Brain Drain

What is happening in Singapore:
16 outstanding researchers receive Science & Tech awards - Channel News Asia, 11th Oct 2006

What is happening in Malaysia:
ASLI director quits over controversial findings - The Star, 11th Oct 2006

Noticed the difference? Being controversial in Malaysia is always a big NO NO, you will not be rewarded. It gets you no way because people (or rather government?) is not ready for a change. Ultimately, you should just follow the crowd and path where the stream takes you and this is what we call "loyalty" or rather, "rigidity". It can get you even further if you start swinging your keris, or maybe parang if you don't have one.

Our PM is calling for feedback on brain-draining issue, striving hard to woo the experts back to Malaysia, but has he got the anwer yet? Search me........ geeesh, I really don't know.

Being creative needs a strong will to be controversial. Impeding someone to be controversial, kills creativity and while we are moving towards a more R&D culture, once again we fight with empty rifle.

Rejection of Asli report sends wrong signal: Toh - The Sun, 12th Oct 2006

• The government's rejection of the report on bumiputra corporate equity published by Asli's Centre for Public Policy Studies, which challenges the official data, has sent the wrong signal that dissent is not tolerated and honest pursuit of knowledge discouraged, says state executive councillor Datuk Dr Toh Kin Woon.
• "Discussions with CPPS (headed by its director Dr Lim Teck Ghee) and others on these issues could have been held and a consensus arrived at.
• "Instead, the government lambasted Lim. The signal seems to be that dissent is not tolerated and honest pursuit of knowledge discouraged," he said.
• The Writers Alliance for Media Independence (Wami) and the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) said critics of the Asli report must use the "same or a higher level of intellectual rigour" to dispute its findings
• DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said Mirzan's statement and apology had reduced Asli's credibility and integrity because it was without academic basis or rational. "Clearly, Mirzan's retraction was politically motivated and not driven by any flaws or shortcomings either in the centre's methodology or research data," he said.

The space is shrinking, oxygen is depriving. Simple explanation, there is no room for negotiation and those that hold a keris won. While ASLI is willing to debate on the computation, there is no transparency coming from government side, how do we put our faith in a government that operates like a black box? The damage is already done, but don't forget the next election is coming soon. We shall see about that.

Lim hopes to teach at local varsity - 17th Oct 2006

• Dr Lim Teck Ghee, who last week announced he would step down as director of the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute's (Asli) Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS) in the interest of academic integrity, hopes to be able to teach in a university here.
  However, if things don't work out, he will probably leave the country again.
• "I'll continue researching and would like to teach at one of our universities. But it could be that they may not find my presence and expertise convenient or appropriate. Let's see, if things don't work out, I will probably leave the country again," he said of his future plans in an e-mail interview.
• "I'd like to return to researching issues of Malay poverty and under-development, an area which I worked on in the 70s and 80s in Malaysia, which I've left aside for some years now," he added.

Brain-draining again?

Link: Buying Time, Let's Grilled The Numbers, True Man With Courage - Dr Lim Teck Ghee, Backing Down, Finally