Reader Response Draft 1

In the article, “Solve brain drain problem”, Datuk Clement Hii (2007) explains that Malaysia is unable to resolve the problem which is to stop their talent pool from migrating. Datuk claims that there is a rapid increase in the number of highly skilled Malaysians departing the country due to attractive incentives provided by foreign countries. The loss of these talent pool has led to Malaysia being more reliant on foreign employment. Datuk states that the ministries have introduced new plans to attract their talent pool back, however the outcome is that these plans are not sufficient enough to bring them back. Datuk concludes that there is still a huge gap between the salary of their graduates and foreign graduates, thus leading to the problem to be unsolved and there has to be someone seeking for solutions. 

Datuk makes an accurate report in explaining the problem faced in Malaysia is transparent but yet to be solved. I agree that it is difficult in seeking solutions to such a problem as it is hard for a less developed country to provide better incentives than a more developed country. However, if this problem is left unsolved and more educated Malaysian left the country, overtime, the country will face severe loss and it will be harder for the country to prosper economically without this group of talents.

Datuk states that the incentives provided by foreign countries have attracted educated Malaysian to work in their country (Hii, 2007). Personally, I feel that it is part of human nature where people desire to acquire better quality of life and they have the right to choose what is best for them, in this case, migrating overseas is a better choice. This situation is also commonly seen in Singapore, for instance, Singaporeans migrate to foreign land for work opportunities and overseas experience (Phang, 2014).

Datuk claims that there is a huge gap between the salaries of a Malaysian and a Singaporean (Hii, 2007). According to Opalyn Mok’s article (2014), Malaysia bachelor's degree has a salary of RM20,000 as compared to RM429,100 more in Singapore. Despite Singapore having a much higher salary than Malaysia, the overall cost of living is also higher in Singapore. The things are more expensive in Singapore, therefore, a higher salary would be necessary to afford higher cost of living (Numbeo, 2015).

Datuk reports that measures implemented to attract migrated Malaysian back are not effective enough (Hii, 2015). This can be supported by Opalyn Mok's article (2014) where it claims that the 15% tax incentive measure implemented has push more talent pool away. Therefore, it shows the difficulty in finding an effective solution to convince this group of people back to their homeland. Instead of thinking of local incentives to attract them back, I feel that making them connect to their local roots again would make them come home. For instance, they may miss their traditional food and culture, or their family members who stayed behind, using these to bring them back.

In conclusion to the article, I agree with Datuk that it is not easy to find effective solutions to solve this problem. It is because richer foreign countries can always provide better incentives which will attract Malaysian talent pool over. Furthermore, it would be a tedious process to solve this problem as many policies have to be changed or introduced to bring this group of people back to their roots.

References

Hii. (2015, September 3). Archives | The Star Online. Retrieved from The Star Online | Malaysia, Business, Sports, Lifestyle and Video News: http://www.thestar.com.my/story/?file=/2007/11/4/nation/19088058&sec=nation

Numbeo. (2015, September 6). Cost Of Living Comparison Between Malaysia And Singapore. Retrieved from Numbeo - The biggest Internet Database about Cost of Living, Housing Indicators and many other informations about cities and countries!: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Malaysia&country2=Singapore

Mok, O. (2015, September 3). Malaysia’s returning expert programme driving out more talent, economist says | Malaysia | Malay Mail Online. Retrieved from Malay Mail Online: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/malaysias-returning-expert-programme-driving-out-more-talent-economist-says

Phang, R. (2015, September 3). The Singapore Brain Drain: not funny when you think about it. — Medium. Retrieved from Medium: https://medium.com/@royphang/the-singapore-brain-drain-not-funny-when-you-think-about-it-ab92b13d8f5f