Malaysia Struggles to Stem Brain Drain
Beh Lih Yi December 30, 2010
Kuala Lumpur. When computer engineer Wan Jon Yew left Malaysia in 2005 for a job in Singapore, all he wanted was to work in the city-state for a few years before going home. Now, he says he will never return.
With a family, a home and a car, he now plans to settle in Singapore for good — just one of the many Malaysians stampeding abroad every year in a worrying “brain drain” the government is trying to reverse.
“I wouldn’t consider going back to Malaysia, I won’t look back. If I were ever going to leave Singapore, I would migrate to Australia,” the 28-year-old with permanent-resident status said.
“It’s not about the money. I could have a better quality of life in Malaysia with my pay. I could have a semi-detached bungalow and have a maid there, but I would rather live in a government flat in Singapore.”
Wan, who is ethnically Chinese, is one of some 700,000 Malaysians — most of them highly educated — who are currently working abroad in an exodus that Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government is struggling to reverse.
The brain drain has a number of causes. Some have been lured by higher salaries, but others blame political and social gripes including preferential policies for Muslim Malays, who form the majority.
A decades-old affirmative action policy which hands Malays and the indigenous groups privileges in housing, education and business, has been criticized as uncompetitive and improperly benefiting the elite.
As a consequence, many of those who have left are members of Malaysia’s ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities, who make up some 25 percent and 10 percent of the population, respectively.
Beh Lih Yi December 30, 2010
Kuala Lumpur. When computer engineer Wan Jon Yew left Malaysia in 2005 for a job in Singapore, all he wanted was to work in the city-state for a few years before going home. Now, he says he will never return.
With a family, a home and a car, he now plans to settle in Singapore for good — just one of the many Malaysians stampeding abroad every year in a worrying “brain drain” the government is trying to reverse.
“I wouldn’t consider going back to Malaysia, I won’t look back. If I were ever going to leave Singapore, I would migrate to Australia,” the 28-year-old with permanent-resident status said.
“It’s not about the money. I could have a better quality of life in Malaysia with my pay. I could have a semi-detached bungalow and have a maid there, but I would rather live in a government flat in Singapore.”
Wan, who is ethnically Chinese, is one of some 700,000 Malaysians — most of them highly educated — who are currently working abroad in an exodus that Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government is struggling to reverse.
The brain drain has a number of causes. Some have been lured by higher salaries, but others blame political and social gripes including preferential policies for Muslim Malays, who form the majority.
A decades-old affirmative action policy which hands Malays and the indigenous groups privileges in housing, education and business, has been criticized as uncompetitive and improperly benefiting the elite.
As a consequence, many of those who have left are members of Malaysia’s ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities, who make up some 25 percent and 10 percent of the population, respectively.
