Quantum Rainbow Photon Gun Unveiled

  Published by MIT

A photon gun capable of reliably producing single photons of different colours could become an important building block of a quantum internet

We've heard much about the possibility of a quantum internet which uses single photons to encode and send information protected by the emerging technology of quantum cryptography.

The main advantage is of such a system is perfect security, the kind of thing that governments, the military, banks and assorted other groups would pay handsomely to achieve.

One of the enabling technologies for a quantum internet is a reliable photon gun that can fire single photons on demand. That's not easy.

One of the significant weaknesses of current quantum cryptographic systems is the finite possibility that today's lasers emit photons in bunches rather than one at a time. When this happens, an eavesdropper can use these extra photons to extract information about the data being transmitted.

So there's no shortage of interest in developing photon guns that emit single photons and indeed various groups have made significant progress towards this.

Against this background, Michael Fortsch at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen, Germany, and a few pals today say they've made a significant breakthrough. These guys reckon they've built a photon emitter with a range of properties that make it far more flexible, efficient and useful than any before--a kind of photon supergun.

The gun is a disc-shaped crystal of lithium niobate zapped with 582nm light from a neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Nd:YAG) laser. Lithium niobate is a nonlinear material that causes single photons to spontaneously convert into photon pairs.

So the 582nm photons ricochet around inside the disc and eventually emerge either as unchanged 582nm photons or as a pair of entangled photons with about twice the wavelength (about 1060nm). This entangled pair don't have quite the same wavelength and so all three types of photon can be easily separated.

The 582 nm photons are ignored. Of the other pair, one is used to transmit information and the other is picked up by a detector to confirm that the other photon is ready form transmission.

So what's so special about this photon gun? First and most important is that the gun emits photons in pairs. That's significant because the detection of one photon is an unambiguous sign that another has also been emitted. It's like a time stamp that says a photon is on its way.

This so-called photon herald means that there can be no confusion over whether the gun is secretly leaking information to a potential eavesdropper.

This gun is also fast, emitting some 10 million pairs of photons per second per mW and also two orders of magnitude more efficient than other photon guns.

These guys can also change the wavelength of the photons the gun emits by heating or cooling the crystal and thereby changing its size. This rainbow of colours stretches over 100nm (OK, not quite a rainbow but you get the picture).

That's important because it means the gun can be tuned to various different atomic transitions allowing physicists and engineers to play with a variety of different atoms for quantum information storage.

All in all, an impressive feat and clearly an enabling step along the way to more powerful quantum information processing tools.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1204.3056: A Versatile Source of Single Photons for Quantum Information Processing

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MIA, Malaysian Institute of Accountants needs to change

World Bank report says it should improve its governance structure

PETALING JAYA: After a recent assessment of the accounting and auditing environment in Malaysia, the World Bank has concluded that there ought to be changes in how the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) is governed.

The report on the observance of standards and codes, released in February, noted among other things, that the institute's governance structure and lack of resources were “posing some challenges”.

The report focused on accounting and auditing standards and practices in corporate Malaysia, as well as the institutional framework that underpins the corporate financial reporting system.

“An independent review of the governance structure of the MIA should be conducted to provide recommendations for improving its structure and operations,” said the World Bank.

“In particular, these actions should address the structure and membership of the MIA council, and the streamlining of the investigation and disciplinary process.

“These changes should also facilitate the process of approving any increases in membership fees, as it appears that a lack of resources is impacting the MIA's ability to discharge effectively all its obligations.”

The report noted that the institute's governing body, its council, had 30 members, 10 of whom are elected. The rest are appointed by the Government.

“All the members of the investigation, disciplinary, and disciplinary appeals committees are required to be members of the council, which limits the volume of cases these committees are able to process,” said the World Bank.

The institute has already taken steps to address this. In an interview with StarBiz earlier this month, MIA president Datuk Mohamed Nasir Ahmad said the institute had submitted to the Government a draft of proposed amendments to the Accountants Act 1967.

