malaysia boleh
For many months now, the Star newspaper has been running a series of articles on Malaysians who have “made it” on the international stage. Some recent articles that have caught my eye include:
- the comic artist who does work for Marvel and DC Vertigo was trained in the US and is now based in Singapore
- the specialist in tropical medicine who couldn’t find suitable work in Malaysia and is now managing millions of dollars for a global research trust fund - in the UK
- the medical doctor who became a respected specialist surgeon, a health policy lecturer and an author of medical textbooks in the US because his American degree wasn’t recognised in Malaysia
- the lady who started her career in Singapore and is now head of ICI Paints in Asia
Then there’s the famous Petronas Twin Towers that was awarded an international architectural award. The Towers were designed by an Argentinian architect and built by a Korean and a Japanese contructions firms.
Today, I read about a successful Malaysian industrial designer. He was trained in Singapore and is now based in California.
Maybe I’m biased in my selection of reading material… but what are we supposed to infer/learn from this?!?
Posted on December 23rd, 2004 by jl
Filed under: My Malaysia
There’s also an Alaskan Chief Judge, who’s a Malaysian. He applied for UM but was denied a place.
Jikon, are you thinking what I’m thinking? I think Malaysia is not the best place to kick off a successful career.
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do check it out on http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/
Malaysia boleh?
Jikon lists Malaysians who succeeded overseas, promoted apparently by The Star as the pride of the nation. All with one thing in common - they all made it overseas.
what about the man who became the top golfer. he was deny a citizenship (malaysian).
Then there is this Cikgu who started the Malaysia Freecycle Network to help Planet Earth by networking people with candidates for the dumpsite with those who have a use for these candidates, and in these way reduce the amount of stuff clogging up the disposal ground. It is an environmentally friendly way of de clutter ing the house - a big help for housemakers.
Aneccotal evidence.
However, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
However since we appear to be talking anecdotes and not solid number…
Take a look at the star page and the demographics of said people. Is this truly representative of Malaysian population demographics?
And how many of these are still effectively ‘Malaysian’?
To put things in perspective, the column is about malaysians abroad making it big. Yes, there might be reasons why they left Malaysia for greener pastures but that does not mean Malaysia does not provide the environment to succeed.
If we look around, you will see a lot of Malaysians who made it big on home soil.
1. Zeti Akhtar Aziz, the first women bank governor
2. Ananda Krishnan, the richest man in Malaysia
And I guess many more that made it big here. The fact that you don’t see articles about successful Malaysian in Malaysia does not mean that there are none. It won’t make interesting news, that is all.
Those succesful dentizens who have made it big locally need no highlighting. Of couse, we are not forgetting they exist when we talk about Malaysians who flourish overseas. But the question is, does Malaysia provide equal propects as compared to other countries? Ask the comic artist, the medical doctor or the specialist.