Reflections..

Nowadays when I log into facebook and look at the list my schoolmates in Penang Free School, I've been thinking to myself : "Half of them are in Singapore".

What have we done to cause so much human talent to go just a short hop, skip and jump across the water ? And I realize that it's not really "we", and that I could just as easily be in their shoes. After all, they and I have similiar profiles : non-malays who did not attend a Malaysian university.

http://themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/columnists/john-lee/8557-a-wish-for-a-better-merdeka

I work with many Malays, and some of them are really quite capable. The same can be said of the Chinese, Indian and dan-lain-lain staff I've worked with. But maybe my circumstances can't be used as a definitive example since I'm in the urban, middle class category. And yet, it's a category that's growing in Malaysia.

I do think that an affirmative action policy was necessary back in 1969. My question is : "When is it going to end ?"

It's a fact that huge chunks of non-Malay Malaysian talent are working overseas. And those who go overseas are usually in the top tier. As for those left behind, of all races, there is no way of learning from these people simply because they're not in Malaysia. There is no way of utilizing their talents in the interest of Malaysia simply because they've chosen to work overseas as their work can be judged on merit.

I find myself asking : "What if Lee Kuan Yew had been Prime Minister of Malaysia ?"

Can you imagine how much progress Malaysia, with all it's natural resources, would have made ? Where would we be now ?