Among the changes sought was that the MIA be allowed to create multiple sub-committees to deal with investigations, with the subcommittee members possibly coming from outside the council.

However, the World Bank report did not mention any dissatisfaction over the council's composition, although this has been a longstanding complaint among some MIA members.

In a statement sent to StarBiz, the Malaysian Accounting Firms Association (previously known as the Association Of Small & Medium Accounting Firms of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor) pointed out that although the MIA was “wholly supported by members subscriptions”, 20 of the council members were appointed by the Finance Minister on the advice of the Accountant-General, as provided under the Accountants Act.

“The MIA is probably the only members-only professional body in Malaysia, and possibly in any country, with such a majority of unelected members in council,” said the association.

“If at all any amendment to the Act is to be proposed, it should start with reinstating the rights of the members to govern themselves as professionals should.”

The association issued the statement in response to the StarBiz article on April 16 on the proposed amendments to the Act.

Mohamed Nasir said the MIA was also proposing that its council be given the authority to make or amend certain rules, instead of having to wait for a general meeting to approve new rules.

The association frets that this may enable the MIA to unilaterally increase its membership subscription rates.

It said: “To put that in context, members have rejected subscription increases sought in the last two AGMs due to unhappiness with the institute.”

The World Bank report alluded to the institute's previous attempts to seek a subscription hike.

“The MIA derives almost twice as much income from its professional development programmes than it collects from annual membership fees. The annual membership fees stand at RM250, and two recent attempts to increase annual fees were voted down,” said the bank.

By ERROL OH
errol@thestar.com.my

Malaysisia changes over the last 42 years; quanity yes, quality?

The ascend to the throne of our new King, 42 years after he was last installed, is a time to reflect on our achievements.

I WAS at the installation of our new King the other day. Twice as King, he has seen Malaysia change from what it was then and now. He also mentioned in his speech that he witnessed the efforts of the Prime Minister at that time, Tun Abdul Razak, the father of our current Prime Minister.

I sat in the audience, reflecting on some of the positives that have taken place in our country and took some notes on my Blackberry.

The key thought that ran through my mind was how much things have changed over the last 42 years. Here’s how much:

·We moved from a low-income, high-poverty country to a high-middle-income economy. Our next transformation is to become a high-income, developed country with quality of life for everyone.

·Our infrastructure has increased by leaps and bounds. Roads and highways have been built and traverse all parts of the country. We are putting in a mass rapid transit system in Kuala Lumpur to take us to the next level.

·We have modern retail outlets – supermarkets, hypermarkets, shopping complexes, malls and entertainment outlets and we are helping mom-and-pop stores to modernise too.

·We are moving towards greater freedom in all spheres with the repeal of the Internal Security Act, establishing clear rights for peaceful assembly and affirming the rights of online expression and social media liberties, amongst others. The Government has also made amendments to Printing Presses and Publications Act, while the Prime Minister is also talking about changes to the Sedition Act.

·Religious freedom has actually taken strides forward. There is now explicit statement of freedom to import (instead of implicitly before) and publish the Alkitab (the Bible). Indeed, since the 10 points resolution, many Alkitab have been imported and printed locally, without any difficulties with the authorities.

·We have moved to an extensive “social welfare” system e.g free primary and secondary schools, virtually free public health system, and one of the lowest consumer prices for fuel, LPG cooking gas, sugar, electricity, flour, gas, and so on with high subsidies from the Government.

·We have moved to greater focus on rural poor. Under the transformation initiatives, for low-income groups, three million lives were positively impacted in 2010 and 2011.

·We have put up an explicit and substantive roadmap to transform Malaysia further. We will build upon the great achievements we have made between the times of the rules of our current King and work towards our vision 2020 - to make our country a developed one with its people earning high incomes.

Considerable achievement

Just to show the extent our achievements over the last 42 years, I have constructed a table of some key indicators. You can see for yourself how much things have changed, even if you accounted for the fact that a ringgit went a much longer way then.

Our income as a nation – gross national income at the prevailing prices then - increased 64 times over the last 42 years, which is fantastic considering that the population growth over the same period was just 1.6 times.

