Not talking about the budget

So, we will eventually lose these people when Malaysia is no longer lucrative. And we have already lost many Malaysian citizens who have sent their money overseas to invest in other countries. And this is not only of late but has been happening over the last 20 to 30 years, but has become more critical over the last five years or so.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

No, I am not going to talk about the budget. So many others have analysed the budget in detail so you can read what they have to say.

What I do want to talk about is: how is Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak (or even Anwar Ibrahim for that matter, if he happens to become the next Prime Minister) going to stop Malaysia from continuing down the slippery slope?

First we had the brain drain. More than one million Malaysians, the majority of them non-Bumiputeras, of course, live and work overseas. These are people with education, qualifications, and/or skills/abilities (and in many cases, money as well).

I met many waiters/waitresses and restaurant workers all over the UK (all Chinese, of course) who were from Ipoh, Penang, Sungai Siput, Bukit Bintang, Jalan Ipoh, and so on. And now they work all over London and in Nottingham, Manchester, Liverpool, etc.

And you know what? The minute I walk into the restaurant they start whispering. Then, one by one, they come over to our table to talk to me. They recognised me the minute I walked into the restaurant — and this is because they read Malaysia Today.

Yes, they may be merely waiters/waitresses or restaurant workers, but they are internet-savvy and loyal Malaysia Today readers — even though you may think they are merely ‘labourers’.

And they are not here in the UK working in restaurants because they are stupid, unqualified, uneducated, etc. It is because they have lost confidence in Malaysia — plus they get more money working in the UK than in Malaysia.

You may think that the cost of living in the UK is higher. Maybe it is higher in some areas but not in everything. You can buy a house for 100,000 pounds (which will cost RM1 million or more in Malaysia for the same type of house) and a car for 8,000 pounds (which will cost more than RM150,000 in Malaysia for the same car).

You earn ten times or more in the UK than what you earn in Malaysia for the same job but the cost of living is not ten times higher, especially outside London.

Anyway, we have more than one million talented Malaysians serving foreign countries when they could be serving their mother country instead. And they spend their money here. They don’t send it home to Malaysia. How are we going to convince them to come home to Malaysia and serve Malaysia?

Then we replace these one million Malaysians with four million ‘imported’ workers. For every one ‘quality’ Malaysian we have lost we replace him or her with four ‘lower quality’ foreign workers.

Is this a good exchange, quality for quantity?

Then these four million foreign workers (many now given citizenship so that they can vote for Barisan Nasional) send more than half their earnings home. They don’t spend their money in Malaysia. So Malaysians don’t get to see any trickle-down affect. They send their money home. So billions of Ringgit leaves the country every month.

Go check with Bank Negara if you want the details (which is what the opposition should be doing instead of arguing about hudud).

Okay, that is about the brain drain. Now what about capital flight?

Do you know that for the last 20 to 30 years, Malaysian tycoons have been quietly investing overseas? Some have even wound down their businesses or sold off their investments in Malaysia to transfer their operations and investments to other countries.

The government screams about how great Malaysia’s FDI is. It is like screaming about how much money I earn every month. Yay, I earn RM5,000 a month! But I do not tell you that I spend RM10,000 a month. So what’s so great about my RM5,000 earnings a month?

Sure, we have FDIs. But the foreign investors are only here because they can make money. Many foreign companies even have a policy of not buying property in Malaysia. They would rather rent, even if they have to pay more for rental compared to if they bought this property.

This is so that they can wind up their operation and go home super-fast if they need to. If they own property, it takes longer to get out of Malaysia because they need to sell of their assets first. So rent, don’t buy.

So you see, they do not intend to become Malaysian ‘corporate citizens’. They just want to make money and then go home when they can’t make money any longer. They are not loyal to the country. They are just loyal to money.

So, we will eventually lose these people when Malaysia is no longer lucrative. And we have already lost many Malaysian citizens who have sent their money overseas to invest in other countries. And this is not only of late but has been happening over the last 20 to 30 years, but has become more critical over the last five years or so. 

As I said, I do not want to talk about the budget. That’s because I am not impressed. I want to know how the government (and the opposition if it becomes the government) is going to stop Malaysia from continuing down this slippery slope of brain drain and capital flight.

Please also read this: After brain drain, now capital flight?