The forgotten Malaysians

DEC 31 — It seems like all we can think about in Malaysia these days is race and religion. We feel threatened by other races, and feel insecure about the future of our own community. It’s true these are serious concerns but our obsession often means that we forget that there are things that will affect us all no matter who comes up on top, if such a thing is even possible.

We forget that many of our problems are colour-blind, and are not peculiar to any ethnic group. When we insist on a racial approach and refuse to reach out, all Malaysians suffer. Two groups stand out in this quandary: one because they have the most to lose, the other because they have no opportunity to contribute to the nation.

The first the Malaysian middle class, that group that author Karim Raslan refers to as “Middle Malaysia”. Our middle class should be the bedrock of the nation, the repository of our values and a showcase of our prosperity but along with the hardcore poor, they are being squeezed the hardest.

They are supposed to be living the Malaysian dream: possessing higher education, homes and cars. They were promised the opportunity to either engage in business or comfortable white-collar jobs in the public or private sector. The trade-off would be that they would be pay taxes to the government and support the cause of nation-building. The Malay community in particular was promised all this and so much more via the NEP.

Yet today, many of us feel that this “Malaysian dream” is more allusive than ever. Wages have stagnated while costs of living have skyrocketed. Jobs that can match the qualifications of our graduates, indeed any jobs at all, are more difficult to find. Our people are increasingly reliant on personal loans and credit cards to make ends meet, adding to the burden of mortgages on their homes and their car loans. Demagogues spread fear and mistrust in the name of God or community.

The standards of our national schools have declined, forcing many parents to fork out yet more money to put them in other streams. Even medical care is problematic — those who can afford it prefer to opt for private hospitals but for the rest a major calamity often means spending their life savings to restore their loved ones to health.

These are real problems that real Malaysians face. Is it any wonder that they are so cynical and angry at the Establishment’s attempts to mollify them? The people won’t stand for being hoodwinked indefinitely.

Middle Malaysia is more exposed to the world compared to their predecessors: the Internet is providing them different perspectives. Budget airline travel means that visiting foreign countries is more affordable than ever before. Thus, the sense of stagnation and missed opportunities that is engulfing Malaysia becomes more evident.

As a result of all of the above factors and our inability to ameliorate them, more Malaysians are now working and eventually settling abroad. This is the second group I alluded to: Malaysians overseas. They lose out because they cannot contribute to the country and soon are dispossessed of their roots, a powerful resource that they are the poorer for lacking. The country loses their ideas and energy. We stand exposed as not being able to care for or keep our own people.

Last year, I visited Singapore and was invited to meet a group of local young professionals, civil servants and entrepreneurs. It turns out that nearly half of these “Singaporeans” were Malaysians!

I also visited Malaysian students in America and most of them said that they were planning to work in the United States. Another Malay expatriate I encountered there told me that most of his family would eventually relocate to California. We often wonder why they don’t want to return — sometimes it’s because it just makes sense for them not to.

A programmer constituent of mine found it so tough to make a decent living in Malaysia that he chose to leave his wife in Petaling Jaya, and work in Singapore. To cut costs, he lives in Johor Baru, and commutes every day, like thousands of other Malaysians. Another programmer who stayed on could not find a job in the industry and so ended up working at a toll booth!

But not everyone wants to leave. Many of my peers who studied with me in the UK — Malays, Chinese and Indians, Ibans and Kadazans — are now working there but plan to return in a few years having made some money and gained experience, bettering their prospects here.

After all, warts and all, Malaysia is still home. I always encourage them to come back, as Malaysia can only move forward if it has its best and brightest back home. True, it is useful to gain the exposure overseas, but at the end of the day, Malaysia needs them back and as I said before, their Malaysian identity offers them a unique perspective which they can share with (and sell to) the world.

I remind them that while we can work anywhere in the world, many ordinary Malaysians do not have that option. But coming home isn’t always as simple or easy. As the years pass by, the offer for permanent residency comes up and then, accustomed to the quality of life they enjoy there and perplexed by the mess back home, a few decide to stay on.

