The Predictability of Stupidity
I read this report in The Malaysian Insider with much amusement as it is a non-starter to me anyway. What is the point of seeking Malaysians residing abroad to return to their mother land when more and more Malaysians are applying to migrate? What’s the point when NOTHING is being done to deal with the PUSH factors that are making people LEAVE the country?
“We will find out what it takes for them to consider going back home, and at the same time create more business opportunities and pay them wages that are more aligned with global wages,” he said.
Companies have complained about the lack of skilled labour in Malaysia and economists have cited this problem as a hindrance in the country’s ability to attract more high-technology industries. About 80 per cent of the country’s workforce only has secondary school education.
About 700,000 Malaysians are currently living abroad, with half of them in Singapore, while the rest can be found mostly in Australia, Britain and the United States.
An Australian immigration agency in Perth with offices in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor has reportedly said that the number of Malaysians enquiring about moving to Australia had spiked by 80 per cent since 2008.
Allow me to highlight one interesting point about this report.
When the report was first released, this was what was posted in the report (and carried by Malaysia Today HERE):
BRUSSELS, Oct 4 — Malaysia’s Talent Corporation will start its operations in January, marking the start of a concerted effort to woo home Malaysian professionals abroad, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said.
He said the corporation would engage these professionals abroad in a comprehensive manner, seeking them out and addressing their concerns about the prospects of returning to Malaysia.
At 1.38p.m., the report was updated and this is what can be seen:
BRUSSELS, Oct 4 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced today that Malaysia’s Talent Corporation will be launched in January to arrest the country’s growing brain drain problem.
The exodus of local talent to more developed countries has threatened his vision of transforming Malaysia into a high-income nation by 2020.
“Previously, we waited for them to get back to us but this time we will seek them out,” Najib told reporters here on last night.
“We will find out what it takes for them to consider going back home, and at the same time create more business opportunities and pay them wages that are more aligned with global wages,” he said.
These two versions and the contents therein raise a few questions.
Version 1.
1. Version 1 that came out in the morning was more congenial to those professionals residing abroad.
2. It tells us that money will be spent in establishing this Talent Corporation to arrest the brain drain.
* Whose money? Why should it be spent in the first place?
* Why can’t all that moolah be used to revamp the education system and to train the home grown talent that we have?
*Isn’t it ridiculous that VERY LITTLE is being done to STOP the brain drain FROM our country and instead, go out to attract the very same people who left the country in the first place????
WHERE IS THE LOGIC?
