TalentCorp or TalentCorpse?

In August 2018, activist Kua Kia Soong raised an important issue, which was posed in his commentary.

He wrote: “TalentCorp once put together a team to try and convince Malaysians in the Silicon Valley to come home, with special perks thrown in to entice them. At a symposium, the agency tried to give the impression that Malaysia now has a level playing field, and Malaysians regardless of ethnicity would be free to flex their talents in service of the nation.

“Unfortunately, all it took was one query from an observant Malaysian in the audience to deflate the myth of a level playing field: 'If as you say, ‘race’ is now a thing of the past, why is it that the composition of TalentCorp’s team in Silicon Valley is entirely Malay?'”

But these days, the question ought to be: “Why are talented Malays being dumped by the wayside?”

For the past 10 years, the TalentCorp juggernaut had been going places, flying from continent to continent, to lure home talented Malaysians working in foreign lands.

Before that, former head honcho of the Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (Asli) Michael Yeoh, and then-group executive director of property developer Farlim, Mohammed Iqbal Rawther, appeared in London for the same purpose but failed miserably.

Their roadshow was held on a weekday when most of their targets would have been at lecture halls or at work. The motley crowd was made up of middle-aged Malaysians who were there for one purpose only – to ask the Malaysian government to recognize dual citizenship.

Then came TalentCorp’s army of big wigs from several banks and multi-nationals, including CIMB and Maxis. They came at the right time too – during the annual career fair of the United Kingdom and Eire (Ireland) Council for Malaysian Students (UKEC), which is the umbrella body and national coalition of all Malaysian student societies across Britain and Ireland.

Although students were enthusiastic about the interviews ahead, TalentCorp could not have had much traction with those already working in London’s financial district – the Square Mile. More than 1,000 Malaysians were already employed there as IT specialists, financial analysts, and even as directors.

The worry among this group was their future – prospects of promotion and going up the ladder in the face of the affirmative policies that were being practised even in the Malaysian private sector. There was nothing wrong with such policies, but many rightly or wrongly believed that they would have little chance of survival back home, where their work would be judged based on colour, creed and religion.

The worry must have turned into fear recently – even among the talents overseas as they are witnessing the systematic dismantling of meritocracy – even among the bumiputera community – and a return to the crony system, which compelled many of them to stay put in the UK and not return home.

What confidence does the government give when talented and qualified people have been removed to make way for unqualified people? How do you drive home the message of the need for Malaysians to come back to serve the nation when one who did so found himself and his family being harassed?

The resignation of former Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) president and group CEO Jalil Rasheed (above) was widely speculated to be making way for yet another political crony and the results of this move are reverberating all over the world, especially with the Malaysian diaspora. There is no place for talented bumiputera in this “new era” affirmative policy which came into force recently.

More worrying is the effort put in to justify the harassment. Will it be a continuous process until all cronies are rewarded and the government content that it has put its people in place?

Where do the qualified returning talents fit in when unqualified people are appointed to senior management posts, the boards of government-linked companies and agencies?

The note by The Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) outlined how women were sidelined in key positions and replaced by men who lack the knowledge and experience in crucial areas. These actions border on gender discrimination. Doesn’t anyone see this as the worse possible step?

Advertising guru and publisher of Marketing magazine Harmandar Singh had this to say in its May edition: “After seeing so many Malaysians onstage at Cannes Lions, it hurts me to know they do not return home to our country but to their respective homes overseas.”

Edward Ong and Simon Fong tracked more than 100 Malaysians who are plying their skills in the advertising and marketing industry overseas – from Singapore to the United States.

The rejoinder was: "TalentCorp, listen up!"

How many are updating their CVs and how many will be making a bee-line to the offices of foreign missions with a view to migrate? Can the tide be stemmed?

The question is: With the government playing talent scout and appointing whoever it likes, has the time come to save millions by burying TalentCorp?

The epitaph on TalentCorp's grave should rightly read: “TalentCorpse: Here lies an organisation that was made redundant and killed by the same people who delivered it as a baby.”

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R NADESWARAN says that nothing can get back our overseas talent except by practising meritocracy. Email him at citizen.nades22@gmail.com with your comments. - Mkini