I RECENTLY participated in a University of Malaya forum on the occasion of the launching of the book, The Political Economy of Brain Drain and Talent Capture: Evidence from Malaysia and Singapore.
The forum proved to be interesting not only in the discussion on the new scholarship on the subject. It may also provide a much needed opening on a controversial and important subject which hopefully the younger scholars and the public can pick up on.
Admittedly the subject is not new. The brain drain issue has been around for several decades with the term initially used to describe the departure of scientists and technologists to the US from post war Europe.
More recently the term has been applied to the departure of educated or professional people from one country to another; usually from the less developed to more developed countries for better pay, living conditions and related reasons.
Today it is a subject which bristles with many questions, especially for us in Malaysia.
Should countries do anything about it? How damaging is it to countries experiencing large brain drain? What can be done to induce the return of highly trained and skilled personnel from abroad?
Recent estimates by UNDP place India’s losses at US$2 billion a year from the emigration of computer experts to the US while Indian students going abroad for their higher studies has resulted in a foreign exchange outflow of US$10 billion annually. Similar or larger figures of losses have been estimated for China. This is why the two giant countries have for some years now redoubled their efforts at stemming the human capital flight to the developed countries.
What is the situation for Malaysia and the socio-economic costs for us?
A major part of the difficulty in discussing the subject here is that it is regarded as politically sensitive. Hence there is a paucity of official data on it. And whatever data or analysis is available is shrouded in secrecy.
What are the numbers of Malaysians leaving to work in the developed countries? What is their ethnic and educational profile – in what professions; to which countries?
What is the government response? What is being done to stem the brain drain or encourage it?
What are the agencies and interest groups that shape our policies that have influenced the brain drain and talent loss?
Apart from the politicians and authorities, was there a network of individuals from the higher ranks of society and economy including the professions and academia, with a stake in enhancing their own and Malay dominance that were the key strategists on the issue?
Was May 69 the watershed or is it simply one of several past tipping points that remained well outside the brain drain policy radar until the Talent Corporation was established to deal with it in 2011?
National educational policy: A key trigger
It has been argued that the roots go back to not only 1969 but also to the change in educational policy in 1970 requiring students sitting for the MCE to pass Bahasa Malaysia or they would not be able to get entry into local universities.
The period after this educational policy change saw the out-migration of non-Malays and their children pursuing their studies abroad begin in earnest.
If this analysis of discriminatory educational policy in triggering out-migration is correct, what are we to make of educational policies, for example, relating to matriculation intake policy, qualification recognition of Unified Examination Certificate and other new regressive educational policies that are likely to be accelerating current and future outflows?
Conventional and subterranean narratives
There are two narratives that can be discerned in our past and ongoing brain drain.
One is the almost subterranean narrative of institutional racial and religious discrimination and individualised experiences as push factors for those who have left the country or are seeking to leave.
The other is the official narrative which has tried to frame the issue in the long term perspective of the nation’s migration history.
The latter narrative has also been associated with a “tidak apa”, “good riddance to bad rubbish” and “so what’s new with pendatang going out or coming into the country” position on the subject.
More recent official apologists make the point that this is in line with regional and global trends. The fact, however, is that we are ahead of the curve of most countries in the severity of our brain drain.
Looming Malay exodus?
For the foreseeable future, what may finally wake up our politicians and policymakers may be the exodus of not non-Malay but Malay talent.
In a crystal ball gazing article, “The Day After 100 Years of Merdeka”, I had discussed the finding of a survey by Kementerian Tatanegara in 2057 that while Malaysians from all ethnic groups were identifying themselves as Malays first, the exodus of original Malays from the country was continuing.
“Data from the Department of Statistics on population movement showed that several million original Malays – mainly upper and middle class – had departed the country. To counter this, the Supreme Minister in emphasising that the country could not afford the hemorrhage of highly qualified Malays, announced a package of incentives to induce them to return and remain in Malaysia.”
That satirical forecast of what lies ahead in the country’s future and the possible exodus of highly trained Malay talent may be taking place sooner rather than later if present trends in the country’s racial and religious politics and policies continue.
Lim Teck Ghee’s “Another Take” is aimed at demystifying status quo orthodoxy. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
