11/11/2006

myth 91

‘$5000 household income is rich’

Is this really true? It should be. $5000 is a big sum of money. And a household income of $5000 must be middle class. Let’s look at the details. A family of 5, father, mother and three working children, father earns $1,600, mother $1,000, 3 children each earning $800.

After CPF and a $200 monthly transportation cost for each member, the disposable income left will be: father - $1080, mother - $600, each child - $440. Assuming each member needs $200 for his/her personal expenses eg taking lunch or dinner at workplace, the disposable income will be further reduced to: father $880, mother $400, and each child $240. For a family of 5, the household expenses will probably be $1500 plus $250 for utilities and conservancy fees, or a sum of $1750.

Now the combined balance available of the family, $880, $400 and 3 x $240 is $2000. This would mean that the family will have a balance of $250 to spare. Would this amount be adequate to pay for all the social obligations, more bills and a little eating out or entertainment? In reality, it is likely to be nothing left as there are many things that will eat up $250 a month easily.

Is a $5000 household income sufficient to qualify a family as being comfortable? No car or motor cycle definitely. Very likely the family will be living on a hand to mouth existence. That is how the cost of living in Singapore affects the apparently high income of Singaporeans and making the value of money so small.

A $5000 income is quite handsome if it is the income of 1 or 2 bread winners with a couple of young children. If the income is contributed by every working adult who needs to feed and cloth themselves, and also incurring expenses while working, a $5000 monthy family income is bearly enough to live on.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Goodness... you call this a "hand-to-mouth" existence? The only reason why it seems little is because you have made some very ridiculous estimates.

For one, to have the father earning $1,600, the mother earning $1,000, and 3 working children each earning $800 is patently ludicrous. This hypothetical family is unlikely to exist in real life. $800 - $1000 salary is by any standards very low and the working children must be working in semi-skilled jobs to earn that little.

Also, if the three children are all working already, then why are they still staying with the family? At least one of them (maybe the eldest one) should have been married.

For two, $200 for public transport seems also rather high an estimate. That works out to $6.67 spent on public transport a day. How many times does each member of your imaginary family need to commute each day? Is it likely that someone would take up a job which in reality pays only $600 due to the costs involved in travelling?

If the members of the family take lunch and dinner at the workplace, then why does the household expenses need to be so high ($1500)? If they spend most of their day at the workplace, and only eat breakfast at home, then the amount spent at home should be a pittance. At most, they only need cash for toiletries, household appliances and clothing, purchases which are only made occasionally.

And lastly, $250 a month to spend on entertainment is already very generous, considering that each member of the family is earning so little to begin with. The children are likely to be in the service industry while the parents are likely to be of low education level. I mean come on, when you are earning an average of $1000 a month, how can you reasonably expect to live extravagantly? You should be grateful that your income can allow you to sustain yourself so comfortably.

So, it all boils down to the fact that people have unreasonable expectations of standards of living. If your qualifications/ability only allows you to earn $1000 a month, then you should be more than grateful to have a roof over your heads, food to eat and clothes to wear, let only spare cash for personal entertainment. It is unreasonable to expect more.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

let's see. i am a security guard supervisor. my wife is a storekeeper. my eldest son is on and off jobs. quite malu to tell you. who wants to marry him. he could not have enough for himself, how to raise a family.

my two youngest, all n level students. so now work in fast food restaurants. sorry lah, i hardlander, not professional ok?

public transport actually one hundred plus each lah. but young people like to stay out late on weekends, you know, come back late must take taxi lah.

eating out mostly are for lunch only lah. dinner occasionally when work overtime. if not, how to stretch $200? breakfast and dinner mostly at home. and weekend also lunch as well. you think my family eat on grass huh, $1500 for 5 people a lot meh?

$250 balance for 5 people for a little entertainment alot meh? you know how much one night in zouk or two beers in a pub?

that is why i said $5000 bearly enough. don't think $5000 household income is rich man already, can buy private property.

Anonymous said...

List of racial discriminations in Malaysia, practiced by government as well as government agencies. This list is an open secret. Best verified by government itself because it got the statistics.

This list is not in the order of importance, that means the first one on the list is not the most important and the last one on the list does not mean least important.

This list is a common knowledge to a lot of Malaysians, especially those non-malays (Chinese, Ibans, Kadazans, Orang Asli, Tamils, etc) who were being racially discriminated.

