COMMENT | The topic of brain drain has been increasingly becoming the talk of the town for Malaysians during the last few years.

However, mass media and researchers have been highlighting that this global phenomenon is very real for Malaysia since more than a decade ago. The policymakers were aware of this too.

Already a decade ago, the National Economic Advisory Council warned the government that the brain drain phenomenon will delay Malaysia’s transition to high-income status.

Many talents left Malaysia, making it void of a critical mass of highly skilled individuals essential to cultivating and developing other talents.

However, the then-government was not only indifferent but even hostile toward those who left Malaysia.

As academic literature has documented, some then-government ministers, who were responding to news reports on Malaysians renouncing their citizenship in large numbers (over 54,000 between 2010 and 2015), said that all Malaysians abroad were unpatriotic.

They suggested that the rest of the Malaysians who...