On Tuesday, Malaysians saw on CNN the spectacle of the implosion of the 16-storey 1,000-room New Frontier casino-hotel, collapsing the second resort that opened on the Las Vegas Strip half-a-century ago with 1,000 pounds of explosives.

It was a spectacular engineering feat to behold, the precisely-planned and delicately-balanced demolition operation — to give way to a US$2 billion, 3,000-room megaresort Las Vegas Plaza, featuring a 500-ft tall Ferris Wheel similar in size to the famous London Eye, set to open in 2011.

Malaysia has also our own implosion on the same day, but it was a most shameful and ignominous one – the collapse of the RM4.5 million Perak State Park Corporation’s two-storey administration building on a hillslope on the edge of Tasik Banding in Gerik.

Star said the structure “collapsed like a house of cards” while New Straits Times said the complex “collapsed into a heap of rubble”.

Malaysia’s very own implosion was no spectacular engineering feat but spectacular building failure and government negligence.

After the Perak “implosion”, three different probes have been set up to investigate it causes –an “independent” committee by the state government, another investigation by the Perak Public Works Department on the directive of Works Minister, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu and by the Anti-Corruption Agency.

Heads must roll, and roll immediately, for the shameful “implosion” of the Tasik Banding complex — or are there no one to be held responsible?

Malaysia’s implosion — which is so different from the Las Vegas implosion — is evidence that Malaysia is even more entrenched as a Third World country instead of joining the ranks of the First World nations.