Today, as a consequence of globalisation, there is free flow of goods, services and ideas across borders. Increasingly, there is also a free flow of people. That notwithstanding, national boundaries and with that passports and visas are still a reality for most.

There are two groups of people for whom these documents and national boundaries are irrelevant. First are the highly talented. Even advanced countries clamor to get their services.

Nobel prize winners and star athletes do not have to line up at the American embassy for their visas. Their sponsor's lawyers do it for them. The average PhD or MD may not get the same red carpet treatment, but they are still welcomed.

The second are those at the polar opposite of the skill spectrum: the illiterate and unskilled. For them, borders too are irrelevant. Every day thousands cross the Rio Grande to come to America, or the Straits of Gibraltar to enter Europe.

Third world emigration

Every so often a rusty trawler beaches on American shores, full of wretched and hungry Chinese, Haitians or Croatians, desperate to escape the hell that is their homeland.

The movement of people from the Third World to the First attracts most of the attention. The concern is not with the poor maids or labourers, rather with the bright and talented.

For years thousands of unskilled Malays from Kelantan flooded the construction sites in Singapore, yet hardly anyone in Malaysian officialdom paid any attention. Today with bright young Chinese-Malaysians being actively recruited by Singapore, Malaysian leaders are crying foul.

This was not always the case. There was a time that whenever a Malaysian, especially a non-Malay, emigrated, the reflex response was, "Good riddance!" regardless of how badly his or her skill was needed. Today's official concerns over Malaysians emigrating thus represents a quantum leap in enlightenment.

Today's restriction on the flow of people is an anomaly. For most of human history there has been free flow, as natural as the flow of water. The nation state is a recent concept.

Even during colonial times, the natives, like their colonial masters, were free to travel the empire, thus accounting for the mosque in a corner of London and an Indian spice shop in the slum of Manchester.

The ending of colonisation precipitated yet another massive migration as the natives decided to 'correct' the previously artificial political boundaries drawn by the colonialists. The most wrenching, in terms of human miseries and lives lost, was the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent.

Others, like the Irish and Hungarians, were simply pushed out of their homeland by threats of either starvation or killing. Such 'push' factors are still a reality today, but unfortunately the world is now less charitable, as the Rwandans are discovering.

Equally significant is the flow of people within the developed world. Seventy percent of the EU born recipients of US doctorates between 1991 and 2000 planned to stay in America, joining the already 100,000 European researchers currently working there.

Singapore, despite its seemingly ironclad and expensive bonds tying down its scholars, still loses many to the West.

Whether Malaysian emigrants consider themselves pushed out or merely being pulled elsewhere is for each to answer. It is hard for me to consider myself a hero escaping tyranny at home, because I have been back many times and enjoyed the visits.

As for those strident voices claiming persecution preventing them to practice their culture, language and custom, it is interesting that few, if any, chose to migrate to China or India where presumably they could practice them to their heart's content. Nor can they readily explain the outstanding successes of their kin they left behind.

The pull factor

It is human nature to want to improve our lot, even if that involves leaving the land of our birth. It is neither necessary nor wise however, to impute sinister motives on those we leave behind.

I believe for Malaysian emigrants, the pull factor is more dominant. Overcoming the brain drain requires minimising this element. Contrary to popular perception, money is only one factor, and a very minor one at that.

Malaysia can never match, nor is it necessary to, the western pay scale, but the gap should not be so wide either. Besides, income is meaningless without the context of living costs. An annual income of US$100,000 would buy a mansion in Montana and a matching lifestyle, but in the San Francisco area, don't even dream of owning a shack. Stanford has difficulty recruiting junior faculty members despite providing subsidised housing.

A major factor is education. South Korean and Singaporean schools are highly regarded, yet many of their citizens still leave. The Koreans in particular do not want to submit their children to the rat race and hell that is their system. Malaysian schools are just as hellish, but without the quality.

I do not expect Malaysian schools to improve any time soon. The practical solution would be to allow for private schools and for Malaysians to attend international schools.

The most important factor is neither pay nor quality of schools, but respect. One expression of respect is to allow for some freedom.

Subjecting highly talented individuals, whose skills and expertise are in demand globally, to inane tests of loyalty or worse, the intricacies of the civil service code, is not a mark of respect, but of contempt. Contempt begets more of the same, and in the end it is immaterial whether it is the push or pull factor, the result is the same the loss of another valuable talent.