Figures in this list are estimates only and please take it as a guide only. Government of Malaysia has the most correct figures. Is government of Malaysia too ashamed to publish their racist acts by publishing racial statistics?

This list cover a period of about 49 years since independence (1957).

List of racial discriminations (Malaysia):

(1) Out of all the 5 major banks, only one bank is multi-racial, the rest are controlled by malays

(2) 99% of Petronas directors are malays

(3) 3% of Petronas employees are Chinese

(4) 99% of 2000 Petronas gasoline stations are owned by malays

(5) 100% all contractors working under Petronas projects must be bumis status

(6) 0% of non-malay staffs is legally required in malay companies. But there must be 30% malay staffs in Chinese companies

(7) 5% of all new intake for government army, nurses, polices, is non-malays

(8) 2% is the present Chinese staff in Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), drop from 40% in 1960

(9) 2% is the percentage of non-malay government servants in Putrajaya. But malays make up 98%

(10) 7% is the percentage of Chinese government servants in the whole government (in 2004), drop from 30% in 1960

(11) 95% of government contracts are given to malays

(12) 100% all business licensees are controlled by malay government e.g. Approved permits, Taxi permits, etc

(13) 80% of the Chinese rice millers in Kedah had to be sold to malay controlled Bernas in 1980s. Otherwise, life is make difficult for Chinese rice millers

(14) 100 big companies set up, owned and managed by Chinese Malaysians were taken over by government, and later managed by malays since 1970s e.g. MISC, UMBC, UTC, etc

(15) At least 10 Chinese owned bus companies (throughout Malaysia, throughout 40 years) had to be sold to MARA or other malay transport companies due to rejection by malay authority to Chinese application for bus routes and rejection for their application for new buses

(16) 2 Chinese taxi drivers were barred from driving in Johor Larkin bus station. There are about 30 taxi drivers and 3 are Chinese in October 2004. Spoiling taxi club properties was the reason given

(17) 0 non-malays are allowed to get shop lots in the new Muar bus station (November 2004)

(18) 8000 billion ringgit is the total amount the government channeled to malay pockets through ASB, ASN, MARA, privatisation of government agencies, Tabung Haji etc, through NEP over 34 years period

(19) 48 Chinese primary schools closed down since 1968 - 2000

(20) 144 Indian primary schools closed down since 1968 - 2000

(21) 2637 malay primary schools built since 1968 - 2000

(22) 2.5% is government budget for Chinese primary schools. Indian schools got only 1%, malay schools got 96.5%

(23) While a Chinese parent with RM1000 salary (monthly) cannot get school-text-book-loan, a malay parent with RM2000 salary is eligible

(24) 10 all public universities vice chancellors are malays

(25) 5% - the government universities lecturers of non-malay origins had been reduced from about 70% in 1965 to only 5% in 2004

(26) Only 5% is given to non-malays for government scholarships over 40 years

(27) 0 Chinese or Indians were sent to Japan and Korea under "Look East Policy"

(28) 128 STPM Chinese top students could not get into the course that they aspired e.g. Medicine (in 2004)

(29) 10% place for non-bumi students for MARA science schools beginning from year 2003, but only 7% are filled. Before that it was 100% malays

(30) 50 cases whereby Chinese and Indian Malaysians, are beaten up in the National Service program in 2003

(31) 25% is Malaysian Chinese population in 2004, drop from 45% in 1957

(32) 7% is the present Malaysian Indians population (2004), a drop from 12% in 1957

(33) 2 million Chinese Malaysians had emigrated to overseas since 40 years ago

(34) 0.5 million Indian Malaysians had emigrated to overseas

(35) 3 million Indonesians had migrated into Malaysia and became Malaysian citizens with bumis status

(36) 600000 are the Chinese and Indian Malaysians with red IC and were rejected repeatedly when applying for citizenship for 40 years. Perhaps 60% of them had already passed away due to old age. This shows racism of how easily Indonesians got their citizenships compare with the Chinese and Indians

(37) 5% - 15% discount for a malay to buy a house, regardless whether the malay is poor or rich

(38) 2% is what Chinese new villages get compare with 98% of what malay villages got for rural development budget

