Irene Fernandez just made Malaysia proud and bagged the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (the alternative Nobel Prize award). Why was this not frontpaged in the local dailies?

Now that she has received such a prestigious award, isn't it only proper to award her with the title of Datuk for making Malaysia proud? In fact, in order to receive such a prestigious international award, she must already have an excellent track record in her field. If so, why hasn't she already been awarded a Datukship?

There are many thousands of Datuks in Malaysia who really haven't done anything other than their job and for that they have received the honorary title. What really are the prerequisites/ requirements for being conferred a Datukship? Can someone, possibly a university student do a thesis on this?

Similar to the list of AP permit holders being made public, can we have a list of all those holding a Datukship? With this list, each Datuk's accomplishments must then be highlighted to see if he or she really deserves the award or was merely doing his job.

Why are so many government servants being conferred with titles? What extra have they done? We all know the state of affairs within our police force, for example. It is a disgrace and needs to be revamped.

Why then are so many senior ranking police officers conferred the title Datuk? What are their achievements or contributions? Contributing to a drop in the country's placing in the International Corruption Index should not be taken as a contribution to international fame.

Whenever anyone highlights a problem within our society, we seem to get standard responses from the authorities. They seem to be always unaware of the problem and would require more information on the matter.

Some of the other authorities are even more creative and just say, 'I don't know, I don't know' and just shrug off important matters or just deny all allegations without any investigation as in the case of our higher education minister.

Then of course, if you are really near the top, you can just wave a weapon and threaten the public into submission. These people are also conferred prestigious titles.

I have a suggestion. Release a list of all the Datuks in Malaysia. Create a reality show where each Datuk's credentials and contributions are highlighted. Then get the public to vote on whether that individual deserves the title or not.

The money collected from all the proceeds from the SMS messages can be used to throw a party for all 'outgoing' Datuks as consolation for losing their awards.