YOURSAY ‘Blaming Malaysians for being lazy is itself a lazy excuse.’

 

Prof: Lazy M'sians turn migrants into towkays

Man on the Street: National Professors Council secretary Raduan Che Rose, you forgot to mention that the public and private universities, too, have migrant professors and lecturers.

 

Especially in private institutions of higher learning (IPTS) where they prefer not to employ locals lecturers because they need to pay high salaries to the locals. Instead, they hire migrant lecturers even for basic courses so that they can be paid less and are easier to control.

 

The reason or excuse IPTS gives to the Education Ministry is that locals are not interested. Why is the ministry doing nothing about this?

 

As for public institutions of higher learning (IPTA), where are the bumiputera lecturers or subject experts? After 30 years of bumiputera PhD study programme, there is still few who can fill these vacancies? Moreover, IPTA does not give the opportunities to non-bumiputeras fill such vacancies.

 

Therefore, ‘lazy’ is not the word to describe the situation. It is government polices and greed of the business community that deprive Malaysians from the workforce.

 

Hplooi: Blaming Malaysians for being lazy is itself a lazy excuse coming from a 'leader'. In reality, the masses will just be like sheep if the system treats them as so.

 

It does not help if the system (read: our government planners) has no coherent and effective strategy to uplift our workers (not some grandiose action plan replete with management-buzz).

 

A key cornerstone of a high income society is the upgrading of ‘skills’ (such as higher national diploma or HND) for workers. Every professional should be supported by (about) four to eight technicians.

 

Unfortunately our National Occupational Skills Standard (NOSS) programme is unrealistic and is hijacked by political appointees who know nuts about the industry.

 

A good indicator would be when our national skill level is measured against other countries (South Korea, Singapore, etc). It does not help too when our policy on foreign workers is incoherent... and that is the clincher.

 

So our leaders (of which this professor is one) should know where the buck stops.

 

The Analyser: Why stop there, professors? Why not go looking for why Malaysians are so 'lazy', or even if they are lazy? After all, isn't that the role of academics... to probe into the reasons why.

 

Instead you yourselves do the Lazy Malaysian thing and complain about the superficialities of the problem. My suggestion to you is to ban laziness.

 

Anonymous_4056: Two things that could be the reason for this peculiar situation. Firstly, the Immigration Department may be on the take, allowing the illegals to enter freely for a fee, with some of them given blue identity cards with bumiputera status.

 

Second reason, our locals are simply lazy, waiting for Umno to feed them by claiming Malay special rights. It is a lost cause.

 

EmEmKay: Prof, not only being towkays, the migrants can decide which party to win state and general elections in Sabah.

 

Playfair: I believe the prof overlooked to mention that it is these migrants (legal and more so illegal) that have poured ‘haram’ money ‘cash’ into the pockets of high-ranking politicians and civil service little Napoleons.

 

It is a lucrative source of wealth for them. That seems to be the reason for the incoherent strategy in the failure to uplift Malaysian workers.

 

Shibboleth: We are not only lazy, but also, according to Dr Mahathir Mohamad, stupid, too. And worse, some are ‘sombong’ (arrogant). So, ‘malas’ (lazy), ‘bodoh’ (stupid) and ‘sombong’.

 

Perfect convergence for a disaster. Our professors are stating the obvious and are indeed behind the curve.

 

P Dev Anand Pillai: Where was the National Professors Council when the problem started more than two decades ago? What advice did they give the government then? What research did they do?

 

Laziness has been a trait for a very long time right from the time the British were here. They brought in the Indians and the Chinese because our local folk just did not want to work their own land. Why complain now?

 

Eventually, like the non-Malays, the new entrants will ask for equality, what then? Chase them out? Too late for that, they are into their second generation and have become fathers to Malaysian children.

 

The same cycle will go on as long as we are lazy. They did not say this is a land of "honey and milk" or "suwannabhumi" for nothing.

 

Sekaran: I know one Bangladeshi who runs a business with two local rent-seekers as directors. What else to expect when rent seeking has been institutionalised?

 

Bamboo: The New Economic Policy (NEP) has bred a few generations of lazy bumiputeras, as the rich resources of the country are used to spoon feed bumiputeras with easy credit for business (which many folded after the capital is squandered), easy scholarships, easy entry as civil servants who do little work.

 

Soon these instant bumiputeras will take over the country. Then the lazy bumiputeras will rue the day that they have let these instant bumiputeras usurped their 'rightful' rights and place in Malaysia.

 

Anonymous_4031c: Wow, it takes a professor to discover this and only now. The entire nation is aware of the going-ons, but then again we will be held to be pro-opposition or seditious even if we raise our concerns.

 

It’s no longer a perception issue of the number of foreign workers in this country, both the legal and illegal ones. The question is what is the government going to do about it?

 

Factnot Fiction: Stop the handout mentality. Stop giving Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BRIM). Just give aid to the deserving needy. Make sure every Malaysian has a tax file - no tax file, no aid.

 

Retnam: Maybe soon the National Professors Council secretary's post will be taken over by a migrant worker.

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