Essay Writing Final Draft

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

Buchanan, N. H. (2012, March 29). An Educated Population Is Essential to a Nation’s Prosperity, yet Some Politicians Are Demonizing Our Educational System for Political Advantage. Retrieved October 17, 2015, from www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/malaysias-returning-expert-programme-driving-out-more-talent-economist-says

Global Malaysians job portal. (2015, September 2). TalentCorp turns Malaysia’s brain drain to brain gain. Retrieved October 5, 2015, from http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2015/09/02/TalentCorp-turns-Malaysia-brain-drain-to-brain-gain/?style=biz

Government Transformation Programme. (2015). GTP Overview. Retrieved October 5, 2015, from http://www.pemandu.gov.my/gtp/About_GTP-@-GTP_Overview.aspx

Hii, D. C. (2007, November 4). Solve brain drain problem. Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://www.thestar.com.my/story/?file=/2007/11/4/nation/19088058&sec=nation

Kok, C. (2012, May 16). Malaysia aims to reduce low-skilled foreign workers. Retrieved October 16, 2015, from http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/Malaysia-aims-to-reduce-low-skilled-foreign-worker-30182122.html

Malaysia Business Advisory. (2014). 2014 Malaysia Income Tax Rate. Retrieved October 16, 2015, from http://malaysiabizadvisory.com/2014-malaysia-income-tax-rate/

Merriam-Webster. (2015). brain drain. Retrieved October 3, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brain%20drain

Mok, O. (2014, June 22). Malaysia’s returning expert programme driving out more talent, economist says. Retrieved September 3, 2015, from http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/malaysias-returning-expert-programme-driving-out-more-talent-economist-says

Nadaraj, V. (2014, July 17). Brain Drain in Malaysia Keeps Getting Worse. Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://www.establishmentpost.com/brain-drain-malaysia-keeps-getting-worse/

Schellekens, P. (2011, April). Putting the Malaysian diaspora into perspective. Retrieved September 22, 2015, from http://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/2010-11/BrainDrain/Malaysia.html

Shukry, A. (2014, May 15). Minister admits poor education system, says blueprint is the answer. Retrieved October 22, 2015, from http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/minister-admits-poor-education-system-says-blueprint-will-solve-all