M’sian minister says he hopes one day Malaysians won’t have to go overseas to study and work

JOHOR BAHRU: In a speech delivered earlier this week, Yuneswaran Ramaraj, the Deputy National Unity Minister of Malaysia, expressed the hope that as Malaysia progresses, more of its citizens will choose to stay home to study and work.

Speaking at the Malaysia Book of Records submission ceremony on Monday (February 9) at the Taman Johor Jaya 2026 Chinese New Year Bazaar, Mr Yuneswaran said that Malaysia is only “slightly behind” Singapore, according to a report in China Press, when it comes to strength and finances.

While many Malaysians have chosen to study and then work in other countries, including in Singapore, over the years, the Deputy Minister wants to see this reversed, and believes it will happen as long as Malaysia works hard to develop.

“We want our children to be able to work, study, and live locally in the future, without having to go abroad to work or study,” he said.

Mr Yuneswaran also underlined in his speech how important it is to acknowledge and value Malaysia’s diverse population and called on Malaysians to unite regardless of their religion, culture, or ethnicity.

“Imagine if one day the mamak stalls disappeared, all the bak kut teh shops were gone, and the roti canai were gone too, what would we still be able to eat? These are all unique cultural elements of our country, our characteristics,” he said in his speech.

After the ceremony, the Deputy Minister walked around visiting different stalls at the bazaar, and wrote in a Facebook post, “This is the real face of Malaysian culture, people of multiple races together celebrating the main festival with the spirit of unity, mutual respect, and togetherness.”

Brain drain

Malaysia has long had the problem of “brain drain,” wherein many of its highly educated or skilled citizens end up overseas.

In 2022, Bloomberg Opinion writer Daniel Moss pointed out that it’s a particularly problematic issue because it is Malaysia’s top talent who are choosing to work in Singapore.“To graduate to the next tier of prosperous economies, Malaysia must staunch the flow of talented citizens abroad,” he wrote.

Though Singapore faces its own labour challenges, Malaysia’s appear to be greater as it “faces a brain — and brawn — drain, driven by hard-to-extinguish racial preferences that favour ethnic Malays at the expense of minorities.”

In 2024, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) and the Ministry of Economy highlighted the country’s brain drain to greener pastures with better pay, specifically Singapore and Brunei.

At the time, nearly two in five Malaysians (39 per cent) in Singapore were skilled workers, and almost as many (35 per cent) were semi-skilled workers. In Brunei, the numbers were even higher, with 68 per cent skilled workers and 24.1 semi-skilled workers among Malaysians residing there, said Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin. /TISG

Read also: Malaysia’s brain drain: More Malaysian skilled and semi-skilled workers employed in Singapore and Brunei