Commentary by Mustafa K. Anuar

FORMER health minister Khairy Jamaluddin made the headlines recently when he acknowledged that there was another factor that has contributed in part to the continuing and worrying brain drain faced by the country.

In his popular “Keluar Sekejap” podcast, Khairy partly attributed the talent migration to “second-class citizen” treatment that has been accorded in varying degrees to non-Malays over the years.

His comment, made in relation to the role played by TalentCorp, caught the attention of some people, not so much because it was bold but because it came late in the day from a politician many assumed would have been well informed about and sensitive to the dangers of racial and institutional discrimination all these years.

For many years, many politicians had avoided the elephant in the room – the ethno-religious nationalists in particular. A few of whom have even ventured into imagining Malaysia as a Malay-only land.

Talent Corporation Malaysia Bhd, or better known as TalentCorp, is an agency under the Human Resources Ministry that has been tasked to attract, nurture and retain Malaysian talent and expertise in our collective desire to be a developed nation.

Although there are other roles played by TalentCorp, what it is normally associated with is its “Returning Expert Programme” (REP), a government scheme designed to encourage Malaysian professionals abroad to return home through use of various incentives.

The REP is aimed at stemming the “brain drain”, caused by highly educated professionals migrating, to take advantage of better career prospects by offering returnees benefits such as tax breaks and permanent residency for family members.

To reiterate, a factor that is often cited as playing a vital role in luring some people to seek greener pastures abroad is the eroding sense of belonging to the homeland among those who feel that they’ve been treated as second-class citizens.

So, they leave, often with a heavy heart, to places where they feel they would be better appreciated.

It doesn’t help to improve the situation when there are quarters who still insist that communities other than Malays are considered “pendatang” (immigrants). Obviously, it is not comforting.

But this doesn’t necessarily mean that only non-Malays are affected. There are also Malays who have made the tough decision to leave their beloved “tanah airku”.

Apart from economic reasons, they also feel alienated by the lack of appreciation for meritocracy as well as discrimination owing to them having the wrong political stripes.

But, as alluded to above, money is not the only reason. Overseas jobs that match the high-level skills certain Malaysians have acquired, better democratic space in foreign countries, and a good education system for their children are some of their other reasons.

That is why many Malaysians who left our shores regarded Singapore as “the most favoured country”, followed by Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, among others.

In other words, we have lost our own talent who went to schools and public universities funded by our taxpayers, only to be snatched by interested parties in foreign lands.

That was how, for instance, we “lost” the creator of the world’s first pen-drive, Sekinchan-born Pua Khein Seng, who, after graduating from a Taiwanese university, set up shop in Taiwan.

The current situation must have been so dire that it prompted Dewan Rakyat Speaker Johari Abdul to visit the prestigious Tsinghua University in China, where he urged Malaysian students there to return home after graduation to help develop the country that is facing many economic challenges.

These students are presumably top scorers of the Unified Examination Certificate which, incidentally, the Malaysian government has yet to recognise.

Recognising the elephant in the room is only the first step. Next come concrete measures to make the talent of diverse backgrounds feel at home once again. – October 4, 2023.