Malaysia must have a programme to reduce the migration of highly skilled citizens as part of the policy to make Malaysia great again

Last Thursday, Malaysiakini reported the former University of Malaya’s Dean of Medicine Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman as saying that Malaysia loses at least 30 of its best and brightest medical graduates from University of Malaya to Singapore, and that it costs the country almost RM1 million per student to train.

Yesterday, Sin Chew Daily reported that Singapore has a policy to “grab” talents from Malaysia’s Chinese Independent Secondary Schools, and this is equivalent to 300–400 students a year since 2015 who proceeded to Singapore to continue their higher studies and later to remain and help in the economic growth of the island republic.

Malaysia has been suffering from a severe brain drain since the 1970s, as testified by the Malaysian Diaspora all over the world numbering over a million Malaysians of all races and religions.

It is time that Malaysia should recognise highly skilled Malaysian talent especially in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) sectors as a key resource in a knowledge economy which play a critical role of national economic growth and technological innovation of Malaysia.

Malaysia must have a programme to reduce the migration of highly skilled citizens as part of the policy to make Malaysia great again, as well as to attract highly-skilled talents to Malaysia.

There should be a special unit in the Prime Minister’s Department to stem the brain drain in key sectors, which should conduct an aggressive policy to turn the five decades of “brain drain” into a “brain gain” situation.

For a start, the government should resolve the grievances and complaints of healthcare workers and terminate the problem of the contract doctors.

Malaysia does not need contract doctors as they should be absorbed into the public health and medical system.

The new Health Minister should initiate a wide-ranging inquiry why Malaysia had been such a poor performer in the Covid-19 pandemic, when a global study on health in 2010 placed Malaysia as among the top 20 countries in the world, and be the basis of a 30-year national health plan 2023–2053 apart from preparing Malaysia to be better prepared for the next global pandemic.