Brain drain

Okay, so Malaysia's brain drain problem is starting to bite us in the ass. Actually, it's already been bit many, many times over the years, but this might be the first tangible case that'd make people sit up and take notice.

Of annoyance is Gerakan's Wan Sun Keong, who keeps harping on about how Penang produces "6,000 engineering graduates" a year. I don't know if those figures are true, but even if they are, that's not the point. The point is that we're producing 6,000 engineering grads a year, and an MNC took a look at them and said, "Not good enough" and walked away.

Fact: we're losing Malaysians every year. 40 percent of overseas Malaysians are in Singapore, including a couple of MPs. Opportunities to grow are extremely hard to come by, and there's way too much red tape that gets in the way. Sheena can regale you guys numerous horror stories about trying to make it as a doctor in Malaysia. (But only when you buy her a drink.)

Plus that engineering thing? Malaysia has one of the, if not the lowest number of patents produced in the region. You know why? We don't have people to do the R&D work, but even when we do, the patents go overseas. Why? Red tape. Do you know how long it takes for a patent to get approved in Singapore? One year. Do you know how long it takes for a patent to get approved in Malaysia?

Three years.

The tax structure thing the article floats at the end isn't going to cut it, not on its own. There are much deeper, more fundamental issues involved, most of which involves the fact that Malaysia is a crappy place to grow talent.