It’s not surprising therefore that per capita income went up 25 times over the period, a considerable achievement even after taking into account inflation and the drop in value of money.

‘We are putting in a mass rapid transit system in Kuala Lumpur to take us to the next level.’

 

One of the most telling effects of this is that the incidence of poverty has been brought down from nearly half of the population to less than four for every 100 people in the country. That’s tremendous.

The number of schools increased but the impact here would have been understated because while additional schools were built, existing schools would have increased their enrolment considerably.

There was a massive explosion in universities. In 1970, the universities were all public and there were only three. The latest figures indicate that private universities now outnumber government ones almost two to one with 20 public universities and 39 private ones.

A similar situation was seen for hospitals with private hospitals increasing from 46 to 239 while government hospitals rose more moderately from less than 80 to 137.

Average life expectancy, assuming equal numbers of males and female, increased by 17% to 74.1 years, reflecting vast improvement in health levels, which is reinforced by the sharp over 80% drop in the infant mortality rate to seven per 1,000 live births.

World confidence in the Malaysian economy too increased over the 42-year period and this is well-supported by foreign direct investment flows in 2011 of an excellent RM33bil which was 150 times more than that in 1970.

Who would have believed 42 years ago, that Malaysia would make such major achievements in an extremely challenging environment of uncertainty posed by the 1969 racial riots and the drastic and controversial steps that the Government took then to redress racial imbalances and eliminate poverty?

But despite the scepticism and the lack of confidence then, we succeeded and succeeded well. Yes, we could have done better, but then we can always do better and anyone could have done better. What counted was that we met our major targets.

We find similar scepticism now to our efforts to make yet another great transformation, a giant stride to become a developed nation with its citizens earning high incomes and enjoying a better quality of life than ever before.

Promising figures

We aim to do this in a bit more than eight years in a rather challenging and competitive environment. And I dare say we know how to do it. We have it pretty much mapped out in quite some detail.

The initial figures are promising, despite all the nay-saying which continues to give me the transformation blues. But yes, we will rise above the blues as we did before and make this a better nation for each and everyone of us.

The results for 2010 and 2011 are great with most of our targets not just met but exceeded, often by a lot. See the comprehensive annual report on economic and government transformation in the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) website for details.

Rome wasn’t built overnight, likewise Malaysia too. We are blessed as a country. Whilst we know there are shortcomings, we also need to count our blessings even as we overcome the shortcomings and other obstacles.

And we shall overcome – of that I am very sure.

Transformation Blues - By Idris Jala

UNCTAD conference starts amid Uncertainty

The 13th UNCTAD conference began last weekend with an impressive turnout of political leaders but there are tense undercurrents below the surface calm.

THE ministerial meeting of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) kicked off to a good start last Saturday with an opening session marked by a modern play and dance depicting the inequalities of the modern world, and with speeches by an impressive group of political leaders, including the Emir of Qatar, the President of Tunisia who came to power in the wake of the Arab Spring, and the Prime Ministers of Turkey and Bangladesh.

Most of them stressed the need to rethink the model of economic growth that was driven by a financial system that is now seen as dysfunctional and by a pattern of development that may be economically and environmentally unsustainable.

This is echoed in the theme of the UNCTAD conference, known as UNCTAD XIII because it is the 13th in a series of high-level sessions, held once in four years, since the founding in 1964 of this most important of United Nations development organisation.

The UNCTAD XIII theme is “Development-led globalisation: Towards sustainable and inclusive development paths.”

The conference report of the UNCTAD secretary-general, Supachai Panitchpakdi, speaks of a “world turned upside down”.

Much of it criticised the way globalisation had been driven by speculative finance, which has destabilised the world economy but also damaged development in developing countries.

The report advocated the start of a new era, of a development-led globalisation in which the state has to resume its leading role in development, with a new North-South deal based on taming the financial sector, turning trade and investment towards development, managing new threats and there is more democratic governance of the world economy.

