Chinese may fall to third spot soon
By HO WAH FOON wahfoonho@thestar.com.my
The Star Malaysia
28 February 2016

the Government must treat the Chinese in this country fairly due to the vast contributions we and our ancestors have made to Malaysia. Tan Sri Lim Hock Sa. THE Feb 8 to Feb 22 Chinese New Year period was set to be an uneventful 15-day celebration with many open houses, but few fresh topics to talk about, until a Feb 14 news report interrupted the monotony of the festivities.
This report on declining Chinese population ratio in Malaysia, peppered with a warning that this ethnic group may slide to the third spot in terms of number and percentage in the country, immediately triggered the alarm.
The active Selangor/Kuala Lumpur Hainanese Association based at Thean Hou Temple was the first to react emotively at its CNY open house.
It warned that this development would have far reaching implications for the Chinese community on the political, education and economic fronts.
This high profile association and other clans reiterated their calls to the local ethnic Chinese to give birth to more babies.
To recap, a report in Sin Chew Daily on Feb 14 stated that by 2030, the numbers of Chinese – the second largest ethnic group after the Malays in Malaysia – would drop to third place after the bumiputra and foreign migrant workers.
A huge fall in the birth rate of the Chinese to 1.4 babies per family in 2015 from 7.4 in 1957 and a sharp rise in the numbers of foreign workers are now threatening the Chinese’ position as the second largest grouping in Malaysia.
The report, quoting projected data from the Department of Statistics, said the percentage of local ethnic Chinese population would shrink to 19.6% in 2030, from 24.6% in 2010 and 21.4% in 2015.
The Chinese percentage is also projected to fall further to 18.9% in 2035.
In the report, Chief Statistician Datuk Dr Hasan Abdul Rahman was quoted as saying that even though the Chinese population would increase to 7.1 million people in 2040 from 6.6 million now, the percentage compared to the Malays and Indians might decline to 18.4% in 2040.
In terms of numbers, the other two ethnic groups are projected to rise in population, with the bumiputra outdoing those from other races.
The bumiputra population is anticipated to increase from 19.2 million in 2015 to 26 million by 2040, and Indians from two million to 2.3 million.
In terms of percentage, the bumiputra population is anticipated to increase from 61.8% to 67.5%, and Indians from 5.5% to 6.4%.
Malaysia’s population was estimated at between 30.6mil and 30.8 mil at end-2015.
While the decline in the percentage of Chinese population vis a vis the total population is an accepted and irreversible fact, what is unpalatable for the community is that foreign workers will overtake them in numbers and percentage soon.
Recent news reports put the number of legal foreign migrant workers at 2.2 million, illegal and undocumented workers at four million.
Their total is only slightly less than 6.6 million.
With the Government’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Bangladesh to bring in 1.5 million workers over three years (which is now put on hold), there is no need to wait till 2030 to see foreigners overtaking the Chinese’s number in Malaysia.
Tan Sri Pheng Yin Huah, the national president of Huazong (Federation of Chinese Associations in Malaysia), urges Chinese associations and Chinese-based political parties to show concern to this population issue.
“Chinese politicians and community leaders should pay attention to this issue as there will be serious implications for the future generations of the Chinese.
“We hope this generation of Chinese will marry young and give birth to more babies.
“We also hope the Chinese associations and political parties could give incentives and support to the financially-weak families,” says Pheng in a telephone interview.
Chinese-based parties, which derive a lot of political support from the community, should exercise their political influence to stop the influx of illegal migrants, he adds.
But Pheng acknowledges that the community is helpless as far as the birth rate is concerned as getting married and having babies is a personal decision based on many factors.
In fact, the current incentives given by some clans comprising RM1,000-RM2,000 per new born has not had any impact.
Lim Association’s president Tan Sri Lim Hock San, whose family controls LBS Bina Group, pointed out that despite the declining population ratio, the Chinese had contributed tremendously to nation building, development and progress.
“The Government must treat the Chinese in this country fairly due to the vast contributions we and our ancestors have made to Malaysia.
“There should not be extremist statements made against us,” said Lim at Lim Association’s CNY open house. But can politicians do anything? “This falling trend in the percentage of Chinese against the total population is a development that no one – even the MCA – can stop,” a former MCA president tells The Star.
In fact, as far back as 2003, there were already extensive discussions by Chinese scholars and community leaders on the issue.
As a result of several seminars on Chinese population, a book The Chinese Population in Malaysia: Trends and Issues edited by Dr Voon Phin Keong, was published in 2004 by the Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies.
Discussions then were spurred by the noticeable fall in Chinese population ratio to 26% in 2003 from 37% in 1957, though in number, ethnic Chinese had increased to about five million from two million during the period.
Factors for the decline in Chinese population ratio cited in the book included economic reasons, urbanisation, low birth rates, opting to stay single, late marriage, emigration, rising emphasis on quality and small family.
