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February 19, 2010
Mariam Mokhtar
Intolerance Driving Malaysia's Brain Drain
Malaysia’s brain drain appears to be picking up speed. According to a recent parliamentary report, 140,000 Malaysians left the country, probably for good, in 2007.
Between March 2008 and August 2009, that figure more than doubled to 305,000 as talented people pulled up stakes, apparently disillusioned by rising crime, a tainted judiciary, human rights abuses, an outmoded education system and other concerns.
The general assumption is that Chinese and Indians form the majority of those abandoning the country of their birth because ethnic Malays consider them pendatang — aliens in a Malay land, regardless of how long they have been in the country.
However, increasing numbers of Malays have already emigrated as well, or are seriously thinking about it, dismayed by corrupt practices as well as the rigid confines of Islam and the rise of fundamentalism embodied in the revelation on Wednesday by Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein that three women had been caned in Kajang Prison in Selangor on Feb. 9 for having had illicit sex under Shariah law.
In 2000, according to figures compiled in 2007, 40 percent of Malaysian emigrants headed for Singapore — at the same time Singaporeans are headed somewhere else.
The number who put the Lion City behind them is as high as 15 percent of annual births, according to one estimate. In 2006, Transport Minister, Raymond Lim expressed concern that 53 percent of Singaporean teens would consider emigration.
One Web site survey put Singapore’s average outflow at 26.11 migrants per 1,000 citizens, the second highest in the world — next to East Timor (51.07).
Of the other emigres, 30 percent go to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries (Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Britain) 20 percent to Asian countries (Brunei, Philippines, Indonesia) and 10 percent to the rest of the world. Malaysian Employers Federation executive director, Shamsuddin Bardan, said that 785,000 Malaysians were working overseas. Unofficially, the figure is well over a million.
Nor are people all that is leaving. On Jan.11 it was reported that there had been an exodus of money from Malaysia on a scale which surpassed that which occurred during the Asian financial crisis. The decline is also reflected in a sudden decline in base money supply — even while, thanks to Bank Negara, broader M2 has continued to grow modestly.
A major problem is the flight of graduates. As early as 2004, former Premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was becoming concerned, pointing out that as many as 30,000 were thought to be working in foreign countries, many of whom had held scholarships in top universities from the Malaysian government but chose to stay overseas at the end of their studies. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad demanded that other countries pay Malaysia for having seduced them to stay, “since, by right, the graduates’ training and knowledge should be called intellectual property.”
The typical reasons are well-documented: improved employment and business prospects, higher salaries, better working environments, greater chances of promotion and a relatively superior quality of life.
Three Malay women put a personal face on the statistics.
Two are graduates of overseas universities, the third is from a local school. Their decisions to leave were made, they say, after a lot of soul searching. But for these women, money and economic incentives were not the end-all. Their names have been changed to protect them.
Anita claims to have left because of her sexuality. She graduated from a university in the United Kingdom but continued with a post-graduate degree course. At the end of her studies, she worked in a multinational corporation in London and is now a department head. She was recently married, in a civil ceremony, in the UK. A Malay, Anita is naturally Muslim. Her partner is another woman, Nadia, an Iraqi Jew. They met as undergraduates.
For a decade, the two made the annual pilgrimage to Malaysia to visit Anita’s ageing parents, Anita says. When in Kuala Lumpur, they are regular patrons of lesbian joints in Bangsar. After the Malaysian National Fatwa Council issued an edict banning lesbianism in 2008, Anita traveled alone. Nadia dislikes the risk of being “caught,” The clues to their sexuality are their short cropped hair, Doc Marten shoes, preponderance of masculine clothes and, on closer inspection, their identical wedding rings with each other’s names inscribed. Anita is in self-imposed exile because her partner will not be allowed to reside in Malaysia.
Although male homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia and sodomy incurs a punishment of 20 years jail, Malaysia’s civil code does not ban lesbianism. Malaysian men are so big-headed that they cannot imagine any woman not wanting to sleep with a man.
“It is unacceptable to see women who love the male lifestyle including dressing in the clothes men wear,” said Abdul Shukor Husin, the Fatwa Council chairman. Harussani Idris Zakaria, the mufti of Perak, says that the council’s ruling was not legally binding as it had not been passed into law. He wants tomboys to be banned because their actions are immoral. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a law or not,” he says,
In 2000, Malaysia had around 80,000 official expatriates. By 2008, this figure had shrunk to 38,000 as the collapsing global economy cut into trade and thus Malaysian exports.
When Bibi worked in an electronics factory in north Perak, little did she foresee marrying her expatriate quality control engineer. After his conversion to Islam and their subsequent marriage, he attempted unsuccessfully to gain permanent residence. He claims to have spent a small fortune on lawyers, on “proof” and photographs for the application process, and several trips to the immigration offices to be “verified.” He claims that one low ranking government official even offered him a birth certificate for 60,000 ringgit ($17,500), as a precursor to a “red” identity card, which would help facilitate the PR status.