(39) 50 road names (at least) had been changed from Chinese names to other names

(40) 1 Dewan Gan Boon Leong (in Malacca) was altered to other name (e.g. Dewan Serbaguna or sort) when it was being officially used for a few days. Government try to shun Chinese names. This racism happened in around year 2000 or sort

(41) 0 churches/temples were built for each housing estate. But every housing estate got at least one mosque/surau built

(42) 3000 mosques/surau were built in all housing estates throughout Malaysia since 1970. No churches, no temples are required to be built in housing estates

(43) 1 Catholic church in Shah Alam took 20 years to apply to be constructed. But told by malay authority that it must look like a factory and not look like a church. Still not yet approved in 2004

(44) 1 publishing of Bible in Iban language banned (in 2002)

(45) 0 of the government TV stations (RTM1, RTM2, TV3) are directors of non-malay origins

(46) 30 government produced TV dramas and films always showed that the bad guys had Chinese face, and the good guys had malay face. You can check it out since 1970s. Recent years, this tendency becomes less

(47) 10 times, at least, malays (especially Umno) had threatened to massacre the Chinese Malaysians using May 13 since 1969

(48) 20 constituencies won by DAP would not get funds from the government to develop. Or these Chinese majority constituencies would be the last to be developed

(49) 100 constituencies (parliaments and states) had been racistly re-delineated so Chinese voters were diluted that Chinese candidates, particularly DAP candidates lost in election since 1970s

(50) Only 3 out of 12 human rights items are ratified by Malaysia government since 1960

(51) 0 - elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (UN Human Rights) is not ratified by Malaysia government since 1960s

(52) 20 reported cases whereby malay ambulance attendances treated Chinese patients inhumanely, and malay government hospital staffs purposely delay attending to Chinese patients in 2003. Unreported cases may be 200

(53) 50 cases each year whereby Chinese, especially Chinese youths being beaten up by malay youths in public places. We may check at police reports provided the police took the report, otherwise there will be no record

(54) 20 cases every year whereby Chinese drivers who accidentally knocked down malays were seriously assaulted or killed by malays

(55) 12% is what ASB/ASN got per annum while banks fixed deposit is only about 3.5% per annum

There are hundreds more racial discriminations in Malaysia to add to this list of "colossal" racism. It is hope that the victims of racism will write in to expose racism.

Malaysia government should publish statistics showing how much malays had benefited from the "special rights" of malays and at the same time tell the statistics of how much other minority races are being discriminated.

Hence, the responsibility lies in the Malaysia government itself to publish unadulterated statistics of racial discrimination.

If the Malaysia government hides the statistics above, then there must be some evil doings, immoral doings, shameful doings and sinful doings, like the Nazi, going on onto the non-malays of Malaysia.

Civilized nation, unlike evil Nazi, must publish statistics to show its treatment on its minority races. This is what Malaysia must publish……….

We are asking for the publication of the statistics showing how "implementation of special rights of malays" had inflicted colossal racial discrimination onto non-malays.

Anonymous said...

Malaysia and Singapore used to be one body. Both started on par in many things, including their universities.

Now, 40 years later, Malaysia and Singapore are different. A tale of two nations. One is declining or stuck and the other is moving forward.

Why the stark difference? One obvious reason is the way human resources are used in Malaysia and Singapore. Another reason is accountability and transparency. Yet another reason is corruption.

The government of one nation has tunneled vision under a coconut shell while the other has good mission and vision. One is concerned with one dominant race and the other is race-blind.

Furthermore, one practices an officially approved apartheid policy while pretending to be a fair government that does not marginalise its citizens of certain ethnic groups. One is pretends to be global while the other is truly global.

Malaysia and Singapore: excellent examples for historical and social analyses and studies. Also, excellent case studies in evolution: survival of the fittest.

Anonymous said...

Malays are a diverse group of Austronesian peoples inhabiting the malay archipelago and malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia.

The original Austronesians from southern China crossed the strait of Taiwan and settled modern day Taiwan around 8000 - 4000 BCE.

These first settlers landed in northern Luzon in the Philippines. Over the next thousand years up until 1500 BCE, their descendants started to spread south to the rest of the Philippine islands, Celebes, northern Borneo, Moluccas, and Java.

The settlers in Moluccas sailed eastward and began to spread to the islands of Melanesia and Micronesia between 1200 BCE and 500 BCE respectively. Those that spread westward reached Sumatra, the malay Peninsula and southern Vietnam by 500 BCE.

