I particularly am referring to the letter Self-centred, selfish economic migrants . Malaysiakini has for a long time posted thoughts and ideas from both sides of the emigration problem. Problem? Yes, it is a problem to Malaysia. The Big Brain Drain.

Yet instead of trying to correct what is wrong, we have people working somewhere in the government criticising every single one of us who leaves. Money may be part of the equation, but emigration is not that simple.

We have heard so much about people who left Malaysia in hope of a better pay. But yet, the whole story is never understood - the sacrifices, the pay cuts, the risks involved, the pain of being away from family and friends, etc.

As a permanent resident of Australia studying in Melbourne, I must say I don't know anything about pay cuts. But I understand that my dad gave up a very comfortable job and my mom gave up her two busy pharmacies to be here.

But we as a family thought we had made the wrong choice within weeks of moving here. We were alone, we were drawing from our savings and things weren't going smoothly. To add to the confusion, my school burnt down the day before school started.

We moved from living in a five-bedroom semi-detached house with a mini theatre in Subang Jaya to a small three-bedroom unit with no space to even put in our old dinner table. From having three domestic helpers to doing everything ourselves. From eating out every weekend to having to cook ourselves daily. Emigration a selfish move? Right.

Its been two years now and things are more settled but dad is still unemployed. Mom is working seven days a week (from six) to support us. Yet, we see that the move was good. Life, in a way, is more relaxed, even for my mom.

Education wise, it is much better than it was back in Malaysia. Things are much more fair. I had to put up a great fight to get into the medicine course I'm doing now. I scraped past the final selection and got a bonded medical placing meaning I'll have to serve with the government for six years.

My younger brother's application to do an accelerated subject in high school was rejected but the teacher was kind enough to sit down with us for a few hours to answer questions we had about the reasons why, something I'm sure we wouldn't have got in Malaysia.

Emigrants self-centred and selfish? I don't think so. Not the majority of us. We have a tightknit Malaysian/Singaporean community where I live, and most of us have the same tale. Most parents are worried about their children's education.

All of them took a pay cut to come here and all of them still haven't achieved the kind of luxury they had back in Malaysia. Yet all of them are pleased with their decision to move. Not all their children managed to get into the highly-desired courses (law, medicine, dentistry, etc) but they are happy because they had been given a fair go at securing it.

The scores needed for each course are published after selection every year in the newspapers as well as in the course guides. If you were rejected, you'd know by how much. There are no surprises other than the promise of being treated equally.

Now, if anyone in the Malaysian government is reading this, here's a suggestion that has been made over and over again - to reduce the rate of emigration, give everyone a fair go. I can guarantee that Malaysia will see an immediate reduction in emigrants once this has been fully implemented.