COMMENT | As the nation battles insufficient tax revenue, growing government debt, and the inability of GLCs to catalyse the economy, young Malaysians are increasingly unable to find rewarding employment and losing hope that their future in Malaysia will be promising and secure.

The writing was on the wall from a long time ago with worker migration to Singapore and elsewhere increasing since the launch of the New Economic Policy.

According to former human resources minister V Sivakumar, some 1.13 million out of 1.86 million Malaysians who migrated overseas resided in Singapore.

Two studies conducted in 2022 found that 39 percent of the diaspora working in Singapore are skilled workers and 35 percent are semi-skilled, while in Brunei, 68 percent of the working diaspora are skilled workers and 24.1 percent are semi-skilled.

Our national brain-drain rate of 5.5 percent of the population officially revealed recently compares badly with the 3.3 percent for the world. It may be an underestimate and may also conceal the disconcerting fact that a disproportionate number consists of some of our brightest talents and entrepreneurs.

Stemming outmigration...