According to the Encyclopedia of Malaysia, the Negritos, who number approximately 2000, are regarded as the earliest inhabitants of the malay Peninsula.

They are of Australo-Melanesian affinity and probably descend from the people of Hoabinhian cultural period, with many of their burials found dating back 10000 years ago.

They speak Austroasiatic languages, as do their Senoi agriculturalist neighbours. The Senoi and Proto-malay arrived much later probably during the Neolithic period.

Anonymous said...

I have mentioned in my posts that NEP is not constitutional and has extended its period beyond what has been planned to be necessary. 20 years has passed, but greed has set in.

Greed to benefits only a few and not the poverty stricken Malaysians. An affirmative policy that helps the poor regardless of race is needed.

I have also demonstrated that India has Muslim presidents despite being 80% Hindu. Similarly, in Australia there are Asian mayors. In America, New Zealand and many countries, top positions are for the capable not based on race or religion.

Now, let us not sweep all discussions under the carpet with the term Article 153.

Article 153 should always be interpreted together with Article 8 that all Malaysians must be dealt with fairly and treated as equal.

While the position of the malays are respected and their heritage not forgotten, they are not meant to be the guardians of toll and wealth and collectors that usurp all money, oil and some natural resources till it is left dry.

It is important we publish this, so we do not just shiver when we hear Article 153, and begin to think of greedy ways to gain from another or use it to put down another races.

(1) The quotas reserved must be reasonable and the reservation of licences and permits for malays and natives must be of such proportion as may be deemed reasonable.

(2) The scope of the reservation of quotas is only with respect to positions in public service, scholarships, and other similar educational or training privileges accorded or given by the federal government.

(3) The special reservation of quotas must not affect the rights of other communities.

Apart from the provisions allowed under the abovementioned Article 153, all citizens of Malaysia must be treated as equal. This is clearly provided for under Article 8 of the Federal Constitution.

Article 8:

(1) All persons are equal before the law and entitled to the equal protection of the law.

(2) No public authority shall discriminate against any person on the ground that he is resident or carrying on business in any part of the federation outside the jurisdiction of the authority.

(3) There shall be no discrimination in favour of any person on the ground that he is a subject of the ruler of any state.

NEP: It will destroy the Malaysia.

We must demand these changes and the power is with the people. We must go against a corrupt government, a fanatic religious social structure and not accept crime rates and NEP. We need to change Malaysia and the social structures that are not relevant for Malaysia anymore.

We need to free ourselves from these chains that make our lives not worth living.

Anonymous said...

I am a Chinese Malaysian who emigrated to New Zealand four years ago. I love Malaysia and I remember my times in the 'kampung' in Seremban where we (Chinese, Indians and Malays) used to play football together.

At 15 in 1976, I applied to join the Royal Military College (RMC). I was the school soccer captain, had a distinction in Bahasa Malaysia (this was not common then) and excellent academic results. I was prepared to be soldier, to die for my country. However, I was rejected by RMC. I was too young to know the reason then.

I continued with my schooling at the same school, finished my Upper Six and was offered a Bachelors course in University Malaya and also at University of Singapore. I chose the latter because that was the defining moment for me when I first felt the effect of the NEP policy.

I finished my Masters in Law, and came back to Malaysia in the 90s. That is when I began to see all the segregation of the races and the true impact of the NEP policy.

I see the corrupt ministers, the discriminatory practices of government departments and institutions, the insults hurled at the Chinese, the Kampung Medan riots blamed on the Indians, the numerous police abuses, etc.

Still I believed things would change for the better eventually. But for a decade, I saw the non-malays being marginalised, MCA and MIC are no longer able to sit on the same table with Umno as equal partners.

Umno can make racist comments and need not apologise. That is when the moronic Hisham with his keris comes to mind. In which developed country is a political leader allowed to play racial politics and threaten another community with impunity?

Everyday, I read the same comments about the situation in Malaysia, the non-malays wishing for a Malaysian Malaysia.

If you want the situation to change, do something about it. Why keep the racist Barisan Nasional in power? If you keep voting them in, you deserve what you are getting now. Stand up, exercise your voting rights.

My children are the third generation in my family having to go through this NEP crap, hence I decided to leave Malaysia.

