Poor pay keeping best brains away

Star: LONDON: Peanut salaries and an obsession with world-record breaking. These were some of the reasons given by Malaysia's best brains in Britain for them being reluctant to return home.
In a candid, no-holds barred report to the Government, Malaysian students and professionals spoke their minds on the “pull-push” factor surrounding the brain drain issue.
Their grouses ranged from measly salaries and long working hours to the lack of government support and appreciation for talent and expertise.
Some were particularly irked by what seemed to be a national obsession for world-record breaking and called on the Government to rid itself of its “first world infrastructure, third world mentality” image.
Others commended the Government for its efforts to find out why they were not returning but hoped for more measures to involve them in the nation-building process.
In a nutshell, they would like the Government to instil among overseas Malaysians a love for the country and the desire to see it march forward in unity.
That would be the strongest reason for them to return and serve the nation, they said.
The findings were compiled by the 10,000-strong UK Executive Council for Malaysian Students and submitted to Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Kong Cho Ha earlier this week.
The deputy minister had requested for the feedback after meeting council chairman Wan Mohd Firdaus Wan Mohd Fuaad in London last month.
The survey, which started last month, covered mostly medical, engineering and accountancy students who formed the bulk of Malaysia’s 12,000-student population in Britain.
Firdaus said they had received very good response from students and professionals.
“We’ve submitted the preliminary report to the ministry as more feedback is still coming in everyday,” he said, adding that they hoped to compile the full report after the students had finished their final examinations.
The council represents 58 Malaysian student societies or about 80% of the Malaysian student population in Britain.