On pharmaceutical companies,
We like to complain of biopiracy when a pharmaceutical company uses the knowledge of a local, who just so happened to discover the medicinal properties of a plant because he sat on it, to identify the the active chemical compound, look for an efficient way to mass produce it, hire clinicians to initiate first phase and all the subsequent phases of clinical research, buld factories to make sure the drug reaches all and basically psend many millions to to produce something that is effective most of the time and prove that it is not just from the placebo affect. I don't there is great injustice if that person only got twenty cents because he merely sat on it compared to amount of other work put in.
Same thing with oil and tin if it was not for the Brits coming in and showing us how to use it would probably still sit int he ground. Alright exaggeration, sure the tin would have been used to make decorative objects of no significant value compared to its anti-corrosive properties used in the canning industry which enabled food to be stored for a long time.
If we are so worried about biopiracy( in fact it is not) adn so confident of Tongkat Ali and all the rest why don't we don't take half the money meant for the new palace complex and set up a pharmaceutical company that explore the potential with all the latest equipment. Since we have the manpower but not the infrastructure. And if the enterpirse fail well at least the research centre which will be of greater use to more people than a palace for a precious few. Tourist? Come on, if they wanted to see palaces and castles they would have gone to Europe where there are better-designed, maintained, authentic and actually ancient palaces with rich histories. A research centre may produce soemthing one day, a place never will unless by stroke of luck the next Einstein is pbron there but in a world of probability success with the research centre( part of the pharmaceutical company) is more likely.