I had a choice, I exercised it, I emigrated for the simple reason that I don't feel safe anymore in Malaysia and I do not wish my children to undergo the discriminatory practices in Malaysia. In New Zealand, minorities like me are protected.

I am free to say what I want, and everything is on merit. I have no complaints even though I miss Malaysia. Have a look at how Muslims (a minority) are treated here and maybe Malaysia authorities may learn how to treat its minority races better.

I yearn for the old days when my old football team existed without consideration of color, race or religion.

That said, I doubt Malaysia will be the same as in the 70s as long as the Barisan Nasional race-based parties are in power. So exercise your rights Malaysians, you have to take the risk of voting for an alternative government.

Anonymous said...

I been reading a lot of comments about malays and the government politics, and it all sound so familiar to me. I am foreigner in Malaysia country and everyday I have new perspective for people thoughts and government policies.

It is so sad to see such a nice country going for waste; almost everybody hates malays, atmosphere in so hullabaloo, that sometimes I don't know what to think. But the worst thing is that the Malaysia government is feeding the fear and hate.

I travel quite lots of with taxis and like to chit-chat with shop owners, but peoples fear for government and its officials and police to its enormous. People are truly afraid; maybe somebody can hear……….

The idea the people being afraid its own government and its officials is chilling. And it is very dangerous too, because one day the all fear and frustration is going to explode.

When I go back home country and tell them about what is happening in Malaysia, they don't believe me!

It is so impossible for them to think the reality about this poster picture country. I have always really hard times to make them understand.

But maybe that is the whole purpose of it. It is far more easier to keep population in place with threats and fear, than really try to tackle the problems in society, being honest and straight is always far more difficult.

Anonymous said...

I was a Chinese Malaysian until recently when I decided in these days of religious and racial polarization, especially in Malaysia, that there is no longer any reason to go back. It has been getting worse and worse since I left. It was a good idea taking up citizenship elsewhere.

If Malaysia thinks the best way they can teach their malays to do well in this world is to give them handouts and all kinds of charity, they got something coming.

Every action has a consequence. Not one to suffer needlessly, the Chinese population is slowly leaving. Those that are left behind probably do not as yet have the financial means to go elsewhere.

Many of the wealthier and summarily the better educated ones are all have left. I personally know many who have attended the same university deciding not to go back.

In time, the country and all its "assets" will be run strictly by the malays. They will then turn the country into a Muslim theocracy like Indonesia. And as the oil and natural resources runs out, it will be interesting to see what kind of magic the malays can pull out of their hat.

With the opening of the country through free trade agreements, many industries are suffering. Manufacturing is getting hammered by China and India, their dream of creating the information superhighway remains dreams.

These games don't cut it in the real world. Karma will play its hand soon and I for one will have no regrets when shit is returned in kind.

Trust me, it is not use ranting here. Malays are very tribal and they might consider you a friend if you are Muslim. Otherwise sorry, you just have to get used to second class.

I am sick of their attitude and my father was a victim of malay politics. Basically the corporation which used to earn billion dollars of profit now is losing millions every year.

Malaysia Airlines is following suit too and I am sure many people who received the "insider email" know what happened.

I am just sick of it you know. I want our country to flourish and these racists are here treating everybody else as outsider and enemies. Tolerance? We tolerate them more than they tolerate us.

So I left the country. Outside Malaysia, not many Malaysian malays can survive - the harsh reality of working to survive rather than being spoon-fed.

They can tell everybody else to "get out of the country" as usual and so I did. And when the time come, Malaysia will become like Indonesia and I hope they enjoy a country with 100% tribal malays.

Such a waste and pity. A country with so much potential but they just can't get over their tribal mindset.

Anonymous said...

In Indonesia, there are Indonesian Muslims, Hindus, Christians. In west Asia, there are also Arab Muslims, Christians, and even Jews. But in Malaysia, malays must be Muslims to be called malays.

Religion especially Islam, is very effective in controlling the thoughts and minds of a people, and makes it easy to govern them.

However, still most Muslim malays are such a embarrassing and disappointment themselves by practising intense racial sentiment. Very very very few are open minded, and most of these good hearted malays are from educated priviledged and motivated background.

Too sad the leftover Muslim malays are hypocrite rubbish and will always be rubbish.