Many sessions have already been held, with ministers, business leaders and academics debating investment promotion and investment agreements, the global environment influencing development, trade and poverty.

On Sunday, the UN General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, opened the main plenary, re-affirming the leading role of UNCTAD on trade and development issues in the UN system.

However, below the surface calm, there is an undercurrent of a tense atmosphere because of the uncertainties surrounding the main outcome of UNCTAD XIII, a declaration of ministers that spells out the main issues of the present and the main functions of UNCTAD in future.

The latest draft of this declaration, dated April 21, shows how far the countries are from agreement on many issues, both in stating the problems the world faces and in the future role of UNCTAD on these issues.

It is evident from this draft that developed countries, especially the group known as JZ (that includes the US, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland), are proposing to delete or severely dilute the text in many areas.

If their proposals are accepted, the future role of UNCTAD may be seriously curtailed.

This is being resisted by developing countries and their Group of 77 and China, which want to retain UNCTAD’s mandate to work on its present broad range of issues.

The most notable divisions, along North-South lines, are the following:

The G77 wants UNCTAD XIII to reaffirm the Accra Accord of 2008 adopted at the previous UNCTAD session, and to build on it. This will allow UNCTAD to continue work on all the issues it presently deals with.

However, the JZ group wants to delete “reaffirm” and keep “builds upon”, implying that there is no agreement to maintain the present mandate.

The text has only two simple paragraphs on the financial crisis, and the need to connect finance to the real economy, which JZ wants to delete. JZ and the European Union also want to delete another paragraph on the role of UNCTAD to contribute to the UN’s work in addressing the causes and effects of the economic crisis.

The paragraphs on the work of UNCTAD on debt, debt restructuring and responsible lending are also being diluted or deleted by developed countries.

The JZ group wants to delete UNCTAD’s work in servicing the GSTP, the South-South trade preference scheme of developing countries.

There is only one paragraph referring to UNCTAD’s work on intellectual property and development. The JZ and EU propose deletion of this.

Similarly JZ proposes deletion of the only reference to the important role of industrial policies.

There is also deletion or dilution of UNCTAD’s work on environment and sustainable development, such as climate change and the follow up to the Rio Plus 20 summit.

Other areas of dilution include food and agriculture, preferences to least developed countries, technology transfer, traditional knowledge and genetic resources.

At a meeting of Ministers of the G77 and China on April 20, it was agreed that the developing countries’ group will maintain its stand that the Accra Accord be reaffirmed and that there should be no dilution of the issues.

This is to be expected, because the G77 and China consider UNCTAD to be their organisation. Indeed, it was the formation of UNCTAD in 1964 that led to the birth of the G77 and China itself.

A puzzling question is why some of the developed countries are so adamant on eroding the mandate and work of UNCTAD.

It is well known that UNCTAD is not the developed countries’ favourite organisation, since its secretariat has continuously produced research that flies in the face of the orthodox policies of organisations they control, especially the World Bank and IMF.

But then the work of UNCTAD, which has often proved correct, is even more important today, when the old economic theories are crumbling and the traditional policies are being reviewed.

UNCTAD has proved it can contribute immensely to the new ideas so much needed.

What if there is no agreement on the draft Declaration?

That would be a setback not only to UNCTAD but the whole framework of international cooperation, which is also much needed in these turbulent times for the global economy.

Thus, it is hoped that all the countries at UNCTAD XIII will this week agree on a good declaration in Doha.

GLOBAL TRENDS BY MARTIN KHOR

China's warns US of Confrontation over South China Sea

Top military paper in China warns US of confrontation over South China Sea

BEIJING — China's top military newspaper warned the United States on Saturday that US-Philippine military exercises have fanned risks of armed confrontation over the disputed South China Sea.

The commentary in China's Liberation Army Daily falls short of a formal government statement, but marks the harshest high-level warning yet from Beijing about tensions with the Philippines over disputed seas where both countries have recently sent ships to assert their claims.

