…you know, take your kids to the nearest playground and probably half of the equipment will be lying on the ground, broken or vandalised.

This is why panic-stricken Malaysians — who are certain that Lynas Corp over in Pahang is actually peopled with evildoers doing something akin to importing pure radioactive uranium in paper bags with a view to giving us all cancer — insist on calling in overseas experts to check it all out.

Malaysian experts supplied the government and the media and the locals with all the information needed about rare earths, which is what Lynas is actually interested in, but…

…we can’t rely on local experts, you see. Locals are either incompetent, corrupt or liars. After all Malaysia has a maintenance problem, right?

This is why Malaysians would NEVER dream of:

• Flying on MAS…
• Flying on AirAsia…
• Having an operation in a Malaysian hospital…
• Going to a Malaysian-trained doctor…
• Letting a Malaysian architect design their house or their office buildings…
• Allowing a Malaysian laboratory to check if they have dengue…
• Allowing Malaysian engineers anywhere near anything like an oilrig or a gas pipeline or a bridge…
• Having a nuclear reactor running and operating in Bandar Baru Bangi for the past 28 years…

I could go on and on, but do I really need to say more?

And here’s the ultimate irony. Who are the experts the Malaysian Government is calling in, in order to please the panicked folk out there who don’t have any technical background and haven’t a clue what rare earths are?

People from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency. Yep, the same place that had a Malaysian — in the person of my husband — as a Deputy Director-General for over six years, in charge of — get this, technical assistance and cooperation.

That’s right, the International Atomic Energy Agency trusted a Malaysian, but Malaysians don’t trust their own.