It is easy to blame malays (for whatever issue) since there are just too many examples out there for the minorities to exploit. Yes that holds some truth to it, so let us forget about the useless racist uneducated malays. Let us examine the 'smart' malays, the new breed malays.

When a smart malay who had the opportunity to get great education (e.g. from Oxford), uses racial sentiment which is a very cheap way to get around pleasuring own's nipples across the political arena, is not that another example of typical malay? Just that in this example it involves a new breed malay, the smart one.

Again, I am rude but these are real.

Every single person born in this Malaysia should have the same equal rights.

If the Muslim community want to respect Islam, they should give the right and protection to the non-Muslims. Not the other way round. For Islam is fair and is beautiful. It is the racist card players who changed the rules and adopted racism as part of their agendas.

It is not true that outside Malaysia the migrants have lesser rights than those living in Malaysia. This is a fallacy and you know it. Migrants (non-malays) are mistreated in Malaysia more than in other countries - go check your facts.

Umno racist sympathizer yet trying to sound reconciling - no constructive comments - all sound as if Umno racist is the one that deserve the chance and have the ability to fix……….all others opposition party are useless!

You expect us non-malays to just accept unfair justice, racism or corruption for 50 years and keep quiet about it? Thank God, he did not create robots. Humans are retaliate, free to belief and choose - ask Umno racist to do its best to block freedom - watch the fall out!

The world is looking at Malaysia - the decision is simple and against human freedom will have to face the world and God too……….one day!

As many have correctly pointed out, Malaysia is the only place in the world where there is institutionalised racism (NEP defined apartheid).

I guess any person who has followed closely developments in Malaysia can already see the brain drain from our country……….so I will not elaborate.

For your information, a large pool of overseas talents and professionals are from Malaysia or were once Malaysians. I even have a fellow PhD colleague pioneering technologies for NASA at MIT, just because they gave him a scholarship. He was rejected straight away by UM of course.

At least in overseas, talents are valued, appreciated, and given a fair go as opposed to the semi-oppressive and exploitative nature of NEP (and its spin offs).

Equal rights for every citizen of Malaysia and that is how it ought to be. The malays seem never enough to be satisfied with they have - such an inferior race with lack of intelligence.

The Malays, Indians and Chinese fought for independence from the British together. Malaysia is born from the strength of Malays, Indians and Chinese. In Indonesia or America, they obtained their independence in a different way. So please don't compare with the rest of the world.

History teach us that the first inhabitant of Malaysia came from China Yunan. The malay originated from the Polynesia. Malay history start from Parameswara who escape from Indonesia and settle in Melaka. During his time, Laksamana Cheng Ho visit Melaka seven times.

Melaka need the protection of the China from the invasion of the Siamese. Without Cheng Ho, there won't be malay history, instead you have Siam history.

Mass influx of Indians and Chinese was during the rule of the British. That was before the creation of Malaysia. Today we have Malaysia, who can claim to be 'tuan'?

God save all of us.

Indeed the real bumis are the Orang Asli, they too are migrated from other places many many hundred years ago!

By the way, if Islam is so tolerable, strong and beautiful, why in Malaysia apostasy is not allowed? If this is a worry, then it only shows how weak Islam is!

I pity Malaysian Muslims, you probably are the least free people in this world! Even Indonesian Muslims are allowed to practice apostasy when they become adults!

USA, UK, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, etc - What make them different from Malaysia?

Why are they successful, well most importantly they practised meritocracy system and secondly they don't have law that discriminate against skin colors or religions or minorities.

Sorry facts are facts. Sorry in spite of all, you malays still cannot compete. By the way - you are so wrong that we Chinese do not look towards China.

Where there is money to be made, and where we can improve other Chinese well being be it Malaysian Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese etc, we are looking towards it. You bet. The next world is not Malaysia, a tiny little dot in this world.

Where opportunities exist, we look elsewhere just like Singaporeans they are going everywhere.

Anonymous said...

Good article!

Congratulation to you. You are a great man, may God bless you in all your hard works.

You would make Dr Mahathir to cry again. Though Malaysian Chinese students are discriminately barred from entering into the local universities in spite of outstanding results, they are forced to study overseas.

Nowadays, the degrees obtained by these students are widely accepted, they can face the world-trend of globalization.

They are not accepted by their own country, but they are welcome by all countries throughout the world.

Singapore is not that great, but look at Malaysia; lots of natural resources, a larger population, yet still a third class world country.

