夢醒時分 Time to Wake Up from the Dream!

Good article - published in Sin Chew Jit Poh column (English translation is below)

鄭丁賢 • 夢醒時分

你是否和我一樣，發覺身邊的親戚和朋友，似乎少了許多。
以往接近過年時，各種聚餐排得滿滿的，而今年，似乎沒聲沒息。

即使是平常日子，電話少了，與大家見面也少了。
也許，大家各忙各的；或者，目前流行“宅生活”，儘量避免出門。

也不盡然如此。再想一想，很多老友和親戚，已經不在了。嗟！大吉利是，他們都還好好的，只是離開了馬來西亞。

去了中國大陸開工廠；王子不做工程師，移民到澳洲開小食檔；阿風離開本地大學，去香港做講師；青蛙去了台灣，開展事業第二春；還有的到了美國、 英國，唔，還有去印尼的……。

起初，以為這只是個別現象，逐漸的，旁人也有同樣發現；原來，這不是個別現象，而是社會現象；這不是少數，而是相當大的數目。

外交部早前披露了一個數字，說明這個現象是多麼真實，多麼貼近。
從去年3月到今年9月，已經有30萬大馬人移民他國；其中20萬人是今年1月到8月出走的數目。累積下來，已經有超過200萬大馬人移民，接近今天印尼外勞在大馬的人口。

不同的是，移居他國的大馬人，多是專業人士、中產階級。
他們有很多出走的理由，追求事業發展，為了孩子前途，尋找個人更大空間……，概括一句：對馬來西亞失望。

50年前，大家說，馬來西亞真好，好過香港，甚至日本。

30年前，大家說，馬來西亞還不錯，比得上韓國、台灣（不提香港和日本了）。

20年前，大家說，馬來西亞還可以，至少超越中國、泰國（不能和台、韓比了）。

10年前，大家說，馬來西亞再差，還不至於像越南、印尼（中國已是不同級別）。

今日，越南和印尼的經濟成長率遙遙領先大馬，社會活力和知識發展也勝過一籌；距離愈來愈近了。

怕甚麼，還有菲律賓和柬埔寨、緬甸。

但是，一位經濟學家最近到菲律賓考察之後，認為再過20年，大馬可以取代菲律賓，出口馬籍女傭到全世界了。

半個世紀以來，馬來西亞是在大宅院裡，用封建方式，分配祖宗家業，消耗社會資源，浪費和逼走人才；不談競爭力，忽略生產力，討厭績效制。

亞洲金融風暴來襲時，大馬把門關起來，以為避過一劫，有人還自我陶醉，自以為是天才策略。
然而，其它國家面對風暴，走出風暴，進行體質改革，跨步向前，登上另一個水平；大馬卻還在原地踏步。

馬來西亞，該醒一醒了。


Time to Wake Up from the Dream!

I wonder if you feel the same as me, all of a sudden I realised friends and relatives around me seems to get less and less.

Those years when the New Year drew near, all sorts of gathering appointments almost completely filled the diaries, but this year seems so quiet.

Even in normal time, phone calls become less and less, face to face meet up also become much less.

Perhaps, everybody is busy with their own things, or perhaps, nowadays people prefer just to stay in.

However, it is not entirely like this, thinking further, actually old friends and relatives are not around anymore. God bless, they are still alive and well, they just left the country, Malaysia.

They have gone to China to set up factories; ah Wang quit his engineer job and migrated to Australia to set up his little food store business, ah Fong left the local University and went to Hong Kong as a lecturer. 'Frog' went to Taiwan to pursue his second career life.

Others went to America, England, even Indonesia...

At first, I thought these are individual cases, but gradually, people around me realized the same, these are not individual cases but a general symptoms of our society. They are not small numbers but the pretty big numbers indeed.

The Department of Foreign Affairs released the figures earlier, it confirmed that the situation is real.

From March 2008 through to September 2009, a total of 300,000 Malaysians migrated to other Countries, among them 200,000 left between Jan - Aug 2009. (in 8 months)

Cumulatively, 2 million Malaysians have migrated; this figure is close to the number of Indonesian workers in Malaysia today.

The difference being, those migrated are mostly professionals and middle class people.

They have many reasons to leave: pursue career development, for the future of their children, in search of better life and environment... In one sentence, they all lost hope in Malaysia.

50 years ago people said: Malaysia is very good, better than Hong Kong and even Japan.

30 years ago people said: Malaysia is not bad, comparable to South Korea and Taiwan. (No mention of Hong Kong and Japan any more).

20 years ago people said: Malaysia can do la, at least better than China and Thailand (Cannot compare with Taiwan and Korea lah).


10 years ago people said: No matter how bad Malaysia is, cannot be worse than Vietnam and Indonesia. (China is already in a different category).

Today, the economic growth rate of Vietnam and Indonesia already far exceeded Malaysia’s. Social activity and intellectual development of these Country are also better, the gap between us and them is closing up.

Why worry? there are still the Philippines, Cambodia and Myanmar behind us.

However, an economist who recently surveyed the Philippines thinks that in 20 years' time, Malaysia can replace Philippines to become the World exporter of Malaysian maids.

Over half a century, Malaysians live in this big old imperial housing complex, closed up and survived on properties left behind by their ancestors; continue to consume up social resources, wasteful, and drive away talents; they never talk
about competitiveness, totally neglect productivity, and hate meritocracy.

When the Asia economic storm hit in 1997, Malaysia closed its doors, thinking we beautifully avoided a disaster, they even think of themselves as geniuses, being able to handle the situation so well.

However, just look at other Countries in our neighbourhood, they stand up, face the storm, and walk out of the storm.

They overhaul the system, improve the processes and march forward, they moved up to a new level. And Malaysia, still "marking time", walking on the same spot.

Dear Malaysia, it's time to wake up! We are already very very late now!