Biovalley or Bo-Valley?

A long long time ago (7 years ago), just as Ping was leaving her home country - Malaysia - to pursue her tertiary education in the United States, there was a buzz that Malaysia will develop its own 'Biotechnology Center'. Have you heard about that? Ping still hears about it every now and then. Every time Ping steer the conversation to 'but M'sia got no job for scientists leh', there will be someone who says, 'Aiyah, the biotechnology center coming up mah!'.

When Ping goes home for summer breaks, and some relatives asks the regular ke-poh (busy body) questions, one of them including, 'What are you studying?". When told that it has something to do with science, the response will be - Wah, gau lo. Lang M'sia eh biotechnology center beh khi lai liow, chin chia eng chui kang (wow, so smart. Our M'sian biotechnology center is coming up so it will be pretty easy to find a job). Hmmm...

But you know what? Ping has not seen of any evidence on the development of the biotechnology center except that it will be located near Putrajaya. Ping got the same comment just less than a month ago when having dinner with a friend back in Penang - What about the biotechnology center?. Errr....if there really is one, why don't you see job listings? Why don't you see the ads for the companies in the nation's newspaper? The Star usually does a pretty good job at publishing new companies. If the biotechnology center is something that is so huge and to be proud of, where exactly is it? True, Ping have not been following the Star everyday but it never felt like the place existed. If this research center exists, why are science graduates working in sales departments?

You know why? Because it was never really 'brought up'. In fact, just this morning, Ping found out that it is called 'Biovalley'. And nope, it wasn't in The Star. It was from an article in Nature!! So Ping was right that it was located near Putrajaya - Dengkil and that there never really was a 'Biovalley'. One of the reasons mentioned by the author is the 'Malay comes first' issue that never cease to get our blood pressure up. It was also mentioned that 'Good people go overseas'. Hmm...if they know that, why aren't they doing anything about it? Ping would have jumped with joy to be working back home. But no, opportunities doesn't seem to direct Ping towards home. There are so many research area one can hunt on in Malaysia - a tropical country with a high diversity flora and fauna. Most of the questions asked here could be so much more interesting back in Malaysia. We have acres and acres of rubber trees, paddy fields, palm oil plantation, it is not only applied science but there can be so many fundamental science questions. Anyone ever look at the microbial community that thrives in the tropical forests? How does the community change with draught? Flood? Does agricultural practice like rubber tree plantation reduce microbial diversity? What about waste water treatment? How many anaerobic digestor are there in Malaysia? Have they tried biochar application in small scale commercial agricultural plots? There are sooooooooo many things that can be done back in Malaysia and they can be unique to our tropical environment...and yet, they had failed to attract such interests. Hence, the name sounds more like 'Bo-Valley'. The article was from 2005. So what is going on now? Ping Googled and all you get is news up to 2006, wondering what had happened to the 'Valley'.

Now that the DAP has taken over Penang AND SELANGOR (whoooohooooo!!! Ping and Jo was still excited to hear the pleasant surprise this morning!), maybe they will do something about the white elephant. Ping has got a few more years to go and hopefully that will be enough time for them to do something. For right now, better keep hopes low first. But wouldn't it be great if Ping could go back to Malaysia after graduation? *grins*