A Different CNY During Covid

Today is the fourth day of Stage 4 Snap Lockdown in Melbourne and it is also the fifth day of Chinese New Year. As usual, there is not much new year atmosphere in Australia as it is not a public holiday. This ‘quiet’ atmosphere is magnified this year due to the snap lockdown. Everyone were told to work from home during this five days restrictions. As I look outside my window, there is hardly any car on the road as traveling are only allowed within 5km radius of where we live.

Watching the news for the past week made me realize that I am not the only one who is unable to be with our family back in Malaysia. There are a lot of Malaysians stranded in Taiwan, US, Europe and even those working in Singapore are unable to ‘balik kampung’ (go back hometown literally). Knowing that there are others who are suffering the same fate does not take away the frustration of not being able to go home. Although the authorities and experts keep telling us that we will be back to the so called ‘New Normal’ very soon, it does not help to remove the doubt at the back of our mind whether there is a normal to be looking forward to. The fact is that no one knows when we can get back to normal as each countries is at different position of how well they handle Covid cases.

The pandemic does push all of us into one corner and make us think hard about what matters most in our lives. Most Malaysians who migrated to Australia remains as Permanent Residents because we do not wish to surrender our Malaysian passports (it is required in the event we are to take up Australian citizenship). Malaysian government does not recognize dual citizenship. It is fine with us as most of us go back at least once a year in the past, we still get to see our family and friends back home regularly. After Covid, the situation has dramatically changed. Not only we can’t go back, there are tons of uncertainty ahead of us. Nobody can confidently say when this is going to end, if it ever ends at all.

Such is the dilemma faced by many who currently reside abroad and found themselves stuck. We can’t help but ponder upon the question whether we made the right decision to migrate in the first place. Sure most of us have valid reasons like children education, better environment to raise family, work-life balance, equality etc. But are the sacrifices we made worth it at the end of the day? Recently these questions sound louder and clearer ever since we found ourselves in this pandemic predicament.

Can Malaysian Brain Drain Be Stopped?

 

Thanks to ease in travel and modern technology, Brain Drain is now a global phenomenon where people especially those with talent will not think twice as soon as they discovered a better place for them to thrive. However, the situation is much dire in Malaysia. A study by World Bank in 2010 shows that 1 in 10 skilled Malaysians choose to move to a foreign country. These people have the skills that a developing country like Malaysia desperately need to grow. 

The government set up Talent Corp to attract thousands of talents back but only a handful hundreds accepted the invitation. So why with all the incentives and benefits offered, people still do not wish to come back to Malaysia?

First, let's look at why people leave in the first place. We can explore this issue by looking at an organization; why people leave a company? I'm sure all of us have been in that situation before where we resigned in order to work for another company. The motives behind our decisions can be simplified into three common reasons:

1) We feel that our contributions are not being acknowledged and appreciated by the current company.

2) We realized that there are other companies out there in the market who are very keen to hire us.

3) Low salary and limited career development in the current company.

Although the above are 3 common reasons why people resign from a company, it can also be applied to a country.

Most people who migrated to other countries based their decisions on one of or all of the three reasons above. Everyone feels that they are not being appreciated in Malaysia with the constant political rhetoric telling them that they don't belong to this country. A lot of them realized that their skills are highly sought after elsewhere, most of people in this category chose to work in Singapore. The third category are those who are looking for higher salary overseas. They move to Singapore and Australia. In the case of Australia, some went legally as Permanent Residents while they are a lot enter the country illegally.

Migration records in Australia shows that Malaysians have been migrated there as early as in the late 60s. That is a mind boggling 5 decades! So clearly this is an open secret that people are leaving the country and the government knows about it. Have they tried to stop it? Yes by setting up Talent Corp but the political will is clearly not serious enough.

There are a lot who choose to leave because they see greener pastures elsewhere, but all of them left because of reason number one: they felt that they are virtually invisible and not being appreciated by their own country. This reason alone will prevent most of them from coming back regardless of how attractive the financial benefits might be, the failed Talent Corp project is the clearest indication of this.

Does Malaysia needs to stop the brain drain? Yes, if the country is to come out of its 'developing' status to become a developed nation.

Can Malaysia do it successfully? Sadly, not in the foreseeable future.