Letter
by Gemilang
24.5.11
Dear Fellow Malaysians:
I am compelled to write to you regarding Talent Corp. road tour in the U.S. I have just attended one of their events at Marriott, Santa Clara. Let me tell you, the turn out was good. I believe there about 200 Malaysians living in the Bay Area attended this event hoping to hear what they have to offer.
It is not surprising that the event was such a let down. Talent Corp. sent amateurs to speak on behalf of Johan Merican where no where to be found. The speaker was a young kid, Hidayat who was very proud to tell the audience that there is nothing wrong with Malaysian education, because he graduated from MIT. Let me share with you that this kid was so naive, speaks poor English, have no business acumen, lack of respects for Malaysian professionals, and lack of understanding of American business etiquette.
For someone who claimed to be MIT graduate and used to work overseas as consultants — he definitely did not have the MIT qualities. He forgot that he just spent his few years completing his undergraduate degree here in the US, but have never been living and working for many years in America. The reason I pointed out this, is that it makes huge differences in life experiences. As an alumni of MIT does not mean that he is fits to talk down on professionals like us here in the Bay Area.
When it comes to questions and answers sessions. He does not have any substances to support his slides presentation. For instance, on the slides it features one of the benefits for luring back Malaysian abroad is by extending 15% income tax reduction, and two cars, furniture, and so on. When asked about whether he really thinks that it is competitive package as opposed to other countries. He honestly believed it was competitive. This kid is so gullible and blindly followed what the government said was good. Yes I understand that I should take his words at the grain of salts. But, it is so intimidating to listen to bunch of amateurs representing Malaysia — what a shame!
Another thing, when some fellow Malaysian asked about what the government will do about immigration-laws, such as dual-citizenship, spouses able to find a job in Malaysia, education for the children, insurance, diversity and inclusiveness, and so on — none of these issues Hidayat able to address at intellectual levels.
Okay, the delegation was consist of representation from Northern Corridor (Dato’ Reza) and his team, MSC (Dato’ Sham) and his team, two young ladies from Khazanah Group, and Mr. Pang from MIDA Malaysia. Imagine you are sitting and listening to bunch of preachers telling us we should consider to come back to Malaysia. Well for haven-sake, for who’s benefits? The government or the people? When are they going to realize that they are wasting so much Malaysian tax payers money by traveling to the US in the name of business conference.
They ought to be ashamed of themselves. They come here in the name of conference, but in reality they took their children for shopping abroad, sight-seeing. Why they have to bring their wife and children during official trips with Malaysian tax payers money? Let me tell you, Dato’ Sham from MSC even came late to the event, showing no apology or remorse. It is another sign of lack of respects for others. Excuse me sir, though you are attending Malaysian event where most Malaysian will be there — that does not give a good reason for you to be late. He simply have this don’t care attitude!
I personally says to them that this is just another campaign for Talent Corp. from the government. Nothing more, nothing less. They are not really serious about it “hangat-hangat tahi ayam aje”.
That’s all for now.
You can take the Malay out of the kampung but you can’t take the kampung out of the Malay.
Terrible Ingrish…..
well, imagine we here have to deal with umno talent koks in the government agencies on a daily basis. and listen to rubbish from umno and bn ministers once a while.
you had it easy there.
that is why i said in a message below that Talent Corp should go to help hiring house maids. why you people bothered to go and listen to them? Just look at the standard of their website is ‘enough’
Gemilang, I think you are a little hard on these guys, don’t you think ? What do you expect ? They are BN boys after all. Do you expect some thing better from them ? I’m surprised that you and 200 others are taken in by this so called “Talent Corp.” scam. You guys should have known better. It seems to me that you guys, the attendees, are the gullible ones, not them. They are just there to “makan angin” courtesy of the Malaysian tax payers.
The writer has a point here, going to the Ivy league does not guarantee the job will be done. Down south, they too have many graduates from the Ivy league and top Universities from UK but when they turned out to be merely bookworms, they are left to find their places in the open market, except those emplaced in secured Gomen positions. Here, it would certainly mean guaranteed positions all the way to the top at some GLCs. So you can’t be surprised when our GLCs are also run! The basics are already grounded so deep that unless we deploy excavator to dig deep enough, no change is possible. Just look at thsoe who are supposed to lead the way! What can they sincerely offer? Unless and until, the real talents are recruited to look for other real talents, it is like a dog trying to kiss its tail. So what else is news??
So shocked to see the true colours of talent corp.
So sad that najib still thinks he knows what he is doing!
So pathetic – that bunch of mediocrities. (That boy from MIT, was he top of the class or bottom of the ladder? Those who fall to the bottom of the ladder are plentiful. They are a dozen a dime – MIT, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge or not.)
There was a joke years ago that a Malaysian in the US introduced himself as a graduate of MIT. It turns out he was indeed a graduate of MIT – Mara Institute of Technology , that is.
Jokes aside, Talent Corp should realise they need to do a hard sell to convince Malaysians abroad to return home. First impressions are important. Ability to communicate well and quick thinking is more important than any Ivy League qualifications. It is a marketing job. The representative should be able to “sell” this idea to their target market that it is to their benefit to return home. They should drive home both the quantitative and qualitative factors to this audience. They should appeal to their family ties, which is a strong Asian trait. 15% tax is no big deal to someone currently earning an income several times what he can get in Malaysia. Clearly Talent Corp does not understand their priorities well.
As for the representative turning up late. This is not surprising. It is a very Malaysian disease. A lecturer of mine in foreign university once invited us to a lunch in his house and reminded us not to observe “Malaysian time” i.e do not be late. Though spoken in jest, it was insulting but I understand because he must have been a victim of such poor social etiquete before from some Malaysians. I have also witnessed some representatives of a major GLC missing from their booths during a major trade exhibition overseas. The Malaysian Trade Commissioner was tearing his hair out in sheer frustration and lamenting the poor sense of responsibility of these people.
Since when did you hear of a government function starting on time. A BN Minister is never punctual even when chauffeur driven with outriders.
He never apologises. A big shot cannot lower himself by apologising, you see.
In fact he feels great being late as everyone is waiting for him and will stand when he enters the hall.
This is the kampong in the government, you can never take away.
They even think that their poor English is good.
Is it real talent that they are looking for or is it because of the loud voices of these talented that they are invited back to join the team which will keep them quiet ? Talents are everywhere. When they keep quiet, it will be okay. But when they start questioning loudly, then you will have to think where to put your face. Remember. Don’t wave your dirty linen in public.