Malaysia ... truly Asia ... truly amazing!

Truly amazing is how the Malacca State Government should be described. It has unbelievably conferred a Datukship to Bollywood film star Shah Rukh Khan.

The was also justification to the conferment of the award ... Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam said the decision to confer the title on the actor was based on a suggestion by former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin to Yang di-Pertua Negri Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob recently as a means to further promote Malacca owing to the fact that the actor had shot a movie scene here several years ago. BTW, where is our "beloved" former Finance Minister - he seems to have been missing in action of late.

Many Malaysians have also heard of fees attached to the conferment of various titles but we will of course choose not to believe that SRK had even the slightest notion of this so-called prerequisite, and was honoured accordingly - for his contributions!

The conferment of the title has also caused much concern among the other state governments. You see many Malaysians (actors, actresses and wannabes) have treated us to various "home made productions" not shown on regular media ... and they may now want their names added to the Datuk list - for their contributions!

These are local celebrities who have made a name for themselves through "movies" seen via mobile phones, You Tube, the Internet, E-mails and sometimes, hitting the big time with VCD/DVD discs only available at the Pasar Malams.

In "Malaysia ... truly Asia", it has become a standing joke amongst the public that "if you were to throw a stone , you would most likely hit a Datuk" (and not the parental type either).

Soon, this phenomenon will be seen in Bollywood, Hollywood (Datuk Michelle Yeoh - she deserves it-lah), F1 circuits (Datuk Jean Todt) ... and I'm sure many more that I can't remember!

I end by borrowing an article written by TV Smith and featured in the Sunday Star in 2003 ... where he posed, "What if datukships were transferable and could be traded like club memberships? What would the ads look like, he wonders... please click for a good laugh :)