Come on, we achieved independence at the same time……….

In Malaysia, you just need two things for survival - work hard for any given opportunity and have a right religious belief. The rest is history.

Malaysian Chinese have no future in Malaysia. That corrupt, incompetent and lazy majority will run our beloved country to the ground.

Emigrate if you have the chance to do so.

Well, I am also one of them victim of brain drain and all my fellow friends.

I wish I am not a Malaysian and never wish that my next generations would suffer the same faith as I do.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting to get your opinions about the Malaysians emigration and brain drain here.

From my outside perspective Malaysia is a very interesting big experiment. Three different cultures bound together in one country, forced to live and work together gives the country great opportunities.

Even I (staying in this country only for six months) noticed a lot of discriminating things from the Malaysia government against Chinese people, against Indian people and last but not least any other foreigners.

With better and open communications, Malaysians are fully aware of what is going on in the rest of the world. Malaysians would want for themselves and their families the same quality and standard of education and medical care as available elsewhere.

When they cannot get that locally or if they deem that the quality of local services is not up to par, they will leave.

Every year thousands of Malaysians go abroad for their education and medical care, costing the nation billions in lost foreign exchange. With such matters as education, health care and personal consumption, nationalism plays a minimal role.

Malaysians go to Britain for such matters simply because they perceive they would get better services there, ex-colonialist notwithstanding.

In the modern economy wealth resides less with the natural resources or the strategic location of a country, more with its people. As states, "People are the real wealth of nation."

Malaysia is proud of its Twin Towers that grace the skyline of its capital. That monument symbolizes the country's preoccupation with building things physical and material. But the most important infrastructure of the new millennium will be human resources, and the twin pillars to developing that would be education and health.

Mahathir never fails to take visitors to see his joy and pride, the Twin Towers. Would it not be nice if our schools and universities too were of such eminence that foreigners would want to visit them?

Therefore I hope that the governing people recognize that diversity is a chance and not a threat for the country.

Anonymous said...

Points taken. Get a little bit nasty, but that is some facts.

I am an engineer. Like architect and other parties, we design and built houses based on the developer's vision and decision. If the house is very small, poor design, bad finishes but still at an unreasonable high price, I will walk away.

I will advice my friends not to buy it, based on my professional experience and some logic, it is not that difficult, really. But it is their money, they have the freedom to decide what they wanted to do with it.

But believe it or not, someone will still stay there. Can't even afford to buy, consider lucky if they are able to clear the monthly rental.

And I have some malay friends, thinking of emigrating, mainly because most Muslims here didn't see things the way they saw it, especially on the religion matters. Oh yes, some perceptions never really change throughout the years.

Once a while I will still welcome my uncle from Australia to visit us here. He is one lucky emigrant, I guess, he is well taken care over there.

All this while I think many of us are dying to go to Australia, Europe, the US, for a better future……….

In Singapore, it is fast and efficient to get a permanent resident. In fact, foreigners in Singapore are invited to become permanent citizens. Here Malaysia, it take years and years and years and……….to even be considered to become a permanent citizen. I heard of foreigner whose application was lost and had to resubmit. How is that?

The person who is researching into getting water for Singapore is a Malaysian. The head of Parapsychology in Cambridge is a Malaysian. The best doctors in the world many are Malaysians.

It is very sad, it is so sad to see Malaysia's brightest minds are all over the world except Malaysia.

Yet, they are nowhere near Malaysia.

Another brilliant Malaysian got scared off by the Malaysia government. Just had a long distance phone conversation with my Malaysian friend who is now pursuing his PhD in civil engineering in the UK.

According to him, he sees no more hope and future in Malaysia and totally ruled out the chance of ever returning, except for the occasional visits to relatives and friends.

Kudos to Umno government. When it comes to scaring off all the brilliant brains out of the country, you are clearly a master at it.

I've finally come to enlightenment. If you argue with a fool, it ends up two fools are arguing. When I've done with my business here in Malaysia, I will be packing up for emigration.

I may end up as a second class citizen. Who cares? Since when are we treated like a Bangsa Malaysia anyway after 48 years of independence? I have nothing to lose but everything to gain.

Don't slog and waste your life away in Malaysia. You will never be appreciated. Leave if you can!

Anonymous said...

There is always discrepancy between the source the Malaysia government used to produce reports and the source the media is getting.