Dotted red line shows vast area claimed by China. The PHL, which is claiming some islands, has begun calling the region the West Philippine Sea. GMA News

This week American and Filipino troops launched a fortnight of annual naval drills amid the stand-off between Beijing and Manila, who have accused each other of encroaching on sovereign seas near Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal), about 200 kilometers west of the former U.S. naval base at Subic Bay.

The joint exercises are held in different seas around the Philippines; the leg that takes place in the South China Sea area starts on Monday.

"Anyone with clear eyes saw long ago that behind these drills is reflected a mentality that will lead the South China Sea issue down a fork in the road towards military confrontation and resolution through armed force," said the commentary in the Chinese paper, which is the chief mouthpiece of the People's Liberation Army.

"Through this kind of meddling and intervention, the United States will only stir up the entire South China Sea situation towards increasing chaos, and this will inevitably have a massive impact on regional peace and stability."

Up to now, China has chided the Philippines over the dispute about the uninhabited shoal known in the Philippines as Panatag Shoal and which China calls Huangyan Island, about 124 nautical miles off the main Philippine island of Luzon.

 

 "The United States' intention of trying to draw more countries into stirring up the situation in the South China Sea is being brandished to the full," it said.

Regional tensions

Beijing has sought to resolve the disputes one-on-one but there is worry among its neighbors over what some see as growing Chinese assertiveness in staking claims over the seas and various islands, reefs and shoals.

In past patches of regional tension over disputed seas, hawkish Chinese military voices have also emerged, only to be later reined in by the government, and the same could be true this time.

Since late 2010, China has sought to cool tensions with the United States over regional disputes, trade and currency policies, human rights and other contentious issues. Especially with the ruling Chinese Party preoccupied with a leadership succession late in 2012, Beijing has stressed its hopes for steady relations throughout this year.

Nonetheless, experts have said that China remains wary of U.S. military intentions across the Asia-Pacific, especially in the wake of the Obama administration's vows to "pivot" to the region, reinvigorating diplomatic and security ties with allies.

The Liberation Army Daily commentary echoed that wariness.

"The U.S. strategy of returning to the Asia-Pacific carries the implication of a shift in military focus, and there is no better strategic opening than China's sovereignty disputes with the Philippines and other countries in the South China Sea," said the newspaper.



China has territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan in the South China Sea, which could be rich in oil and gas and is spanned by busy shipping lanes.

By CHRIS BUCKLEY, Reuters with GMA News/ HS

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French head to polls in presidential election

First round voting begins in overseas territories as incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy appears set to face a stern test.

More than 44 million French voters are to go to the polls for the first round of a presidential election that represents a serious threat to incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy's tenure in the post. While predictions of a high abstention rate and a strong protest vote have left the outcome uncertain, opinion polls point towards Francois Hollande, Sarkozy's main Socialist challenger, replacing his conservative rival. The two 57-year-old political leaders are on course to finish in the top two in Sunday's polling, thus setting them up to square off in a second round vote on May 6. The result of that vote will decide who is France's president for the next five years. Voting began on Saturday in France's overseas territories, which are mainly islands dotted around the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans. On Sunday, voting will continue in 85,000 polling stations across the country's European mainland. Voting will begin at 8am local time (06:00 GMT) and continue until 8pm (18:00 GMT). Voting estimates will then be immediately published, giving what has been a traditionally accurate assessment of how the polls will stand once results are finalised. In all, 10 candidates are in the race, with Hollande and Sarkozy trailed by far-right leader Marine Le Pen, hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon and veteran centrist Francois Bayrou. A handful of outsiders round out the field. Once the first round is over, the top two candidates will face each other in the final poll, with the run-up to that including a televised debate. Spotlight coverage of April 22 presidential election Hollande says that Sarkozy has trapped France in a spiral of austerity and job losses, and has called for the European response to the debt crisis to be more pro-growth. Sarkozy, meanwhile, says that his rival is weak-willed and would spark panic in financial markets by adopting an approach that involves increased government spending. Al Jazeera's Tim Friend, reporting from Paris, said that Sarkozy faces a stiff challenge due to his "extraordinary" unpopularity. "A lot of the people voting will be putting their ballot paper into the ballot box more against Sarkozy than perhaps for the candidate they eventually vote for," he said. Since Saturday, there has been no sign of any of the rhetoric that has characterised an increasingly heated contest, as French law prohibits campaigning and opinion polls on the eve of voting. Voters went about their business without being accosted by pamphleteers, the campaigns' websites, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds were left without updates and broadcasters had to find other subjects to interview. Source: Al Jazeera and agencies Newscribe : get free news in real time

Psychos in charge of World Politics

A fascinating peek into the heads of world leaders.

