{"id":593,"date":"2011-07-03T16:03:52","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T08:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therocket.com.my\/en\/?p=593"},"modified":"2011-11-14T12:15:52","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T04:15:52","slug":"pakatan-rakyat-to-build-a-fairer-malaysia-lure-return-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/pakatan-rakyat-to-build-a-fairer-malaysia-lure-return-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakatan Rakyat to build a fairer Malaysia, lure return talent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Corruption, social injustice pushing Malaysians away<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0DAP National Publicity Secretary Tony Pua criticizes Talent Corp for attempting to use incentives to lure return talent without addressing the underlying inequitable policies which drive Malaysians away in the first place.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pua likens Talent Corp\u2019s approach to \u201cusing Panadol to treat the symptoms without addressing the root causes.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Talent Corp advertises several benefits to attract returning Malaysians such as income tax incentives, exemptions, and swifter PR processing time for returnees\u2019 spouses and children.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, Pua points out, two of the main deal-breakers for fleeing Malaysians are perceived social injustice and the deplorable state of the education system.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a glass ceiling in employment. Employees find themselves being passed over for promotions due to their skin color,\u201d Pua said candidly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pua\u2019s observation is echoed in the World Bank brain drain report, which analysed emigrants\u2019 reasons for leaving Malaysia. According to the report, 60% of emigrants pointed at grievances towards government and public policies as their motivation to migrate, while 66% blamed it on diminishing career prospects in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0DAP International Secretary Liew Chin Tong concurs that a leading bone of contention among leaving Malaysians is that \u201cpeople are rewarded for their connections and not their performance\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Many ordinary Malaysians feel frustrated that their skills are not rewarded adequately, while a flourishing rent-seeking culture breeds unequal access to opportunities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Notably, the online web portal The Malaysian Insider <\/em>reports in its popular \u2018migration stories\u2019 segment that <\/em>cronyism and corruption is a common grouse that keeps emigrants from returning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Declining standards of education fueling migration <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pua also blames the deplorable standards of local education for the exodus of emigrants. \u201cMany parents feel that they are unable to provide quality, affordable education for their children locally. As a result, it makes more sense to them to migrate to countries such as Australia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pua notes that Malaysia has reached a stage where national schools are no longer the preferred choice of many parents. The declining quality of national schools is a critical element that results in poorer quality of entrants into university and eventually, a poorer quality workforce that hurts the economy\u2019s competitiveness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Less opportunities for Malaysians seeking employment means these qualified employees are forced to leave to seek employment abroad, costing the nation dearly in forex outflow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pua also criticized the government for dumbing down the education system to bolster passing rates and boost the number of top scorers. \u201cThe way to improve is to increase the quality of teachers and not reduce the standards of examinations,\u201d he told The Rocket.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he said that the government\u2019s failure to recognize the UEC (Unified Examination Certificate) -which is Chinese Independent High Schools\u2019 SPM-equivalent qualification- has resulted in droves of overseas tertiary-educated students never returning from Taiwan or China.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tony Pua believes that Pakatan\u2019s policy changes will address social inequality and stimulate the return flow of Malaysians who long to return home to a country that treats all its citizen fairly.<\/p>\n

\u201cMalaysians will return home when they see a change of government to one that is no longer race-centric. Giving patronage the boot will be a tremendous wave of hope and impetus for change,\u201d he told The Rocket.<\/p>\n

Needs-based rather than race-based policies will foster a more competitive economy and will better ensure a cultural mindset shift, he says. Pua also suggest the setting up of an Equal Opportunities Commission to punish all employers who use race as a criteria in hiring workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unwritten rules of race-based job protection policies need to go,\u201d he stresses. Affirmative action, Pua says, must be implemented according to needs and not according to race.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo racial group wants to be marginalized. Every poor person deserves help from the government,\u201d said Pua, the MP for PJ Utara.<\/p>\n

As Liew Chin Tong puts it bluntly, the government must \u201cstop all this racial nonsense\u201d. There is a place for everyone under the Malaysian sun, Liew asserts. \u201cEvery Malaysian should have a sense of belonging in their homeland, and this feeling should be matched by reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liew points out that PR seeks to reorganize the lopsided current structure to create equal opportunities for all Malaysians and to reverse the negative trend. This is to ensure fair access to all Malaysians regardless of race, so that everyone can have a slice of the economic pie.<\/p>\n

One of the ways for Malaysia to become a \u201cliveable nation,\u201d Liew says, is more efficient land use and improving the national transport policy. A reliable public transportation system will allow Malaysians to have more disposable income to invest in their inner selves, thus raising the Gross National Happiness Index.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Corruption, social injustice pushing Malaysians away   \u00a0DAP National Publicity Secretary Tony Pua criticizes Talent Corp for attempting to use incentives to lure return talent without addressing the underlying inequitable policies which drive Malaysians away in the first place.   Pua likens Talent Corp\u2019s approach to \u201cusing Panadol to treat the symptoms without addressing the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[44,19,20,45,47,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-story","tag-brain-drain","tag-cec","tag-corruption","tag-issues","tag-liew-chin-tong","tag-migration","tag-talent-corp","tag-tony-pua"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}