Last Friday, the PM Najib Tun Razak said the government would make Malaysia a better place to live and work in to bring back its citizens who are residing overseas as well as attract global talents to the country.
“We will create more opportunities, more excitement and more buzz in Malaysia to attract the Malaysian diaspora and expatriates to the country,” Najib said.
He also added that Malaysians of all races with good talent and brains had high mobility today and were always moving from place to place looking for better prospects in terms of career opportunities, good companies and conducive living conditions.
While I’m heartened to read the PM acknowledges the necessity to woo the best talents and brains to develop and prosper the country, however Najib and his team must pour in total effort as after many years of rhetorical statements from our former premiers, the fact is that, for the past 10 years, only a total of 770 Malaysians applied for the scheme to come home to serve this country.
To compare that figure with the national working population, the number is too trivial and insignificant to fill the gap left over by those who decided to move overseas for greener pasture!
If Najib acknowledges that good brains are looking for better prospect of career opportunities, good companies and conducive living environment in overseas, the problem statement has now became obvious and what’s lacking, really, is the determination and the effort put in by the Government to curb the human capital outflow, while luring those in overseas to come home by rectifying the concerns.
The Government should continue to do self-reflection by questioning oneself why a country with plenty of natural resources as its commodities, together with our uniqueness in term of our multilingual capability, after half-century of independence, we’re moving backward as in not providing better career opportunities, more good companies are shifting the operation to overseas, people no longer feel safe moving around in fear of their life, and more importantly, the future of their kids?
Let’s be real on this matter.
The day I read the pledge by Najib, I came across an article titled “Made in Malaysia“, written by Sinchew’s deputy EIC.
To cut it short, the article shares about Malaysians living abroad, where they’re now among the professionals such as doctors, CxOs of MNC and etc, with many unfortunate stories about how they’re being rejected by local universities or unsuccessful scholarship application.
Another saddening fact is, among the 785,000 Malaysians who’re working abroad, 44% of them are residing in Singapore and two-thirds of them are professionals.
I don’t intend to elaborate on the statistics, but the message is simple.
If Najib and his team is sincere and determine to bring about change in this aspect, the immediate task is to learn and emulate the tiny little red dot down south in the name of Singapore, in terms of the way the country optimizing its human capital in different perspectives, such as attraction, retention, development, etc.
Hence, the question is, if that tiny little red dot, which IMHO can be so boring, so pretentious and yet, can be so successful in sucking talents across the Causeway, why can’t a blessed nation like us doing the similar?
I mean, let’s forget about the attraction part for now, when retention is one BIG issue.
Najib?
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If he can increase the current per capita income to 5x in next few years. I bet even singaporeans will start working here.