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/intolerance-driving-malaysias-brain-drain/359664
Mariam Mokhtar
Intolerance Driving Malaysia's Brain Drain
Malaysia’s brain drain appears to be picking up speed. According to a recent parliamentary report, 140,000 Malaysians left the country, probably for good, in 2007.
Between March 2008 and August 2009, that figure more than doubled to 305,000 as talented people pulled up stakes, apparently disillusioned by rising crime, a tainted judiciary, human rights abuses, an outmoded education system and other concerns.
The general assumption is that Chinese and Indians form the majority of those abandoning the country of their birth because ethnic Malays consider them pendatang — aliens in a Malay land, regardless of how long they have been in the country.
However, increasing numbers of Malays have already emigrated as well, or are seriously thinking about it, dismayed by corrupt practices as well as the rigid confines of Islam and the rise of fundamentalism embodied in the revelation on Wednesday by Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein that three women had been caned in Kajang Prison in Selangor on Feb. 9 for having had illicit sex under Shariah law.
In 2000, according to figures compiled in 2007, 40 percent of Malaysian emigrants headed for Singapore — at the same time Singaporeans are headed somewhere else.
The number who put the Lion City behind them is as high as 15 percent of annual births, according to one estimate. In 2006, Transport Minister, Raymond Lim expressed concern that 53 percent of Singaporean teens would consider emigration.
One Web site survey put Singapore’s average outflow at 26.11 migrants per 1,000 citizens, the second highest in the world — next to East Timor (51.07).
Of the other emigres, 30 percent go to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries (Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Britain) 20 percent to Asian countries (Brunei, Philippines, Indonesia) and 10 percent to the rest of the world. Malaysian Employers Federation executive director, Shamsuddin Bardan, said that 785,000 Malaysians were working overseas. Unofficially, the figure is well over a million.
Nor are people all that is leaving. On Jan.11 it was reported that there had been an exodus of money from Malaysia on a scale which surpassed that which occurred during the Asian financial crisis. The decline is also reflected in a sudden decline in base money supply — even while, thanks to Bank Negara, broader M2 has continued to grow modestly.
A major problem is the flight of graduates. As early as 2004, former Premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was becoming concerned, pointing out that as many as 30,000 were thought to be working in foreign countries, many of whom had held scholarships in top universities from the Malaysian government but chose to stay overseas at the end of their studies. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad demanded that other countries pay Malaysia for having seduced them to stay, “since, by right, the graduates’ training and knowledge should be called intellectual property.”
The typical reasons are well-documented: improved employment and business prospects, higher salaries, better working environments, greater chances of promotion and a relatively superior quality of life.
Three Malay women put a personal face on the statistics.
Two are graduates of overseas universities, the third is from a local school. Their decisions to leave were made, they say, after a lot of soul searching. But for these women, money and economic incentives were not the end-all. Their names have been changed to protect them.
Anita claims to have left because of her sexuality. She graduated from a university in the United Kingdom but continued with a post-graduate degree course. At the end of her studies, she worked in a multinational corporation in London and is now a department head. She was recently married, in a civil ceremony, in the UK. A Malay, Anita is naturally Muslim. Her partner is another woman, Nadia, an Iraqi Jew. They met as undergraduates.
For a decade, the two made the annual pilgrimage to Malaysia to visit Anita’s ageing parents, Anita says. When in Kuala Lumpur, they are regular patrons of lesbian joints in Bangsar. After the Malaysian National Fatwa Council issued an edict banning lesbianism in 2008, Anita traveled alone. Nadia dislikes the risk of being “caught,” The clues to their sexuality are their short cropped hair, Doc Marten shoes, preponderance of masculine clothes and, on closer inspection, their identical wedding rings with each other’s names inscribed. Anita is in self-imposed exile because her partner will not be allowed to reside in Malaysia.
Although male homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia and sodomy incurs a punishment of 20 years jail, Malaysia’s civil code does not ban lesbianism. Malaysian men are so big-headed that they cannot imagine any woman not wanting to sleep with a man.
“It is unacceptable to see women who love the male lifestyle including dressing in the clothes men wear,” said Abdul Shukor Husin, the Fatwa Council chairman. Harussani Idris Zakaria, the mufti of Perak, says that the council’s ruling was not legally binding as it had not been passed into law. He wants tomboys to be banned because their actions are immoral. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a law or not,” he says,
In 2000, Malaysia had around 80,000 official expatriates. By 2008, this figure had shrunk to 38,000 as the collapsing global economy cut into trade and thus Malaysian exports.
When Bibi worked in an electronics factory in north Perak, little did she foresee marrying her expatriate quality control engineer. After his conversion to Islam and their subsequent marriage, he attempted unsuccessfully to gain permanent residence. He claims to have spent a small fortune on lawyers, on “proof” and photographs for the application process, and several trips to the immigration offices to be “verified.” He claims that one low ranking government official even offered him a birth certificate for 60,000 ringgit ($17,500), as a precursor to a “red” identity card, which would help facilitate the PR status.
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/intolerance-driving-malaysias-brain-drain/359664