As I said earlier, we can judge them as much as we want. But ultimately, like everyone else they have to decide on what they think is best for them and their families. The onus should be on the state to make its entire people feel at home, rather than for any particular group to be forced time and again to “prove their loyalty”.

If they feel unwanted back home where glass ceilings block their progress, why not stay in a country where people are sorted by merit? If they feel that the only way to do business back home is to know the right people why shouldn’t go where they can do business through working hard?

Our “Malaysian Diaspora” too, like our middle class, is therefore often neglected. The lack of them traps the country in a vicious cycle: the inequities drive them away, but we can never hope to close these gaps without their talent complementing the ones we have here.

This is also something that powers-that-be ought to deal with, rather than on fancy slogans. Here’s another Herculean task: we have to strengthen our middle class, reverse our brain drain and make Malaysia competitive again.

At Merdeka, Malaysia was on par with Korea, Singapore and Taiwan in the early days after independence. Today, those countries are earning much more than us. The sleeping giants of China and India have woken up, and are growing rapidly. Closer to home, Vietnam and Indonesia have made great strides as well. These countries supply us with their labour, but as an analyst has claimed, we might be exporting maids to them soon!

Wise countries realise that talent has to be derived from both home and abroad in order for their economies to grow. This enables them to move up the value chain. Malaysia on the other hand drives out our own talent, further enriching other developed economies.

Thus, it’s not surprising that the government revealed recently that the number of Malaysians giving up their citizenship has nearly doubled this year in 2009, to 3,800 people. Over 300,000 Malaysians migrated from March 2008 to December 2008. There are reports now that an increasing number of Malays seem to be migrating as well. How are we to reverse this trend?

We need to formulate policies that empower our middle class. It’s no longer enough to focus on the basic constituency services — this should be a given. Instead, we have to make sure Malaysians regain a sense of ownership in their country, which has been lost. The misappropriation of the nation’s wealth and assets must be exposed and punished.

Let’s face it, decades of mismanagement mean that the property, honour and indeed lives of any Malaysian are no longer secure or inviolable. Recent events have proven that these can easily be rescinded if they get in the way. Reforming Malaysia should be about making sure that such abuses can never happen again.

Education must be a priority. We must invest in better schools and colleges and free them from political manipulation. Our companies need genuine incentives to develop their human resources so that they can move up in the value chain. We all know how Singapore leeches our talent through opportunities for education and professional development — so this is where the effort has to start.

But the fundamental change must be socio-political. We’ve often heard the refrain that Malaysians who don’t like it here should pack their bags and leave. Some might say “good riddance”, but this is arrogant and disingenuous.

The government announces slews of initiatives to get Malaysians home, but these will be always ineffective without fundamental changes to our polity. We have to simply start treating our fellow Malaysians better than they are now and stop going on who should be “grateful”.

We can stem the tide if we are willing to make difficult decisions, especially in allowing all deserving Malaysians to succeed and aiding those who are left-behind by society, combining meritocracy and affirmative action. It is sad that meritocracy is such a bad word in Malaysia but it’s increasingly our only way, especially for the Malays, to progress.

Nobody in their right mind can seriously advocate us continuing down the current path. It’s time we started thinking about how we can expand our economy, instead of fighting for the biggest slice of a shrinking pie.

What I have written may not be the silver bullet to cure our woes, but I do know that more has to be done for our “Forgotten Malaysians” — our middle class and fellow countrymen abroad.

I hope that my colleagues in Putrajaya and the various state capitals will spare a thought for them come this New Year.

Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad is the political secretary to the Selangor mentri besar and state assemblyman for Seri Setia. He was the youngest elected representative in the 2008 general election and blogs at www.niknazmi.com. His book, “Moving Forward: Malays for the 21st Century” was recently published by Marshall Cavendish and is available in major bookstores. The views expressed are his own.