How are Malaysia ever to match South Korean Psy's Gangnam Style?

MP SPEAKS On the occasion of South Korean pop superstar Psy's Gangnam Style performance at the Prime Minister's CNY Open House in Penang today, will Najib Abdul Razak make a statement whether Malaysia can ever catch up with South Korea or at least begin to close the yawning chasm between the two countries?

A cabinet minister said Psy's appearance will make Penang world-famous but it is more important that Penang and Malaysia become world-famous because of our own achievements in all fields of human endeavour.

Sixteen years ago, when we proclaimed the Multimedia Super Corridor as "a gift to the world", Malaysia and South Korea were on the same level embarking on the IT journey.

Today, MSC and Malaysia have faded away from the world radar screen as an international IT hot spot, while South Korea has powered ahead to become the first country in the world to become a broadband society as well as the land of fastest internet in the world - with an average internet speed in 2012 of 14.7 Mpbs, 650 percent higher than the average 2.2 Mpbs registered in Malaysia.

Among the worst 

In fact, Malaysia is ranked among the world's worst nations in internet speed - even slower than Thailand's average internet speed of 2.9 Mpbs for 2012.

In good governance, Malaysia trails behind South Korea especially in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index in the past five years, where Malaysia is perceived as more corrupt, ranging No. 47 to 60 in world ranking in contrast to South Korea's ranking from 39 to 45.

In the latest 2002 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders), Malaysia hit a historic low in ranking at No 145 while South Korea is ranked No 50.

Recently, the 2011 Trends in Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS) highlights that Malaysia is the country which suffered the biggest drop in scores among all participating countries for both mathematics and science, while confirming the continuing domination by a group of Asian education systems - South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong - in these two critical subjects.

Malaysia woefully lags behind South Korea in educational excellence. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-2013, four South Korean universities are listed among the World Top 200 universities while six in the World Top 400 universities - but not a single one from Malaysia.

Has Najib any answer to the question why Malaysia is lagging so far behind South Korea in all fields of human endeavour, when 56 years ago when Malaysia achieved Merdeka, South Korea was poorer and more backward but is now two or three times richer than Malaysia?

By Lim Kit Siang

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Gangnam Style, like the Korean Psy?  

Gangnam Style, like the Korean Psy?

Psy Breaks Down Greatest Assets Of 'Gangnam Style' Vid

'I want to tell you the reason why for the first time in the United States: honestly, I love butt,' Psy tells MTV News.

Psy's "Gangnam Style" doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. In less than a month, Psy has appeared at the Video Music Awards, the "Today" show, appeared in the season premiere of "Saturday Night Live" and currently has the #1 song on the iTunes charts.

In what was meant to be a music video just for Psy's Korean fanbase, the clip's infectious dance moves soon sparked an Internet firestorm, with nearly 200 million people on YouTube watching the colorful, spontaneous and sometimes ridiculous music video that was shot over the course of 48 hours in July.

Get More: Music News

"With this video and director we kept on focusing on to be ridiculous as possible, that was our point," Psy recently told MTV News about the video. "So we were so serious thinking to be ridiculous."

With so many unexpected twists and turns throughout the four-minute clip, we had Psy break down his favorite scenes and explain the thought process behind the "dress classy and dance cheesy" phenomenon.


Beach Turned Playground

The video kicks off with Psy lounging in style at the beach, but as the camera zooms out, one can see that Psy is sunbathing at a local playground and is joined by an extremely talented child dancer.

"This is playground for kids, and it looks like I'm sitting at the beach," Psy said. "See this kid he is 5 years old. As you have 'America's Got Talent,' we have 'Korea's Got Talent' and he was from there, so I picked him, and he did all the Michael Jackson moves when he was 3 without any education."


Sleeping in the Sauna

Rapping and dancing for 48 hours straight can take a lot out of you, which is what happened to Psy. Once they began filming the final scene at the sauna, the Korean star was out of creative ideas and opted to nap instead.

"This was the very last scene of filming so me and all the staff was totally exhausted and too ridiculous for 48 hours without sleeping, it's awful and we were all exhausted," Psy said. "We were getting panic like 'What were we doing all these two days?' and everybody is like 'what are we going to do in the sauna?' and let's just go in and play music and as you can see I was so tired."


Psy's Favorite Part of a Woman

When creating this video there was one thing that Psy just couldn't ignore — a woman's butt. In the scene where a group of women seem to be toning their bodies, Psy yells at them, but he promises, it's all in good fun.

"I'm yelling at her butt," Psy said. "I want to tell you the reason why for the first time in the United States: honestly, I love butt. I'm sorry, but I literally love butt. Honestly, what can I say?"


Dirty Dancing in the Elevator

For one of the most-talked-about scenes in the video, Psy enlisted friend and Korean comedian Noh Hong-cheol to step in, even if he had no idea what he was getting in to.

"He is a huge comedian in Korea and he didn't expect even filming this, he just came to the scene and he was there because he's a good friend of mine and he was there to cheer me up," Psy said. "We were suddenly getting on the elevator to move and to the next spot and I asked him 'Hey, why don't we make some film in the elevator?' and he did the dance move. This move is really dirty and really famous in Korea so I said, 'I'm gonna go underneath between your legs,' so it was really ad-libbed."


Toilet Talk

In what looks to be a close-up shot of Psy fiercely rapping the lyrics to "Gangnam Style," the camera quickly pans out to reveal Psy in an awkward position.

"The purpose of this music video was just for fun, just for entertaining, but the director said 'Hey Psy just for one scene let's be serious let's make something look good so," Psy said. "They filmed this and I said, 'All right, I'll do this to satisfy you and then I'm going to take off my pants, and then you're going to zoom out and it's going to be a toilet.' Isn't this lovely? I love this scene."

What is your favorite scene in "Gangnam Style"? Let us know in the comments.

By Christina Garibaldi (@ChristinaMTV)  
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