Malaysian students in UK: we are not mercenaries
UK Executive Council for Malaysian Students chairman Wan Mohd Firdaus Wan Mohd Fuaad’s rebuts Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed’s “return to Malaysia, money is not everything.”
He says: money is only 30% of the reasons why Malaysian professionals and students choose to remain in Britain. Other factors includes work culture, environment, exposure, job challenges and prospects.
While MCA Club Australia president Chan Wei Ming is more blunt. He says the Datuk’s speech is like baiting sharks with worms. Datuk, you need a bigger bait lah!
Wan Firdaus says the powers that be, including GLCs like Khazanah Holdings and Danaharta and corporations like Tenaga Nasional must be more proactive and make a greater effort to attract the students home, and that the Government cannot just expect these people to be nationalistic and patriotic and return to Malaysia when the time comes.
MCA Club Australia president Chan Wei Ming, agreed, saying verbal encouragement alone would not be enough to bring them back. And he was dead right, if a little brash when he said: “Patriotism alone will not feed, support or motivate local doctors. You need better opportunities, respect and a better public healthcare system. A simple speech on nationalism and patriotism without any positive action is akin to baiting sharks with worms.”
That’s an interesting statement, directly opposes what I’ve been hearing & reading over the years. And hey, it’s the opposite of US Prez Jack Kennedy’s famous line: “ask not what you country can do for you, but ask what can you do for your country.”
Even London Umno Club chairman Dzariman Ibrahim agreed with him: that work experience, exposure to the latest technology and access to the European market were among the pull factors, and that money is not the main reason for staying overseas.
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