Malaysia aims to
become a developed nation by year 2020 (Government Transformation
Programme, 2015).
However, this goal is practically unachievable currently, because many
Malaysians have left their homeland, and yet more continue to leave, resulting
in lower growth prospects (Hii, 2007).
This phenomenon is known as “brain drain”, which is defined as the emigration
of individual professionals who decide to stay in another country besides their
own (Merriam-Webster,
2015).
Although emigration has opened doors to new opportunities, it has also impacted
negatively on the country’s economy. Therefore, brain drain has to be quickly
resolved before the development of the country comes to a halt in the future.
Unfortunately, brain drain is a major problem faced in Malaysia now, and the
existing solutions, such as retaining local emigrants and foreigners, have yet
to be able to settle the issue (Hii, 2007).
In order to salvage this situation, the root causes of the problem has to be
identified while implementing better solutions catered to resolve this dilemma.
This essay will then be discussing the causes and the impacts of brain drain on
Malaysia, as well as evaluating the current solutions and any other possible
measures.
The key causes of
brain drain in Malaysia are overseas incentives and social injustice, and these
causes have resulted in a negative impact on the economy. As compared to
Malaysia, some foreign countries are usually richer and they will be able to
provide better incentives like higher paid jobs to attract Malaysia’s talents
over, thus, resulting in Malaysians leaving for overseas incentives (Hii, 2007). Moreover, social
injustice towards the Chinese in Malaysia is commonly seen, as the Malays are
often given special privileges in areas such as entrepreneurship and education (Schellekens, 2011). As a result, some
Chinese choose to migrate overseas to study instead since they have limited
entries to good schools in Malaysia due to racial quotas (Schellekens, 2011). Therefore, these causes have impacted
the development of the country, and slowing down its economic growth as well,
as there are fewer local professionals contributing to the workforce in
Malaysia (Nadaraj, 2014). Consequently, slow economic growth can
be severe to a country as it can lead to more problems in the future, such as
high unemployment rates, if brain drain is not resolved soon.
One of the
solutions implemented by the Government to resolve brain drain is the Returning
Expert Programme (REP) and this measure aims to retain Malaysia’s emigrants.
This solution provides attractive benefits to returning Malaysians in response
to their future contributions towards the development of Malaysia (Global Malaysians job portal, 2015). For instance, a
benefit would be the 15% flat tax rate incentive as compared to the original rate
of 25% (Malaysia Business Advisory, 2014). Furthermore, the
REP can be especially attractive to Malaysians who are temporary migrated.
However, this solution is still not adequate to retain a large group back as
the income earned overseas is more than the income earned in Malaysia (Mok, 2014). Thus, although the
REP is able to retain a small group of emigrants, it is still not effective
enough to retain more.
The other
solution implemented is Resident Pass-Talent (RP-T) and this measure is executed
to retain foreign talents. This solution provides attractive incentives, such
as allowing the foreigners to live and work for another 10 years, in return for
their contributions to strengthen the workforce in Malaysia (Global Malaysians job portal, 2015). The RP-T has
successfully retained some foreigners to stay and work in Malaysia (Global Malaysians job portal, 2015). However, not all of
these foreigners are highly-skilled workers who can contribute to the workforce,
and the presence of these low-skilled workers has been a major drag to the
country (Kok, 2012). Therefore, although
the RP-T has retained foreigners to stay and contribute to the workforce, some
foreigners are low-skilled workers who are unable to help in the development of
Malaysia.
It is evident
that the current solutions mentioned are not effective enough in resolving
brain drain since the root problems are not fully dealt with yet. Furthermore, Malaysia
should change its focus from retaining emigrants and foreigners to retaining
the current Malaysians instead, since the current solutions are not working
effectively. An ideal solution to resolve brain drain would be to promote
meritocracy which means people should be awarded based on their abilities and
not by their race. This solution will minimize social injustice between the
Chinese and the Malays in Malaysia, and it will also reduce the number of
Chinese Malaysians from leaving (Schellekens, 2011). However, the implementation of this
solution is complex as it requires the government to change its policies, and
the people, especially the Malays, have to agree with the change. Therefore, a
more immediate solution is required instead, which is to improve the current education
system since Malaysia’s education system was ranked behind in the global
rankings (Shukry, 2014). This is because a
good education system can produce more highly-skilled workers who can
contribute to the development of the country (Buchanan, 2012). The government should then provide
local job opportunities to the graduates so that they can contribute to the
workforce after their graduations. Thus, Malaysia should focus on retaining its
current people more than retaining Malaysia’s emigrants, and one way would be
through improving its education system.
In conclusion, it
is essential to identify the root causes of brain drain in Malaysia and finding
the right approach to resolve the problem before it would severely impact the
country’s economic growth. This essay has discussed the causes of brain drain
and its impact on Malaysia’s economy. Furthermore, the current solutions, REP
and RP-T, are evaluated and they are not effective enough to resolve brain
drain. Thus, an immediate approach to resolve brain drain would be to improve
on Malaysia’s current education system as it can help to revert brain drain to
brain gain within the country, since the current locals will become more
educated. Despite that a huge investment is required to implement this new
solution, it will be worth in the long run since brain drain will cause a
serious impact on a country’s development if it is not resolve effectively.
Moreover, if brain drain can be resolved quickly and effectively, Malaysia
would be able to achieve their goal as a developed nation by 2020.
References
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