The Chinese population ratio also dropped because the biggest ethnic group – the Malays – were registering higher birth rates and its population was rising faster.
In addition, the Chinese community was also ageing faster than other groups. In the 1991 census, 7.6% of the Chinese were aged 60 and above, while it was 5.4% for Malays and Indians.
With females becoming more emancipated, choosing to work rather than becoming full-time housewives, the Chinese birth rate fell.
According to Sin Chew’s commentator Lim Mun Fah, Singapore’s “stop-at-two children” policy implemented in the 1960s had an impact on local Chinese due to the country’s success in nurturing more elites and talents.
While most of the factors identified in the 2003 are still relevant today, the new and single most important factor that could force down the local Chinese population ratio fast will be the influx of foreign workers.
It is possible that these foreign migrant workers may one day become citizens – as had happened in Sabah.
In the 1960s, Chinese accounted for 23% of Sabah’s state population, but in 2003, the ratio fell to 10% although the Chinese number had increased 150% to 260,000 from 104,000.
Due to the small ratio, the Chinese there could no longer be kingmakers in Sabah politics.
As race politics still dominates Malaysia’s political scene, numbers are still important in power bargaining.
With the decline in numbers, the representation of the Malaysian Chinese’s political voice in recent years has clearly dropped.
But scholars argue that even if the Chinese increased its population, they might not get bigger political and economic power in Malaysia.
While no one can predict what will happen to the Chinese in Malaysia come 2030 or 2040, Chinese parents know for sure that they have to invest heavily in their children’s education to nurture them into talents so that they can survive anywhere in the world.
But meanwhile, they expect politicians and community leaders to play their role in safeguarding the legitimate and constitutional rights of the Malaysian Chinese.

Information is power, says study
By HARIATI AZIZAN sunday@thestar.com.my
The Star Malaysia
28 February 2016

THE person you see in the mirror is the most trusted.”
No, that is not a self-help mantra or nostalgia for Michael Jackson’s old hit Man in the Mirror.
Rather, as the 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals, that is a common belief in the world when it comes to trust.
People now are increasingly reliant on a “person like yourself ” (rising 6% in trust) more than the “leaders” of society like CEOs, government officials, technical experts or even academic experts, according to global communications firm Edelman’s annual survey that measures trust levels in the world.
Says Edelman Malaysia managing director Robert Kay, it reflects the way people in Malaysia are increasingly sharing and weighing information and opinions online.
“When it comes to information on social networking sites, content sharing sites and online-only information, Malaysians trust friends and families more at 74% compared to a company CEO at 57% or elected officials at 53%,” shares Kay at the launch of the Barometer in Kuala Lumpur last Tuesday.
For its fifth survey in Malaysia, Edelman polled 1,350 Malaysians online from October to November last year.
What some might find surprising is that in today’s celebrity-obsessed world, online personalities rake in only 45% “believers”, while celebrities rank last in their trustworthiness at 30%.
Interestingly, Malaysians’ overall trust in online content, specifically that shared on social media has dipped seven points to 42%.
Kay points to the rampant sharing of misinformation online in the past year as the main reason.
Consequently, search engines hold their lead as the most trusted source for information at 66%, he adds, as people feel they have more control over what they read and see.
The rise in peer-to-peer trust inevitably coincides with the decline in public faith in public institutions and the business world.
Faith in the press among the “informed public”, however, has jumped 13% – from 46% last year to 59% this year.
Asked how much they trust the media – on a scale of zero to nine – to do the right thing, Malaysian citizens say they have a lot more faith in the press than before.
This, says Edelman, puts Malaysia’s more informed citizens’ trust in media at the same level as the elite of the United States.
“Malaysia has one of the biggest rises in media trust among the informed public globally, possibly due to the constant coverage of alleged corruption at 1MDB,” Kay notes, stressing that it is crucial for the media to continue pursuing rigorous, balanced and transparent reporting to maintain credibility.
While the survey did not distinguish between trust in local and international media, the trust in the media in Asia highlights the perceived role of the media in this region, Edelman Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa CEO David Brain reportedly said in Mumbrella Asia, a discussion site on the region’s media.
“The media – through Western eyes – is expected to keep politicians to account, but in Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia, there is ‘a social contract that the role of the media is about nation building’, and less about revealing the truth,” Brain had explained.
In a panel discussion on the Barometer results, The Malaysian Insider CEO Jahabar Sadiq points out that even as trust in business captains and political leaders fell, those who are perceived to be critical and caring of society and are vocal on social media, such as CIMB group chairman Datuk Seri Nazir Razak and former Cabinet minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, are deemed as “trustworthy”.
Comparing Malaysia to Britain and the United States, Umno Youth exco member Shahril Hamdan suggests the dip in public trust towards the government is a natural development as the nation matures.
