Down to Earth

The critics had lambasted the Angkasawan (Astronaut), the Malaysian space programme, initiated in 2003 by the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir as an ostentatious waste of tax-payers’ money, which could have easily benefited the general public directly through development projects. It was seen as part of the ruling party’s political agenda. It had come about from a US $900 million deal for Malaysia to buy 18 Russian Sukhoi Su-30 multi-fighter jets which entailed the Russian government to train and send off a Malaysian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) by October 2007.

Playing up the public interest, a spokesperson for the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry announced in the Malaysian Parliament in November 2006 that the Malaysian astronaut selected to go to the International Space Station (ISS) with the Russians would conduct experiments involving making Batik, ‘teh-tarik’ (tea cooled and frothed the Malaysian way by pouring it from one glass to another at two arms’ length mid-air), spinning-tops and playing Batu Seremban, a child’s game of pebbles.  

After a call for aspirants with at least a university degree or pilot’s license, which drew 10,000 applications, 894 were selected for a 3.5km run challenge. Basic medical examinations, Aeromedical, Survival tests, and interviews followed before two final candidates, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor (born 1972) and Captain Dr. Faiz Khaleed (born 1980), a Royal Malaysian Armed Force military dentist were selected to undergo an 18-month training in Russia.

Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor won the place on-board a Russian Soyuz-FG rocket to become the first Malaysian to go into outer space on the 10th of October 2007 where he spent 10 days, a few of which coincided with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Experiments on Elegan nematode worms, Protein Crystallization and the effects of microgravity and space radiation on cancer cells were conducted at the ISS. But while all eyes were on Sheikh Muszaphar and his parents praying for his  safety, something dramatic happened right here on earth. By a twist that only fate can hand out, Sheikh Muszaphar’s younger and closest brother Ajil, who had also applied for the Angkasawan program, lapsed into a coma after a fall.

On the 21st October 2007 Sheikh Muszaphar landed safely back on earth and Sheikh Arwiz, another brother told it to Ajil who was still unconscious. Arwiz and his fiancee Erin claimed that they saw Ajil index finger twitched just then.  Sadly on the 27th October 2007 with his parents and everyone else except Sheikh Muszaphar by his side, Ajil passed away.

A year after his adventure into space Sheikh Muszaphar is still highly regarded by ordinary Malaysians as a national hero. He is not only very attractive but extremely intelligent and educated. Born in Kuala Lumpur and raised in a loving family and then in a boarding school, he graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery in India, before pursuing his Masters of Surgery in Orthopaedic Surgery at Malaysia’s University Kebangsaan. As a volunteer for the Malaysian Medical Relief Society MERCY he had been dispatched to flood-stricken Cambodia in 2003 and earthquake-devastated Afghanistan in 2004. He might have been a part-time model before but he is now an orthopedic surgeon.

Critics had insinuated that Sheikh Muszaphar had merely been a space-tourist and not a ‘fully-fledged cosmonaut’ as Alexander Karchava, the Russian ambassador to Malaysia proclaimed. Gossip about Muszaphar’s sexuality, perhaps due to being joint-owner of a restaurant with a celebrity chef who is rumoured to be gay, is also persistent. It seems therefore convenient to say that Sheikh Muszaphar is under-contract to remain a bachelor for a few more years.

The late Ajil however had written about his brother, Muszaphar as a person who was “not just about getting married, settling down, having kids and eventually growing old. Applying for the Angkasawan programme was one way for him to fulfil his desire….(he) is gifted with sound business acumen and formed a joint-venture restaurant called Rebung with his former patient and good friend, the chef. Muszaphar loves to enjoy good food and entertaining”.

As a hero, Muszaphar is greeted like a pop-star wherever he goes and he relishes the attention. Bodyguards keep women and teenage girls at bay but a mere glace or a brief smile flutter their hearts into excited giggles and launch them into orbits of fantasy.  

But who is the real Sheikh Muszaphar behind the public persona? Was it his upbringing which shaped him into a high-achiever? How do his ex-school mates from boarding school at Mara Junior Science College MRSM, in Muar Johor where he spent life from 12 to 17 years of age remember him? How does the loss of his dear brother effected him? How has his life changed since the programme? What is next for an Alpha male after you have been into space? Politics?

When I spoke to him in April 2008, Sheikh Muszaphar was excited with the idea of a documentary about his life. My background as another former student of Mara Junior Science College MRSM puts me perhaps in a position to empathise with his boarding school experience at least. He had after all toured all 40 MRSMs to give motivational talks as education is an agenda close to his heart. But is this down-to-earth humanitarian, surgeon and astronaut too good to be true or a real testament to the success of a loving familial nurture, progress in the Malaysian educational system and the ‘we-can’ attitude of a country 50 years post-independence?