Investment without Returns

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Jung Kian Ng

Each and every year, the Public Service Department (PSD) of Malaysia or more commonly known as JPA (Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam) offers thousands of students the opportunity to study abroad fully sponsored by the agency.  There is no free lunch in this world. The scholarships are awarded to the bright young minds of Malaysia with one caveat: serve a specified number of years in the civil service.

For decades, many may have noticed, the Public Service Department has not been able to fully require all of its students to join the public service. Skeptics have noticed the shortcomings of the program and strongly criticize the department for its lack of efficiency and determination in offering jobs to these talents upon graduation and their subsequent return. The department has also taken hits for not being able to select the right people for the scholarships. Some claim that this is due to the affirmative action policy that favors a particular ethnic group. Nonetheless, the underlying truth is still the limited number of slots available to the increasing number of high achievers in the nation. While the affirmative action in place does in fact allow the applicants to question the fairness of the process, the department can never fulfill the big dreams of all qualified applicants with its limited budget. This fact, however, is not the main point of this discussion. We’ll save that for another time.

As a final year student studying abroad, I have been asked time and time again what my plans are after graduation. While I’m completely clueless about what I’m about to do next year after I take the mortar board off my head and the gown off my shoulders, I answer one thing with utmost certainty: I’m going home. Many of my peers disagree with my grand plan of returning home. They do not just disagree with me; some even try to dissuade me from doing so. They always provide me with countless sound arguments. The arguments that they think are applicable to them should also be applicable to me. I have had enough. Enough of the saying that the higher pay abroad is certainly a better justification to my soon-to-be multi-million diploma. Enough of the saying that the job market at home is gloomy at the moment. Enough of the saying that I won’t stand an equal chance back home as opposed to my brothers and sisters of a different skin color. I have never really tried to persuade these people otherwise. I never thought of arguing with anyone on this matter. This is mainly because I believe in the saying, to each his own. However, I’m ready to give you my side of the argument. You still retain every right to your future, and you can decide for yourself which is the right thing to do.

A privilege, not an entitlement

Years after years, loads of parents and students eventually see the scholarships not only as a shortcut to get to the greener grass on the other side of the world, they think they deserve it. But they are all dead wrong. They constantly use the fact that their families pay a lot of taxes and the scholarships are merely one way for the government to give back. They never realize that their tuition dollars paid for by the government can be useful in so many other ways as well. The money could have been used to build more schools in low-income communities so that more children who would not otherwise have education will get the opportunity to climb the social ladder through their hard work. The money could have been used to provide teachers with rigorous training so that the not-so-bright kids who get the least attention from schools will now have great teachers too. The government is not obliged to please a selected number of bright and hardworking students by paying for their fancy degrees from foreign-sounding universities and disappoint the rest who are equally talented and diligent. On the other hand, the students who have pledged to serve the country right after they put down their signatures without coercion on the legal-binding documents have both legal and moral obligations to return home and fulfill their duties.

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

An act of theft

Many would have refuted with the counter-argument that the tuition dollars are not guaranteed to be put into a better use. One can easily quote the project of building a lavish national palace that has just been completed as yet another way of wasting the taxpayers’ money. The recent Auditor-General’s Report has also shown the incompetence of several governmental departments in managing public funds. Nonetheless, two wrongs do not make a right. Perhaps, they need a reminder that tuition dollars are part of the public fund too. Therefore, the act of escaping the legal responsibility after using the public fund is not a matter of incompetence. It is essentially an act of theft. It is an embezzlement. They deny themselves every single right to complain about the abuse of public fund because when they have the opportunity to do it right, they say no. It is indeed a tough decision as they are probably freer by fleeing instead of returning to comply with the legal requirements.

“Honest error in the face of complex and possibly intractable problems is a far more important source of bad results than are bad motives.”

Being elites

They promise to return when things get better. They expect changes to happen naturally without putting in any effort. They forget the fact that they were chosen because they were the cream of the crop in the country. The people have high hopes on them, thinking that they are the ones who can eventually bring change. And yet, they will abandon the rest of the Malaysian people to strive for their own version of ideal future anywhere but home. The atrocities happening in Malaysia should not be used as an excuse that hinders their return. They should be very well-aware that their leaving will only exacerbate the situation as the country is losing more human capital to grow the economy.

“From those to whom much is given, much is expected.”

Tough times

There might not be enough opportunities or in fact any opportunity at all for these highly educated graduates. A great deal of them can easily be over-qualified for many of the job openings in the public sector if there is any available. It is exactly due to this fact that hundreds and thousands of them are released from their legal obligations soon after their graduation. They then use this as yet another justification for their departure. They maintain that it is not because they do not wish to contribute to nation building but their skills and their degrees are not valued. They want us to understand that their feathers are too bright to be locked up in a cage. Nevertheless, this is not a cage, it is a sanctuary. We can be hopeful and go against all odds to build a better home for ourselves. The road ahead is definitely not smooth and straight especially during these trying times. In fact, starting a new stage of life is never easy. But if it is hard for us, it will be harder for the less privileged. While there might not be a legal obligation, the moral obligation is here to stay.

“I know starting your careers in troubled times is a challenge. But it is also a privilege. Because it is moments like these that force us to try harder, to dig deeper, to discover gifts we never knew we had – to find the greatness that lies within each of us. So don’t ever shy away from that endeavor.”

I do not write this to tell my friends to follow my plan for their future. I do not write this to condemn my friends. I write this because I want to go home. And when I return, I wish to see you at the same old place where we used to hang out and talk about our respective plans for our shared future. I call on you to do the right thing. I call on my friends and family to quit telling me to flee in search for a better home. I have a home. I grew up as a Malaysian with pride and dignity and I’ll grow old as such.