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vision 2.02.0
Malaysia's Confident stride into Future
A 1M Farukh
When my BG flight I II took olT and I breathed my long awaited Lumpur I attended a seminar on "Consciousness of values":
breath, I felt a lillIe light, though not enough to tly on IpV own which was directly sponsored by the Malaysian governmcnt.
ing~. My journey ~tarted. Three La,,~ of Cloning Abo. I came to know that the ~eminar was a part of a numher of
continuous seminars to be held in different universitics, colleges
I stepped into Subang International Airport at Subang Jaya and schools. with a view to generating a new consciousness- of
(traditionally called as Suvang by cab drier~). There I founu two values for a nation that lacked it. Social and cultural values uo
long line~ in front of immigration counter~. One was named not grow automatically, they need to be grown by people who
"OTHERS" while the other one read "'Bangladesh. India & belong to a cOl11l11on culture and are required to develop a
Pakistan only". r suddenly missed a beat of m)' heart. Anyway. common sense of value judgment for their own national
nothing ullloward happened. interest. I saw it happening among the population of Malaysia
in the dying years of the last century.
I would like to talk about "'Vision 2020". which I lirst saw as a
piece of neon sign that ornamcnteu a bunch of palm trees at the
exit of Suvang. to be lit only after sunset. Don't Worry! Diarrhoea Protects
In two day's time I came across a white banner printed on a city Against Colon Cancer
~ervice bus to discover "Vision 2020" again on that. I asked my
co-passenger about what it meant. He wa~ too simple to say. "We Diarrhoea - may protect against colorectal cancer. The bacterial
the Malaysians believe that in the year 2020, Malaysia will turn toxin that causes the illness was also found to slow the growth
into America". of dividing colon cancer cells to a crawl, US researchers found.
Researchers now hope this mechanism can be harnessed to fight
: Why do you think ~o') cancer - without the unpleasant side effects.
: Our Prime Minister Mahathir has a vision for the country and the GianMario Pitari at Thomas Jefferson University in
vision is like this. Philadelphia and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester.
Minnesota, looked at enterotoxins from Escherichia coli - the
Later. 1 camc to know in continueu conversation that my co- main cause of diarrhoea.
passenger was a university studcnt. I was <lma/ed to see how prouu They found that E. coli spreads itself by producing a toxin that
anu conl'ident hc ~()undcd when he wa~ telling me about "'Vision mimics a natural colon process and provokes uiarrhoea.
2020". Ho"ccr. my "ama/eu feelings" t~rneu illlo a great However, the toxin also causes a Ilood of calcium into the
surprise immediately al'ter I asked a taxi driver about "Vision affected cells, stopping colon cancer cells from rcplicating
2020". I was astonished to hear exactly the same explanation from rapidly.
Ihc taj (lJ'I'er oho was illiterate. Onl) then I realized what I saw The study is the first to highlight this ~ignalling pathway as a
at Suoang International Airport was not merely a decoration piece. way of stalling colon cancer cells. "The mechani~m by which
II was a confidence -- a dream that Malaysians from all walks of this occurs is very specific and a completely new." says Pitari.
life !oe to indulge in anu believe in. The finding is "very exciting indeed. because it offers a ne
insight into the pathogenesis of this uisease," says
I was thrilled to visualize a nation where all citizens have a gastroenterologist Emad EI-Omar at University of Abcrucen
comlllon largel and also they have faith that the target IS and adviser to charity Colon Cancer Concern. "It takes into
achievable. account a very obvious constituent in the bowel that has been
ignored by mainstream research, namely the colonic bacteria,"
Malaysia is a country where live three ethnically different peoples. he said.
The three races are Tamil~. Chinese. and Bumiputra. The
Bumiputra (son of the ~oil) had lived there before the then British Dietary Calcium
rulers brought in the Tamils anu Chinese as citizens. The three Colorectal cancer is the fourth leading cause of death due to
races have three distinct religions and cultures that separate them cancer worldwide. but is found disproportionately in developeu
from each other quite clearly. Still. the nation is developing day by nations. In contrast. diarrhoea caused by intestinal E .coli is
day. more prevalent in developing world countries.
The researchers added the enterotoxins frOI11 E .coli to human
On the contrary, in our country there is no ethnic divide other than colon carcinoma cells in the lab. Scott Waldman, one of the
the minor ones in the southeastern hills of the country. Even the team. says that the toxin binds to receptor on the cell's surface
religious division that exists between the Muslims and the Hindus and triggers two events in the gut.
is not something that stands in the way of our national economic Firstly, it causes the diarrhoea. Secondly, through a different
development. Ethnic and religious hostility are almost non- pathway. it allows calcium to flow into the cell and slow its
existent. We have a rich and diverse literature. People in the rest of growth. '
the world glorify our language when they mark the International Pitari suggests that dietary calcium could block tumour growth:
Mother Language Day on 21 st February each year. Contrarily, "We propose blocking the pathway leading to diarrhoea, leaving
Malaysians do not have their own alphabet, let alone a rich or only the positive effect. This might provide a great opportunity
enviable culture. The Malay language was previously written in to treat cancer locally. It might also work synergistically with
Arabic and now uses Roman alphabet. other anticancer drugs."
Shaoni Bhattacharya
Still, with so many factors of discrimination among race~
EouVista 0
1alay~ians are trying to find out a common platform of value~
among the three groups. Somctimes, at a uni"ersity in Kuala I