Reader Response Final Draft

In the article, “Solve brain drain problem”, Clement Hii (2007) explains that Malaysia is unable to stop their talent pool from migrating. Hii 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 this talent pool has led to Malaysia being more reliant on foreign employment. Hii states that although the ministries have introduced new measures to attract their talent pool back, however the outcomes are unsuccessful. Hii 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 to seek for solutions. I agree that this problem is tough to tackle because Malaysia will not be able to provide better incentives than foreign countries and the comparison between salaries is unfair.

Hii states that highly-skilled Malaysian are migrating due to the attractive incentives provided by foreign countries, such as better quality of life (Hii, 2007). These foreign countries, like Australia, are usually much well-off as compared to Malaysia (Numbeo, 2015). Malaysia has tried to come up with new incentives, however, they were unsuccessful. For instance, according to Opalyn Mok's article (2014), 15% tax incentive measure implemented has pushed even more highly-skilled Malaysian away. This shows that Malaysia is unable to provide better incentives than richer foreign countries. Therefore, it would be advisable for Malaysia to change their approach. Personally, I feel that it is essential to build strong reconnections between a Malaysian and his roots again, as if they love their country, there will be a lower probability that they will leave. For instance, Malaysia can organise more national events to bring its people together, besides on National Day or festive seasons only. These migrated Malaysians may miss their traditional food and culture, or their family members who stayed behind, thus, looking at these areas, Malaysia should try to recapture their hearts to their roots again.

Hii asserts that there is a huge gap between the salaries of a Malaysian and a Singaporean (Hii, 2007). However, this figure-to-figure comparison is not accurate as there are other areas to consider as well such as the cost of living. Singaporeans have a lower purchasing power, as compared to Malaysia, due to the high cost of living, therefore, higher salaries are required to afford higher cost (Numbeo, 2015). Thus, this is not a good factor to support the problem.

In conclusion, I agree with Hii that it is not easy to find an effective solution to handle this problem. It is because richer foreign countries can provide better incentives which will attract highly-skilled Malaysian over. Furthermore, it is a tedious process to solve this problem as many policies have to be changed or introduced to bring their talent pool back. Lastly, one possible suggestion in improving the problem would be to reconnect and retain the migrated Malaysian to their culture and roots again.

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

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

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