“As democracy matures, the cynicism level of people toward the government increases.
“Regardless of how the government communicates or performs, people will put less trust in the government and its leaders.”
Maxis Malaysia Head of Consumer Business Dushyanthan Vathiyanathan believes that it is time for public institutions and the business sector to transform and engage more with people.
“People now are interested in knowing what is happening and not in what you tell them.
“You have to be transparent with them and inform them of anything and everything. That’s because now they have information and do their checks.”

Nation builders wanted
Stories by CHRISTINA CHIN sgchris@thestar.com.my
The Star Malaysia
28 February 2016

Malaysia may not have enough engineers, architects and other professionals to achieve Vision 2020, based on the low level of interest by our students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. If the situation goes on, Malaysia may have to depend on foreign workers to attain developed status, warn experts.
WITH waning interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among schoolchildren, Malaysia may have to turn to foreign workers to help achieve Vision 2020.
Because if the number of science students continue to decline, we won’t have enough engineers, architects, and other sciencerelated professionals to take the country to the next level, academics and industry experts warn.
A nation can’t be built by arts and business graduates alone, Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) secretary-general N. Gopal Kishnam cautions. He points to how South Korea and Singapore have overtaken us, and attributes the success to their emphasis on science.
“Fifty years ago, when we first started nation-building, we were on par with the other two countries. Where are they now? We’re still a labour-intensive economy. It’s because our neighbours focused on education.”
With the Asean Economic Community opening the gates to allow free flow of workers between member countries, foreigners will flood the market as employers here start sourcing for skilled labour from outside the country, he predicts.
“I see more skilled workers coming in from the Philippines. The cost is at least 30% cheaper for local companies to hire them. Meanwhile, we aren’t doing enough to stop the brain drain,” he says, adding that close to a million science graduates are currently working abroad.
Robert Walters expects demand for ICT to surge in the next four years as new technologies enter the country.
“Processes are being automated and technology is moving rapidly so we anticipate an increase in demand for the relevant talent,” observes Sally Raj, managing director of the specialist professional recruitment firm in Malaysia.
And failing to produce enough tech-savvy workers will result in us having to import from other countries, she says, agreeing with Gopal.
“I’m not surprised if they’re willing to accept lower pay packets here because of the lack of opportunities in their own countries.”
Already faced with competition from foreign architects, the Malaysian Institute for Architects (PAM) hopes the Government will give priority to locals.
Its president Mohd Zulhemlee An says the demand for architects is high because there is substantial work, especially in the housing, education and health sectors.
There are some 2,000 professional architects in the country, he says, but the ratio between one architect against the population is 1:15,000 – far below the range of 1:4,000 to 1:8,000 Unesco recommends for developed nations.
“We need to double our numbers. To achieve the Unesco ratio, we must register 400 new architects annually over the next five years. But we’re only registering between 50 and 100 new professionals yearly.”
Attracting more engineering students is paramount for the country to implement and maintain the many development projects. Any shortfall of engineers will hinder the progress of the country, Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) president Datuk Lim Chow Hock says.
The National Council for Scientific Research and Development estimates that Malaysia will need 493,830 scientists and engineers by 2020. However, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation estimates that there will be a shortfall of 236,000 technical personnel, he adds.
“Malaysia produces more than 10,000 engineers yearly but the quality of recent graduates is a concern,” he says.
In September last year, the Academy of Sciences Malaysia warned that Malaysia faces a bleak future with only 21% of those in upper secondary choosing to study science subjects in 2014, The Star reported.
If this trend of upper secondary students shying away from science subjects continues, Malaysia can expect to face a shortage of science graduates in the coming years, the Higher Education Ministry cautions. Interest in pure science has been declining worldwide over the last five to 10 years.
Locally, we’ve seen an increased swing in upper secondary science students applying for arts-related courses at institutions of higher learning, the ministry says in an e-mail reply.
The majority of post-SPM science students (88%), however, tend to pursue science- and technologybased programmes at tertiary level, with about 12% of science students choosing to study non-science fields like literature, economics, accounting, finance, business and management, the ministry reveals.
For the 2015/2016 academic year, a total of 40,438 students were offered spots in 20 public institutions of higher learning nationwide – 59.06% of which were science stream students, the ministry adds. And, once accepted into a public university, about 95% stay in the sciences, it notes.
Utar research, development and commercialisation vice-president Prof Dr Lee Sze Wei is worried. There’s an acute shortage of STEM workers, especially in electrical and electronic engineering and computer science and programming. And he expects the situation to get worse.
Demand for Utar’s engineering and IT graduates has far exceeded supply, he shares, pointing to how top achievers receive multiple offers to choose from. Industry players often lament the shortage of STEM workers, he says.
He, however, says companies are “impatient”. Fresh graduates are expected to contribute from the get go because of the competitive economy.
