Human Capital - the war of talent

Recent years we've been hearing the 'brain drain' dilemma faced by Malaysia. Why? And it has been persistent, year after year. What are the triggers, the main drivers for these talented individuals leaving the country where they were born and bred.

There must be a clear answer, of which most people, especially locals try to contemplate with.

The most popular reasons for people willing to migrate are:


1 Higher pay in other markets

2 Not conducive for professional development

3 Not a suitable place to raise a family

4 Education level has dropped

5 Too many corruption in the country

6 Can’t compete in a fair manner

I would agree with most of the reasons above, I used to be a migrant myself. In fact, I used to live and work abroad for a good 7 years. The experience and exposure gained are invaluable.

Perhaps the most important reasons, out of the 6 that were listed above, if you were to ask me, would be reason no 4. By having a low level, or not "on par" level of education, we basically hampering the future of our country. We are unable to produce competent individuals that will contribute to the advancement of the nation. Plus, the gap between the rich and poor will widen.

Quality education should be provided to all, not to the few privileged individuals or family. By having a level playing field, everyone could compete in the same environment.

Government need to spend more time on structuring or perhaps re-structuring our education system in order to suit current landscape. This is to ensure a more competent society to be produced and compete at the global scale.

Education must not be viewed only at the “classroom” type of education, as practical and vocational educations are also seen as important in the current environment.

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To be (developed) or not to be.

Question of whether Malaysia has the ability to gain a developed status has been lingering for quite sometime. Are we, as a nation, or more importantly, as a society, ready to mobilise ourselves into the next level of country's status.

I've always admired Japan, the inventiveness, creativity, artistic nature of it society, and most of all, politeness. I would call that a developed society. As opposed to HK, it is materially developed, but culturally, not as developed as Japan.

"Developed" is somewhat a subjective term when we are talking about a society. Malaysia as a whole, we do have the required infrastructure, only to be matched by the inability, or incompetency of the people to utilise them.

You wont see a badly vandalised public phone in the UK, but in Malaysia, it is a norm. UK is a knowledge society, where people crave new ideas frequently.That explains the reason they're having some of the most inventive and prestiguous academic institution.

Then come to the point where we are arguing the function of our academic institutions. Are they no different from factories that produced large amount of graduates, just for the sake of employment?