Psychopathology And World Politics Author: Ralph Pettman
Publisher: World Scientific
Publishing, 250 pages

THE list of apparently “unhinged” national leaders is distressingly lengthy. The 20th century gave us the maddest and baddest of all time, Adolf Hitler. But there were many others.

Among them, Jean Bedel Bokassa (or to give him his full title: “His Imperial Majesty Bokassa the First, Emperor of Central Africa by the will of the Central African people, united within the national political party, the Movement for the Social Evolution of Black Africa).” Myanmar’s crackpot dictator Ne Win, who changed the denominations of his country’s banknotes to his lucky numbers: 15, 35, 45, 75 and 90. Alleged cannibal Ida Amin of Uganda. And the absurdly vain, self-proclaimed “Genius of the Carpathians,” Nicolae Ceauescu of Romania, who died in a hail of bullets fired by his own soldiers, whose loyalty and patience he had finally exhausted by 1989.

Mental illness and abnormal or maladaptive behaviour has all too often shared and sharply affected the stage of global politics. Prof Ralph Pettman looks at why this is so. And what the consequences might be, or have been.

What happens when a leader’s mind ceases to function in what we might call a proper or normal manner? How does this impinge on world affairs? What is to be done, for example, when a statesman ceases to act in a seemingly sane fashion and yet still commands the loyalty of those who keep him or her in power? What to do when a leader’s advisers have a less than sufficient grasp of political realties themselves? Indeed, how can we react when a whole society goes insane, as happened in Pol Pot’s Cambodia in the late 1970s?

Prof Pettman is an informed voice on such matters, and well positioned to inspect the broader canvas on which these questions have been painted. He is a member of the editorial board of advisers of Global Change, Peace and Security, a member of the international advisory board of the European Journal Of International Relations, and a member of the advisory boards of International Politics and Religion. And he brings a wealth of insight to this multi-disciplinary topic.

Rather than provide a comprehensive account on this unwieldy realm of study, which would be beyond the scope of a single work, what this book does is first describe psychopathology in general terms and its relationship to world affairs in the first two chapters. Prof Pettman then deftly moves on to the four lynchpins of this penetrating work, chapters three to six, entitled: Denial, Truth, Delusion, and Reality, respectively.

The author cleverly cherry-picks case studies to illuminate his points, and through this methodology we learn just how fragile sanity in the halls of power can be. Hitler, the most disturbing figure in Prof Pettman’s rogues gallery, was beset by a range of psychopathological conditions, which his doctors treated with no less than 73 kinds of “medication” including sedatives, hypnotics, tonics, vitamins, hormones, cocaine and methamphetamine. Der Führer’s brain chemistry was also adversely affected by Parkinson’s disease.

Britain’s most illustrious-ever leader, Winston Churchill, was prone to bouts of bipolar depression, Prof Pettman notes. And he theories that US President Ronald Reagan was already suffering from the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s when he made the authorisations that resulted in the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s.

The life and times and mental ailments of the psychologically paranoid US President Richard Nixon get especially rigorous attention from Prof Puttman. While the Vietnam War was raging over 13,000km east of Washington DC, another war was taking place inside Nixon’s head. One between the man who regarded himself as a bold statesman and moral leader, battling the “insecure loner who always thought people were looking down on him or out to get him.”

