BRING HOME THE LOCAL TALENT, PROFESSIONALS
The country needs them urgently for it to move up the value chain so we are not stuck in a middle-income rut when we attain high-income status
THIS writer recently attended a modern and thoroughly untraditional, but charming wedding outside Kuching. It united the scions of two families which are pillars of the professional community in the Sarawak capital. The setting — outdoors amidst the pools and well-manicured gardens of a smallish, rather exclusive, resort — was picture perfect.
A gentle sea breeze was blowing across an unusually mild late Saturday afternoon as the short ceremony began. The intimate gathering of guests looked as cosmopolitan and multinational as it gets. Close family and relatives from other parts of Malaysia and others from the Malaysian diaspora overseas were present.
An obviously tight-knit band of foreign friends of the bride and groom flew with them halfway across the world from the United Kingdom where they are now based to be part of the happy occasion.
The strictly civil ceremony was conducted by one of these friends; one with an unmistakable British name but with a third, apparently Muslim, one. Another friend concluded the ceremony with the reading of an ode to love.
The guests mingled and relatives separated by distance and seas had the opportunity to catch up as the afternoon wore on and before dinner began at dusk under a covered canopy on the lawn. The shimmering lights as darkness descended gave the whole atmosphere an effect not unlike that seen in the sensational Crazy Rich Asians movie.
But unlike in the movie with its subtext of social tensions between those of a more conservative and traditional older generation and the younger and foreign-educated set, this wedding was obviously largely driven by the latter group.
The parents and grandparents present were evidently just happy to let the newly-wed couple have their day the way they saw fit. Dinner time was also when the youngsters displayed to and impressed those in attendance their light-hearted wit oozing with dramatic talent and one-liners worthy of Saturday Night Live.
As the older set departed after dinner, it was not difficult to imagine the others revelling and dancing the whole night away under the star-lit sky! A slightly uncomfortable thought crept into mind amidst the serene and thoroughly enjoyable merriment of the occasion though.
Most of these talented and professional local-born youngsters — worldly wise and self-assuredly confident — were back in town only because of the wedding of close family members. If they are now not gainfully employed far from home, they are invariably living and working in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. They represent what may well be just the tip of an iceberg.
Two questions naturally crop up. If such highly qualified and talented Sarawakians either will not or cannot find professional and other sources of fulfilment locally, what has the state not done right and therefore failed them? And if these people cannot or will not find similar fulfilment even in the national capital, how has the nation as a whole failed them?
These are surely burning questions that all concerned Malaysians need to ask and help find some answers for. Things are not helped by a report just released by the Khazanah Research Institute which calls attention to the reality that new Malaysian businesses are not innovating enough.
“Entrepreneurship, if leveraged on properly, can play an important role in transforming the nation into an advanced knowledge-based economy,” the report helpfully suggests.
The report cannot be more timely and cannot over-emphasise the urgency for the nation to move up the value chain from lower-end manufacturing and services if we are not to be stuck in a middle-income rut even as we technically attain the status of a high-income country.
Countries at similar levels of economic advancement as Malaysia as well as the economically advanced ones are all competing for the limited pools of professional and entrepreneurial talent worldwide to fuel homegrown business start-ups and technological innovations.
If the political reawakening ignited by the results of the May 9 general election is not to be wasted, the country will do well to leverage the vibes reverberating in the country to attract local talent and professionals abroad to move back home.
Naturally enough, these “feelgood” sentiments must be fully translated into a comprehensive package of incentives and other policy initiatives which will entice these Malaysians to return and other qualified foreigners to make the country their base, if not their new home.
A “new” Malaysia must not merely be a political slogan. It’s time we fleshed out what it really means.
If such highly qualified and talented Sarawakians either will not or cannot find professional and other sources of fulfilment locally, what has the state not done right and therefore failed them? And if these people cannot or will not find similar fulfilment even in the national capital, how has the nation as a whole failed them?
The writer views developments in the nation, the region and the wider world from his vantage point in Kuching, Sarawak