I agree with Lian Wee Ler ([#1] Recognise UEC so that graduates want to return [/#], Jan 23). If the government recognises UEC in the first place, then we will not see hundreds of Malaysians with UEC "lost" to Singapore every year. This is just part of thousands of talented Malaysian youths who are studying and working in countries like the US, Taiwan, Australia and Canada.

I studied at a Chinese independent secondary school. Most of my classmates ended up in the US, Taiwan and Singapore, and worked there after graduating. Those who go back to Malaysia have responsibilities to their families, such as taking over the family business. Most of the Chinese Malaysians who studied abroad are not sons and daughters of big towkays. Our families are mostly middle-income, and sending us abroad meant plenty of debts. So it is more practical to work abroad in order to quickly finish repaying the debts.

But the main reason why I stayed abroad is not money. It is the lack of research-conducive environment in Malaysia, and that matters to students of engineering and science. The only thing Malaysian "hi-tech" corporations care about is copying the foreign technologies available (sometimes outdated ones).

For instance, a person who studied automotive engineering and works in US would probably get involved with designing a new car. But if he or she works in Malaysia as an automotive engineer, probably the most that he or she can do is to figure out how to make a Mitsubishi Lancer/Mirage not look like a Lancer/Mirage externally, though it is still 90 percent similar to a Lancer/Mirage.

Some might say it is cheaper to use existing foreign technologies rather than developing our own since it is cheaper, and less time consuming and troublesome. But that is the kind of thinking that makes a nation a third-world nation. Ever heard of Americans or Japanese thinking, "Hmm... designing a new car is expensive, let's change the headlights and taillights of a Mercedes and call it our car"?

I never consider Petronas Twin Towers as the pride of Malaysia; they are simply the marvel of American, Japanese, South Korean and German engineering, not Malaysian.

Some might give the excuse that since Malaysia is not a big nation (22 million population), compared with the US or Japan (280 million and 90 million respectively), we do not need to develop and build everything ourselves.

That is rubbish. Finland is a nation which only has four million people, yet it is the home of Nokia, one of the largest cellphone makers in the world. Finland is also the leading cruise ship manufacturer in the world. Sweden has only seven million people, yet it has one of the largest artillery makers in the world, namely Bofors. The "space-age" rifles used by the Malaysian Armed Forces were designed by another small nation, Austria. Switzerland makes the world's best roller coaster, too, yet its population only numbers a couple of million.

Before complaining about other nations "stealing" our talents, does our government ever realise it is actually the one "chasing" our talents away? Also, the lost talents are not all Chinese-educated; there are plenty of Malay/English-educated Malaysians (including Malay) too "lost" to other nations.

Showing us proof that the government is at least trying to get them to return is the best way to convince them to come back!