Guan Eng: Brain drain has swelled to tsunami levels
Top Cambridge University law student, Ipoh-born Tan Zhongshan, is lost to Malaysia due to the consequences of the country's 'failed economic policies'.
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today that the country's economic policies stress on material growth such as the proposed 100-storey Warisan Merdeka Tower over human capital formation.
Lim (right) said it not clear how Malaysia's Talent Corporation, slated to start operations in January, will be able to succeed in attracting back 750,000 Malaysians working overseas, if the federal government is more concerned about spending tens of billions on mega-projects that do not build human capital.
He added that Tan's departure from Malaysia is not surprising as he is part of the alarming brain drain that has swelled to almost "tsunami levels".
"The number of Malaysian migrants rose by more than 100-fold in a 45-year period, from 9,576 Malaysians in 1960 to 1,489,168 Malaysians in 2005, according to the World Bank, which warned that a lack of human capital is a "critical constraint in Malaysia's ambition to become a high-income economy," he added in a statement today.
Recently, Deputy Foreign Minister and senator A Kohilan Pillay (left) said that 304,358 Malaysians had migrated since March 2008 to Aug 2009 compared with 139,696 Malaysians in 2007.
Nearly two million have left
It is learnt that a total of 1,942,798 mostly bright and talented Malaysians have left over the past 50 years since 1960 until August last year.
Najib told Parliament this month that less than one percent of 784,900 Malaysians working overseas have returned to the country during the past nine years.
He added that Singapore has the highest number of Malaysians with 303,828 people, followed by Australia with 78,858.
Tan recently won several prizes in becoming the top law student in the Cambridge.
However, he will not be returning to Malaysia but will heading to Singapore to join its Legal Service commission.
Lim said that not only non-Malays were leaving the country for better employment opportunities, as Malays are also doing the same.
"When I went to Dubai nearly two years ago, I was surprised to learn there were thousands of Malay professionals there who left Malaysia due to lack of promotional opportunities as they were not politically connected to top Umno leaders," he said.
"Clearly stressing other considerations such as race or political connections over merits and needs not only drives away top talents, but also depresses standards and encourages a culture of mediocrity over excellence," he added.
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