KUALA LUMPUR – The Prime Minister’s Office should form a special unit to stem the migration of Malaysian professionals to other countries, said DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang.
Lim said this is because Malaysia has been suffering from a severe brain drain since the 1970s, as testified by over a million Malaysians of all races and religions who are living and working abroad.
The former Iskandar Puteri MP said that Malaysia should strive to ensure that professionals in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) sectors do not leave the country for employment opportunities.
Lim said that this group of people possess the skills to help develop the country’s economy and also lead the way in the innovation sector.
“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,” Lim said on his blog site, as reported by The Vibes’ Bahasa Malaysia sister publication Getaran.
“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”.
Lim was referring to former Universiti Malaya medical faculty dean, Prof Datuk Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman, who claimed that the top university loses about 30 of its best medical graduates every year to Singapore.
She noted that this is due to the limited permanent posts available to young doctors, with a large number of medical graduates only being offered contractual posts upon completing their horsemanship.
Lim said the new government must seize the opportunity to address the grouses from the bottom and address the issues raised by the affected group.
“Malaysia does not need contract doctors, as they should be absorbed into the public health and medical system.”
He also urged the new Health Minister Fadhlina Sidek to “initiate a wide-ranging inquiry on Malaysia’s poor performance in handling the Covid-19 pandemic”. – The Vibes, December 26, 2022
