airtight was just a figure of speech. For I see very little point in escaping the exposure to the nuclear radiation, but die of suffocation instead.

Almost a year ago, I posted an article about Malaysia's big ambition in building its first nuclear power plant by 2021. In it, I expressed my doubts on such ambition, and suggested alternative means of overcoming the future power needs of the nation. Admittedly, however, it's easier said than done!

Malaysia is well known for its lust for recognition in the global sense. It manufactured motor vehicles, built very long bridges across the sea, built very tall buildings. Hell, we even sent a model into space. In pursuing some of these ambitious plans, resources are often wasted. When the second bridge project to Singapore was aborted, the government had to pay millions upon millions in compensation. We are good with that sort of thing.

But a proposed nuclear power plant is different. It's not merely the prospect of wasting money. There is also that prospect of losing many, many lives if things were to go wrong.

A friend, remembering that earlier post in this blog on Malaysia's ambitious plan of a nuclear power plant, asked me an interesting question recently.

She said, "Would the Malaysian government have a second thought of building a nuclear power plant in light of what's going on in Japan now?"

I did not take very long to reply, "Of course not! This is Malaysia we're talking about!"

I may be wrong, but no, I don't think Malaysia's ambition is shaken in the least by what's going on in Japan.

I've heard someone said something like, "The best way to learn is by making mistakes." I don't know who was the first person who came up with that ridiculous sentence. Yet in a way, maybe there is some truth in it. So I guess Malaysia, as a nation, is adopting this approach in its development programmes.