Day: November 24, 2009

Leave Malaysia If You Can


Someone emailed me this letter I wrote to Malaysiakini more than 3 years ago:

Leaving Malaysia because I had to
Ian Teh | Feb 10, 06 2:18pm

MCPX
Smita Elena Sharma may have re-affirmed what many Malaysians have experienced for so long. My family and I left Malaysia more than a year ago. Smita was right – we left Malaysia reluctantly, especially me. My wife and I had well-paid jobs, were debt-free and had only one child. We had great friends, wonderful relatives and a strong network of social circles to make life a thoroughly enjoyable journey. We could see however, that it was a fast eroding paradise.

Our employers were successful only because of political patronage. Our child remained a second-class citizen as far as education was concerned, and this was going to be only the first of many more discriminations to come. The public institutions could not be relied upon to do the right things. In fact, few bothered with doing the right thing. Malaysian society was disintegrating because the leadership was distracted in all sorts of ways.
We have been here in Melbourne, Australia for more than a year now. We had to start all over again. Re-build our careers. Start new relationships. Find and build our home. We bump into Malaysians all the time. They are all here for the same reason – to give their future generations a fairer go. They are here to raise their children in a place where work ethics, intelligence and industry count for more than skin colour and political patronage. They are here where wrongdoings are highlighted and challenged and their perpetrators are put under the spotlight. They are here to give and take in a fair exchange.

Do we miss anything in Malaysia? Absolutely. We miss our family and friends. We miss, just as Smita wrote, the wonderful food. We miss the familiarity our previous home gave us. We were reluctant leavers.

Yet we were a lot more fortunate than many. Poor Malaysian’s Emigration not an option, stuck here for example, rightly pointed out that many simply can’t leave. Traditional destinations are not open to them as they don’t meet the criteria. There are also many who, by default, remain in Malaysia. They cannot bear to sacrifice the life they have in Malaysia. Lifestyles many more times more opulent than the one my family and I enjoyed.

Some of these people have accused us of running away. Some say we are armed and equipped to fight for the less fortunate in Malaysia, to help bring about a more just and equitable country. By running away, so we have been accused, we have not discharged our moral responsibility to help bring about this change.
YMM in his letter Not giving up hope on Malaysia echoes this tune. It is an admirable tune. I hope one day it becomes a battle cry to bring down this racial and religious barricade. Such lofty aspirations were mine too, some 15 years ago. When I first returned to Malaysia after studying in Australia, I vowed not to follow the steps of those who left the country. I decided to stay and make Malaysia my home, and try to make it a better home for my fellow Malaysians as well.

Soon however, this decision was faced with the harsh reality of being a victim of discrimination. Let us not mince words, the vast majority if not all of us who are not bumiputeras are victims of discrimination. We put up with being victims because the scraps are always enough to fill our coffers.
In spite of such discrimination, most stayed on because there is money to be made. It wasn’t to fight for equality that those who could leave decided not to. It was the fact that there was material wealth to be accumulated and it was also due to inertia. Our lives have simply continued without us pausing to think and plan ahead and, if necessary, make major changes. If we do, I cannot imagine anyone seriously believing that Malaysia offers a better chance of a better future for our children than many other countries.

The one thing which would swing my assessment is the total abolishment of the current pro-bumiputera policies, in toto. I don’t see this happening, no matter what I do. Was it I who tucked tail and left, or have those who, recognising such a change would not come about, be the ones who tucked tail in remaining?

I decided I had not put up a sufficient fight after 15 years. I decided I was not about to spend another 15 years trying, while my child foregoes an opportunity to go and fight her battles elsewhere, where there is a fairer go for her.

Do I miss Malaysia? Only the people there. My family, relatives and friends. I remain a reluctant leaver. There are many things we do in life not because we want to, but because we need to. Leaving Malaysia was one of them.

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Your Work Should Not be Your Life


When a new first team manager is appointed to a football club, you’d expect the coaching staff to also be replaced. That new manager would usher in a whole team of coaches and assistants, most of whom have previously worked for that manager and whom the manager likes and can work with.

That appears to be what has happened in my work place in the last 5+ months. HR, Product Development, Operations, Marketing and Strategy and Compliance have all gone. Yesterday, Finance went. Admittedly not all changes were driven by the new CEO and not all heads had worked well with the previous boss (MD, who was poached by a competitor). Still it has the distinct image of a new team and the association with a new Manager is well justified. This is especially true in the case of Finance. He was gone yesterday and up until yesterday, there was nothing to suggest anything was wrong. It was almost like the change happened only because of the new Manager. Like in the case of a footie club.

This may well be a natural and ordinary thing to do in the dog-eat-dog corporate world. What eats me up though is the constant harping of “loyalty” and “people are our best assets” mumbo jumbo. Loyalty is necessarily a 2-way street. What is evident thus far is that this is an alien concept for the soulless corporation. As long as you are providing the numbers or playing the game in a manner or style suited to the manager, you are in and if you are not in the manager’s good books, you are out. If that is loyalty then I am indeed Tom Cruise. If you cant rely on the corporation to be loyal, would you be loyal?

And if people truly are your best assets, then surely you retain, not release people. I suppose the argument is the corporation retains good people. Well if that is the case then why not be a bit more accurate and say so ie “good people are our best assets” and then define what constitutes “good people”?

The fact of the matter is that corporations hire and fire according to their prevailing agenda. So it would be foolish for any individuals to sign on or resign for any reason other than their individual prevailing agenda. That means if at any given time in one’s career money is important then by all means move even if it is just for very marginal difference and if the working environment no longer stimulates or suits then find some place else which does. It would be just plain silly to treat your work as your life because it isn’t a reciprocal arrangement. Your life may terminate you.