By Natalie Shobana Ambrose
theSun, Malaysia
April 22, 2010
On a visit a few years ago to Australia I met a few Thai students sent by their government to study dentistry. I asked them if they were planning to head back to Thailand after studying and they said yes with such enthusiasm.
Eagerly they wanted to go home and serve. They were connected to their country and they knew their country needed them. There was a sense of pride and patriotism that Thailand was the best because they were born there - and it did make a lot of sense.
They also knew Thailand would take care of them. I couldn’t help but feel a tad bit jealous and envious that they had such conviction and connection.
A few years later, my Malaysian friends who were doing their PhD’s in that same university came home to Malaysia to look for jobs. Qualified, talented and ready to serve in Malaysian universities, they were greeted with great difficulty.
Finally one got a job offer with a salary that wouldn’t even cover her living expenses. Surely her three years of student life learning new skills would mean that she could earn a higher salary, but it didn’t matter. She took the job anyway and starts work in a few weeks hoping for a salary raise.
Many students leave Malaysia each year for an overseas education but not all of them eventually come back. We’re not just loosing talent, we’ve lost talent.
Last year Penang lost a US3 billion deal because there were not enough experienced electric and electronic engineers. Where have they gone? Human capital is the foundation of a country’s success, and a lot of our neighbouring countries have known this for years.
An estimated 350,000 Malaysians work in Singapore last year with 150,000 commuting each day. It is a growing number that is very worrying because we need capable talented and qualified locals who are willing to stay.
Perhaps now is as good a time as ever to start discussing how to reverse this. Malaysia though progressive in many ways, was far ahead of other Asian countries when we achieved independence but today, we’re lagging behind. The most important resource- our human capital is flowing quickly like a punctured rice bag and we’re not acting fast enough to stem the tide.
We should be asking the pertinent questions –
How do we increase our talent pool?
How do we attract talent home?
And how do we keep talent?
Do we need an overhaul of our system?
If we don’t address these issues, we’re just going to dry up the talent pool and then what? We’ll be a country of migrant unskilled workers.
The sad reality is that our push factors outnumber the pull factors when in comes to attracting talent.
Recently Coca-Cola announced that it will invest RM1 billion to set up a bottling plant in Malaysia. I would hope that this multinational company would be able to employ Malaysian skilled workers and specialised locals to contribute to the company’s growth.
I guess like those Thai dentists, we should be able to provide a sense of belonging, opportunity and the appropriate compensation to talent wanting to return home. Perhaps this article won’t just add to the pile of similar issues but that the PhD students have more incentive to stay, serve and continue to live in Malaysia.
Natalie misses her friends who got pulled away.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
theSun, Malaysia
April 22, 2010
On a visit a few years ago to Australia I met a few Thai students sent by their government to study dentistry. I asked them if they were planning to head back to Thailand after studying and they said yes with such enthusiasm.
Eagerly they wanted to go home and serve. They were connected to their country and they knew their country needed them. There was a sense of pride and patriotism that Thailand was the best because they were born there - and it did make a lot of sense.
They also knew Thailand would take care of them. I couldn’t help but feel a tad bit jealous and envious that they had such conviction and connection.
A few years later, my Malaysian friends who were doing their PhD’s in that same university came home to Malaysia to look for jobs. Qualified, talented and ready to serve in Malaysian universities, they were greeted with great difficulty.
Finally one got a job offer with a salary that wouldn’t even cover her living expenses. Surely her three years of student life learning new skills would mean that she could earn a higher salary, but it didn’t matter. She took the job anyway and starts work in a few weeks hoping for a salary raise.
Many students leave Malaysia each year for an overseas education but not all of them eventually come back. We’re not just loosing talent, we’ve lost talent.
Last year Penang lost a US3 billion deal because there were not enough experienced electric and electronic engineers. Where have they gone? Human capital is the foundation of a country’s success, and a lot of our neighbouring countries have known this for years.
An estimated 350,000 Malaysians work in Singapore last year with 150,000 commuting each day. It is a growing number that is very worrying because we need capable talented and qualified locals who are willing to stay.
Perhaps now is as good a time as ever to start discussing how to reverse this. Malaysia though progressive in many ways, was far ahead of other Asian countries when we achieved independence but today, we’re lagging behind. The most important resource- our human capital is flowing quickly like a punctured rice bag and we’re not acting fast enough to stem the tide.
We should be asking the pertinent questions –
How do we increase our talent pool?
How do we attract talent home?
And how do we keep talent?
Do we need an overhaul of our system?
If we don’t address these issues, we’re just going to dry up the talent pool and then what? We’ll be a country of migrant unskilled workers.
The sad reality is that our push factors outnumber the pull factors when in comes to attracting talent.
Recently Coca-Cola announced that it will invest RM1 billion to set up a bottling plant in Malaysia. I would hope that this multinational company would be able to employ Malaysian skilled workers and specialised locals to contribute to the company’s growth.
I guess like those Thai dentists, we should be able to provide a sense of belonging, opportunity and the appropriate compensation to talent wanting to return home. Perhaps this article won’t just add to the pile of similar issues but that the PhD students have more incentive to stay, serve and continue to live in Malaysia.
Natalie misses her friends who got pulled away.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