We also get to read about the psychological frailties of Woodrow Wilson, the only world leader to have ever attracted the scholarly attention of Sigmund Freud (Freud, the “father of psychology”, crops up a lot in this book). Wilson’s passivity at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference was apparently due to feeling of inadequacy brought about by an over-dominating father.

This is all powerful heady stuff, and is pure gold for readers who have ever wondered how so many world leaders – past and present – tick with such a peculiar and menacing tok.

In general, Prof Pettman seems to concur with Lord Acton’s famous maxim: “Power corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” But he doesn’t seem to go as far as the stance held by the late Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek, who said: “In government, the scum rises to the top.” Nevertheless, the professor does skate close....

While not answering all the questions it presents – quite an impossible task – this book is a valuable contribution to the field of how international politics intertwines with modern psychology, and will also likely be instructive not only for better understanding of current world affairs, but also concerning the perennial issue of conflict resolution.

 Review by NICK WALKER

Kopitiam, truly Malaysia Boleh!

Ah, for that nice cuppa in the good old kopitiam

I GREW up drinking coffee like plain water. Kopi-O was served from morning till late at night in my home in Penang. And the best coffee was the one we bought from the nearby kopitiam.

An open-air kopitiam (coffee shop) in Bendemeer, Singapore.

It was common, in those days, for us to tar-pau coffee by the kettle. So when there were visitors, or when the men sat down to play mahjong, the young ones usually had to bring an empty kettle to the kopitiam for it to be filled to the brim, minus the sugar.

Where I grew up, there was even a small coffee mill nearby, and I enjoyed watching the men at work. Rumour has it that they added some special ingredients into the coffee to make the people addicted to their brand.

So where do you think are the 100 best kopitiams in Malaysia?

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen has challenged the Malaysia-Singapore Coffee Shop Proprietors General Association to compile such a list to showcase to the world.

And the minister is correct to say that our kopitiam is a unique heritage that can only be found in Malaysia and that it is time to promote the kopitiam globally.

The kiasu people across the Causeway might disagree but I believe we should quickly trademark this heritage by taking a leaf out of the “Malaysia, Truly Asia” tagline and declare this heritage, “Kopitiam, truly Malaysia”.

Some of us may think that the franchise upmarket coffee houses like Starbucks, Coffee Bean and San Francisco are on the top of every country’s list but if you do a search on the Internet, you will find lists for the best coffee shops in the UK, the US, Japan, Australia, etc. and these global brands will not be found there.

Seriously, I do wonder why people want to spend so much money for a cuppa when the real thing is actually found at our humble kopitiam.

I am glad that our own Malaysian versions of franchised coffee houses have sprouted up. Whether their roots are from Ipoh, Kuang, George­town or some other old town, they have cleverly linked their names to the ubiquitous kopitiam.

So when you enter these places, where I am told the wifi access is the fastest, you still get a tinge of nostalgia as the layout and ambience al­­ways pull you back into a different era.

I am indeed quite curious as to where the list of 100 top kopitiams will come from. Will they be the modern-day kopitiam or the real thing nestled in some small town throughout our country?

The minister has mentioned that tourists prefer to patronise the franchise outlets because of better hygienic conditions. So it is time for the association, set up in 1946, and with more than 20,000 members, to push their mem­bers to adhere to high standards.

And financial institutions should do their part to help them groom kopitiam operators and instil greater professionalism among them.

Instead of a crowded franchise at KLCC, I would rather be in a friendly small town set-up, like Sitiawan, sipping kopi-O while having my roti bakar with kaya and butter and two half-boiled eggs.

Except that I will also have my faithful iPad2 next to me connected to a highspeed wifi while I engage in conversation with the owner, in his white singlet.

I will be sharing YouTube videos with him while he tells me his grandfather stories. And as he browses through The Star, I will show him how the newspaper can talk to him because of iSnap. That, truly, must be a kopitiam that should be on the top of the 100 list.

SUNDAY STARTERS By SOO EWE JIN > Deputy executive editor Soo Ewe Jin wonders why he can no longer take coffee after lunch because it keeps him awake at night, unlike during his growing-up years when he had to take coffee as a nightcap.