(Petaling Jaya, Sunday): The highlight of the next Parliamentary meeting from March 19 to May 3 will be the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001-2005), which will be a blueprint to transform Malaysia into a knowledge-based economy.
In the past five years, Malaysia has lagged behind many countries like Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore in the race to prepare for the emerging knowledge economy.
The foundation stones of the knowledge economy are human ingenuity and skill and a commitment to innovation through research and development.
It is for this reason that countries in the forefront of the K-economy race, especially the United States, Japan and the European Union nations are also involved in a global competition for the best brains in the world.
On Wednesday, it was reported that the Australian Government had
decided to allow an extra 2,500 overseas students, studying Information
Technology in Australia, to migrate as part of the Australian government's
push to
attract skilled labour and that from July next year the students would
also be able to apply for permanent residence visas without leaving Australia.
All Information and Communications Technology (ICT) occupations would be
recognised as key positions, removing the need for employers to find out
if there was an Australian who could do the job.
In May last year, the German Foreign Minister Joschka Fisher went to Bangalore in India to vie with other countries like the United States, Japan and Ireland to woo the Indian software professionals, and although the German Government had approved the issue of 20,000 "green cards" to foreign computer specialists, the Indian IT talents still preferred the United States as Germany lagged 10 years behind the United States in IT.
Last October, the United States Senate passed a Bill allowing some 600,000 high-tech foreign workers into the country.
Singapore is recruiting tens of thousands of high-tech workers from Malaysia and has the biggest number of Malaysian IT professionals working in any country overseas.
If Malaysia is to transform itself into a successful K-economy under
the Eighth Malaysia Plan, then it must have a three-point “brain gain”
strategy to attract the best brains regardless of race and nationality
from at home and abroad, viz:
Early this year, Malaysia suffered a serious brain-drain when more
than 500 of the "best and brightest" school-leavers from the 60 Chinese
Independent Secondary Schools were directly recruited into Singapore
universities - which must be regarded as a scandal for a country which
wants to transform itself into a K-economy where knowledge, human ingenuity
and skill have replaced labour and capital as the most important factor
of production.
Malaysia cannot be serious in wanting to transform itself into a K-economy
if it allows the annual brain-drain of the “best and brightest” school-leavers
from the Chinese Independent Secondary schools to continue unchecked because
of the refusal of the government to accord recognition to the Unified Examinations
Certificate (UEC).
It is an educational outrage that while Malaysia aims to become an international centre of educational excellence by attracting foreign students to come and pursue their tertiary-level studies here, the government is not prepared to create the conditions whereby the “best and brightest” school-leavers from the Chinese Independent Secondary Schools can complete their higher studies in the country and contribute to Malaysia’s successful transformation into the K-economy.
When I was in Parliament, I had spoken consistently and insistently for government recognition of the Unified Examinations Certificate (UEC) in the interests of the Chinese Independent School students - but now, with Malaysia in the race with other countries to become a K-economy, such a recognition will be in the national interest as well.
I would urge MCA, Gerakan and SUPP Ministers to ensure that such government recognition of UEC for entry into the local universities is granted before the parliamentary approval of the Eighth Malaysia Plan and the K-economy blueprint.
(4/2/2001)