“To achieve the country’s projected economic growth and industrialisation, we need more STEM graduates. Realising this, a 60:40 science/technical:arts ratio was implemented by the Government since 1970. We’re drifting further and further away from the target.
“As we move up the value chain, we need more knowledge workers, especially in research and development. It will be difficult to meet the Government’s goal of a STEM-driven economy by 2020.”
We are still far from the 60% target, says Prof Dr Yang Farina Abdul Aziz, senior professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
“There has been a drop in the number of science graduates. We have been seeing this trend over the years. A decade ago, there were about 70 students in my final year chemistry class. Now, my class size is down to half,” notes Dr Yang Farina, who is also an Academy of Sciences Malaysia fellow and Malaysian Chemical Institute assistant honorary secretary.
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), however, hasn’t seen a drop in STEM students yet, its deputy vice-chancellor (Academic and International Affairs) Prof Datuk Dr Ahmad Shukri Mustapa Kamal says.
“We have no problems. Year in, year out, our STEM courses are packed full. For competitive programmes like medicine, pharmacy and dentistry, applicants far exceed the places offered.”
Dr Lee foresees the situation worsening if nothing is done to spark interest in the sciences at school level soon.
“We have to figure out why kids are shying away from STEM, which is a global trend,” he warns.
Utar is studying the declining interest in the sciences among secondary and tertiary students. It will conclude its nationwide study next year. The trend, he says, was already evident from as early as 2012.
He estimates that the percentage of students pursuing pure science has hovered below 30% over the last few years.
From visits to schools and discussions with school heads, he says a dislike for mathematics is an often quoted reason. It could also be that students think STEM graduates have only the limited career options of engineer, scientist or doctor, which is wrong, he argues.
New opportunities are opening up every day within STEM industries, he observes. And many STEM graduates do very well in nonSTEM fields because they’re trained to be analytical.
For example, a banker with an engineering background will also look at investment projects from a technical perspective, which is an added advantage.
“STEM graduates branch out into fields like law and economics successfully. Instead of looking at their academic background as a waste, they see it an advantage.”
He advises parents and students not to rule out the sciences in school, even if students don’t think they will end up in a STEM career. This is because a science student can always opt to study accounting or business at tertiary level but an arts student does not have the same flexibility to switch to a STEM degree at tertiary level.
“Students shouldn’t limit their options. And, schools should let students with high interest in science take the science stream instead of just focusing on PT3 exam results to stream them. In the 1980s, students fought to be in the science stream. Now it’s a challenge to fill a class.”
Gopal Kishnam agrees. He calls on the Education Ministry to be “more flexible and open” when streaming students.
Dr Lee thinks the delivery of science and mathematics needs improvement. “Otherwise, the lack of creativity will kill interest.”
Students can’t see how trigonometry, for example, can come in handy in life.
“That’s why it’s important for teachers to focus on applicability. Schools feed us students and we feed the industry. What can we do at tertiary level if there are no science students coming in?” he asks. “If the number of science students coming in is already low, and among them, more are switching to non-STEM degrees, how are we to produce knowledge workers for the country?”
An economy based on creativity and innovation needs human resources with strong foundation in mathematics and sciences, Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan feels.
We must move up the value chain and be more creative and innovative to transform the economy, he says.
“For example, we should be focusing on biotechnology to improve agriculture yield and
quality, and discovering alternative energy sources, but such projects must be initiated by the government.”
There must be a balance between STEM, Arts and Technical and Vocational (TVET) graduates based on current and future industry requirements. Initiatives under the 11th Malaysia Plan are projected to generate approximately 1.5 million new jobs by 2020, of which 60% needs TVET-related skills. But if we can’t produce enough STEM graduates, our ability to retain and attract value-added, high value investment may be compromised, he warns.
In the United States, Japan and other developed countries who are ahead of the rest in fields like nuclear technology and space exploration, much of the work involved is driven by the government through specific research and projects.
Malaysia spends about 1.13% of its GDP on research and development. This is not enough, because developed countries fork out more than 3%.
Stronger governance structures in science and technology and better coordination in implementing national science and technology policies are needed.
“Follow-up on policies is lacking. Some STEM graduates can’t find employment. Meanwhile, most of those who excel in science and mathematics are working overseas,” he says, citing aircraft maintenance graduates as an example.
Dr Lee says this is because there’s a mismatch between graduates skills and what the industry needs. It’s not a lack of demand problem.
“The reason some can’t find jobs is because their competency is not up to par while others may struggle with soft skills like poor English proficiency.”
Shamsuddin agrees. He thinks a way forward is for schools to revert to teaching mathematics and science in English, at both primary and secondary levels. The 40:60 policy needs tweaking as students and parents still prefer the arts compared to the sciences. We’ll only get the numbers if parents and students have better buy-in on the positive aspects of STEM.