Is it a Crime to Emigrate??

Haste led to mistake in emigration figures, says deputy minister


KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 106,000 Malaysians had given up their citizenship and emigrated since independence, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho said yesterday.
He said his recent statement, reported by the New Straits Times on July 10, that 106,000 Malaysians had surrendered their citizenship in the last 11 years was wrong.

Apologising, Tan said the mistake arose from a miscommunication between him and one of his officers.

"My officer was in a hurry to give me the numbers and got mixed up with the dates."

He said he also had to double check the breakdown by race. In his earlier statement, Tan said of the 106,000, 79,199 were Malays, 25,107 Chinese and 1,347 Indians.
However, Home Affairs Minister Datuk Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad is reported to have given the breakdown yesterday as 10,411 Malay, 86,708 Chinese, 8,667 Indian and 847 other races.

Radzi also said only 1,720 Malays had surrendered their citizenship between 1996 and April this year.
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Huh?!! Why the painstaking effort by the Home Affairs Minister in emphasising the fact that the majority of Malaysians giving up their citizenship are in fact Chinese and not Malays? One could almost feel the knock on the head that he gave his deputy. Don't get me wrong. I am all for accurate information. But how do you judge what is accurate information? Is it possible in Malaysia? How could the figures given by the deputy minister and the minister be so different? You would have thought that they share the same database. Am I being paranoid? Perhaps. But my suspicion is being reinforced by Radzi's emphasis that only 1,720 Malays had given up their citizenship in the last 10 years.

Is it so inconceivable that some Malays have decided that the "land of milk and honey" for their race is not for them? Do they not appreciate their preferential treatment? Does the fact that the non-Bumiputera companies in Malaysia have to carve out 30% of their hard-earned wealth and give it to the Malays not enticed them to stay back and "eat their cake"? Surely 30 years or so years of New Economic Policy persuasion should make it inconceivable for any rational minded Malays not to stay put and pursue greener pastures? Or perhaps, the NEP did not achieve what it set out to do? The rich Malays got richer and the poor gets left behind. Was the policy just an excuse for the perpetuation of corruption?

Immigration and emigration is good for the country. It has been happening since Biblical times. Look at the United States of America. It is the most powerful and richest country on earth. No doubt the strength of the country is down to the fact that almost every race in the US is an immigrant race. It brings the best in the world together, and it still does.

So why are the few Malays who left the country such an embarrassment for the Home Affairs Minister? So, what if it is only a couple of thousand and not eighty thousand? Why is it that the country still insist on single citizenship? The masses of Malaysian who left may not be physically or financially dependent on the country. Nevertheless, the emotional and family bonds are still very strong. The majority on Malaysians I know have not given up their citizenship despite being away for decades from their homeland. It would strengthen the country if dual or multiple citizenship is allowed. Take India for instance. In the last few years, they have recognised that for their country to industrialise successfully, they have to attract back the many who had left. These people not only brings back expertise, but also hard cash earned abroad which is vital for investments. Dual citizenship? Yeah....bring it on!!!