Talent Search: Just Be Fair

Reading Lim Mun Fah's news article in mysinchew.comm today about talent flight is certainly worrisome. I will quote his ideas liberally.

It is about time we grab the bull by the horns and stop playing political pussyfooting. Talents are leaving by the drove. Once they leave, there is no turning back. Even for those who turned back out of sheer patriotism and slogged for awhile on the motherland, they leave again as the situation does not seem to improve. In fact things are getting too sensitive for comfort!

PM Najib has all his grand plan. The concept plan can be brilliant. The game plan? Not so. Yes, extol about the need to make Malaysia a shining example of a successful nation of the 21st century. Tell the citizens to change their mind-set. Appeal to them to create brands that are native to Malaysia.

Lim Mun Fah' search for talent of the Malaysian brand can unstuck after a brief search. Apart from squash and badminton where we can say Nicole David and Lee Chong Wei carried out national flag with national pride,there was nothing really there.

In reality, I’m sorry to say that I can’t even find a single Malaysian brand shining in the world.

True, we have our champions but they are mostly domiciled elsewhere.Take for instance, we have founder, group chief executive officer, and President of the Singapore-based Hyflux Group Olivia Lum and pen drive inventor, president and co-founder of the Taiwan-based Phison Electronics Corp Pua Khein-Seng. They may have been Malaysian by birth but their upbringing and success were more the result of an accomodaing foreign nation.

According to the data provided by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, from Jan to Aug last year alone, a total of 210,000 Malaysians have migrated to foreign countries. These are alarming statistics. It is even more worrying that according to a global human resources survey, eight out of ten Malaysians indicated that they would consider emigration for better job opportunities. And it is estimated that as many as 900,000 Malaysian professionals and talents are currently working abroad.

The government has launched a program to attract Malaysian talents who are working abroad to return. But only about 50 applications are received every year and very few of people do really return. Anyhow they were not retainable and left again shortly for foreign shores.

Lim Mun Fah asked a very pertinent quastion in his article. "Is it because they do not love their motherland? Or their motherland does not appreciate them at all?"

The reason may be very complicated or it may also be very simple. But certainly, low income is not the biggest problem. Because if they really take income into account, they would not have returned in the first place only to be outward bound once more. Lim Mun Fah had in fact sort of answer his own question by saying obliquely that the more important factor is, "they could be disappointed and dissatisfied with the corrupt, unfair and closed system."

To Lim, the discrimination policy is the main factor that causes nearly a million of creative and ambitious talents to leave Malaysia.

His parting worlds speaks volume to all of us. "Talents do not need privileges but they are asking for fairness. If Malaysia really wants to be a shining example of a successful nation of the 21st century, it must first restore fairness!' How true!