Some newspapers highlighted Talent Corporations’s success in getting 30% of 130 Malaysian specialist doctors in Taiwan to consider and think about coming home in 3 years. How can Talent Corporation regard as a success when not a single specialist doctor in Taiwan has confirmed 100% their return home immediately but are only willing to consider and think about coming home in 3 years time?
Clearly Malaysia’s failure in reversing the brain drain and getting them to come home plays a huge part in Malaysia’s drop in the Global Competitiveness Index 2012-2013 to 25th spot from 21st last year. Malaysia needs to focus on the 3 critical success factors of upgrading technological readiness especially in internet connectivity, improving public safety by containing crime escalation and building human capital formation to arrest the decline in Malaysia’s global competitiveness.
This decline is not simply a failure of the Prime Minister Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak’s Economic Transformation Programme(ETP) but also a failure to recognise that clinging on to failed policies will not provide the solutions to our problems. As Albert Einstein said, “Using old solutions, especially failed ones, to solve new problems is insane”. The time has come to discard failed policies of crony capitalism, Approved Permits for vehicles and subsidies for profit-making companies.
In Jakarta, the City Mayor has just announced free wifi would be available on main roads and highways. As digital intelligence is of critical importance in the internet connected world, providing free wifi in public places would provide a much needed boost. There is no reason why free wifi in public places can not be done throughout Malaysia, if it can be implemented in Penang Or is Malaysia going to be behind not just Jakarta but also Indonesia eventually?
Regarding Malaysia’s technological readiness, the report notes three areas that require improvement, namely: international internet bandwidth in kilobits per second per user (ranked 83rd), broadband internet subscriptions per 100 population (68th) and mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 population (64th). This contributes to the low level of technological readiness despite the country’s focus on promoting the use of ICT.
The common perception of an increase in crime negatively impacted Malaysia’s ranking with a drop in the rankings related to crime such as the business cost of crime and violence; organised crime; and reliability of police services. Clearly the drop in crime index poses many questions about the reliability in the compilation of statistics and that the final determinant of public safety is not determined by statistics but ultimately whether the people feel safe.
Even the Ministry of International Trade and Industry has admitted that negative perceptions about crime has had an adverse impact on investors and international community alike as do not feel safe. The time has come for both the Home Ministry and the police to stop being in denial but focus solely on fighting crime instead of allowing the police to be used as a tool to serve the political interests of BN against the legitimate opposition PR in Malaysia.
Unless Malaysia succeeds in stopping the ruinous exchange of human talent with unskilled foreign workers, Malaysia’s hopes to escape the middle-income trap and join the ranks of high-income economies will remain a pipe dream. Perhaps Malaysia should not just learn from Jakarta, but also China which attracts back its human talent from USA by paying them comparable salary rates, provide housing accomodation and most important of all equal opportunities of career advancement.
With 2 million Malaysian leaving the country since 1957, Talent Corp would not only fail to attract them back but would see more Malaysians leaving unless more incentives can be given. There must be transparency such as open competitive tenders and public declaration of assets that avoid conflict of interest.
Unless the 3 critical success factors are dealt with, especially retaining and attracting new human talent, Malaysia’s hopes of becoming a high-income developed economy by 2020 will remain a pipe-dream that will be recycled every election year.
Lim Guan Eng
— Mandarin Version–
民主行动党秘书长兼峇眼区国会议员林冠英于2012年9月18日在吉隆坡发表声明：
马来西亚的全球竞争力下滑，不只是因为首相经济转型计划的失败，也是科技准备、打击罪案及人力资源栽培政策的失败。
一些报章突出人才机构成功让台湾130名专科医生中的30%人才慎重计划3年内回国。人才机构怎么能说这是一项“成果”因为事实上没有一名大马籍台湾专科医生100%确定他们将会马上回国，而只是愿意考虑及计划3年内回流。
很明显地，马来西亚在招揽人才回流方面已经失败，这也是为什么马来西来在2012年-2013年的全球竞争力指数从去年第21位，下滑至第25位。马来西亚需要注重三个成功因素，提升科技就绪度特别是网络的连接、改善治安降低罪案、栽培人力资本，以解决马来西亚日趋退步的全球竞争力。
这项退步不只是首相拿督斯里纳吉的经济转型计划的失败，也是因为当局者看不到坚守失败的政策无法从根本上解决我们的问题。爱因斯坦说，“不断地延用旧方法、特别是失败的方法来解决新问题是疯狂的。” 是时候放弃朋党资本主义的失败政策、汽车入口准证、赚钱公司的津贴。
雅加达市长最近宣布他们将在主要公路及高速公路提供免费无线上网。数码智慧的网络通讯时代是非常重要的，在公共场所提供免费无线上网非常受落。如果槟州做得到，我们不明白为何政府不能全马各地公共场所提供免费无线上网？还是马来西亚不只会落后雅加达，甚至是印尼？
有关马来西亚的科技就绪度，报告中指出三个需要改善之处：国际宽频每个用户、每秒千位元排名第83；每百名人口的固定宽频订户率排名第68，以及流通宽频网络订户排名第64名。尽管我们一直在极力推广科技资讯工艺，这些都是科技就绪率低的原因。
我国的罪案率一直被公认为有增无减，在报告中，与商业、暴力、组织性及警方可靠性有关的罪案排位下降。很明显地，罪案指数下滑不禁让人怀疑，有关数据统计是否可靠？毕竟公众安全问题不是由数据决定，最终是人民是否觉得有安全感。
就连国际贸易及工业部都承认，罪案率的负面印象让投资者及外国人士觉得不安全。内政部长及警方不应该再否认，而应该专注于打击罪案，而不是让警方沦为国阵政治利益服务的工具，用来对付合法在野民联。