Later they will say those source from media is rubbish while they don't even know how is their source came about.

Just like the ASLI report, until right now the government couldn't release the methodology they used to calculate the NEP.

Ask you, if you earn RM1000 per month 10 years ago and if you earn RM1000 now, will your lifestyle is the same?

Only those people who stayed under the 'well' will keep the money under the pillow and still thinking that he is 'rich' forever.

Badawi failed statistic paper, what do you expected his judgment of stock?

Why the destruction in wealth? I give you one word (four if you want to be pedantic) - Umno.

If you look back at all the man made calamities suffered by this bountiful country, the rampant corruption, hypocrisy, leakages, wastages, misguided and plainly destructive policies, it all leads back to that one entity, Umno.

The core or the political center as one puts it, is cancerous and utterly rotten. No doubt, there are good people in the party willing to fight for the values we all cherish, but the hierarchy from the top right down to divisional leaders, is beyond salvation.

Every Malaysian worth his salt feels shame for the downright shameful way the country is being run except the country's leaders. I doubt they know the meaning of shame.

Our resources and public fund are being drained like the 'air longkang'. Of course our economic will also heads toward and looks like 'air longkang'. The management of country economic is given to wrong person like 'kera mendapat bunga'.

Of course we know what happen to the flower. God bless Bolehland.

Brain drain is going on at the rapid pace as rapid as how rapid China and India is growing!

No meritocracy, no transparency, wishy-washy policies, daylight robbery - and we expect investors to come into this country?

Without the EPF propping up the stock market, the paper losses would have been phenomenal. In any case, this government will simply lower the bar and put on the spin that the Malaysia stock market is still in positive territory.

Remember - these people do not know the meaning of the word 'shame'.

Anonymous said...

Singapore is a Singaporean Singapore. Read Lee Kuan Yew book from the third world to first world, then one can realise that the so many issues considered taboo in this Malaysia country are the creation of the politicians, Umno politicians to be exact.

Obviously Singapore is unlucky to have a small land area which cannot even collect enough rain water for its own use. But modern technology allows Singapore to be independent of Malaysia and even in water supply.

With Singapore's success, no country should claim that multi-cultural and multi-religious citizens are a liability to the nation.

Politicians in Singapore are people who forgo larger earnings to serve the nations public officials. Here in Malaysia, politicians fight with all dirty means including poisoning the mindset of the people to get into positions to make national wealth serve their individual desires.

If Malaysia can be like Singapore, there would not be so many snatch thieves living on crimes. Malaysia cannot be like Singapore; but of course we can always say the grapes are sour.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

said...

this is a passionate plea from some very well educated malaysians. you can feel the sadness and hopelessness in their posts. and they really wanted to return to malaysia, their birth place and contribute but knowing that it will all be in vain.

i can only sympathise with all of them. for greater and more visible exposure, i am copying all the postings in this thread to www.redbeanforum.com. in that forum i have more visitors and many from the USA. it will give these postings and plea a better and wider audience.

you guys can also continue to post over there.

my heart goes to all of you.
oh, you all all welcome to the blog.

kwayteowman said...

"but young people like to stay out late on weekends, you know, come back late must take taxi lah"

The KTM agrees with the first anon. This piece is clutching at straws. Expectations and assumptions are not realistic.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

hi kwayteowman,

i have heard of wandering swordsman, now i have seen a wandering kwayteowman: ) seen your post in several blogs. you are quite a prolific contributor.

ok, my main point is that each individual has a certain cost to support himself and his lifestyle. even a simple lifestyle for a young man would need about $800 a month. thus a $1k income less cpf is just about sufficient for a bachelor boy or girl. and this is not a lifestyle of affluence, but an average person.

thus if a family of 5 having $5000 household income, it is not going to be very much. but if one guy earns $5000, his disposable income will be much greater.

the same logic. 2% of $200k is big in absolute term but affordable to a rich man. but if one is earning $1000, that $20 is a big deal as his disposable income is negligible.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

one of the conditions for the award of bursary to needy students in nus is a per capita income of $900. this is quite close to my assertion that a household income of $5000 with 5 adults is hardly well off.

just remove $100 from each of them or a household income of $4,500 will make them eligible for bursary. and nus being an academy for learning, does not grab this figure from thin air. it must be a well thought out number.

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