Abdul Rahman Dahlan, a former minister in Malaysia, has suggested that Singapore should provide compensation when hiring Malaysian medical professionals.
The compensation relates to the subsidised training and education that Malaysian healthcare workers received.
Rahman laid out his proposal in a Facebook post on Tuesday (9 Sept), commenting on the brain drain situation faced by Malaysia as trained medical professionals were leaving the country.
Rahman noted in his post that Malaysian medical professionals should not be barred from relocating or working in Singapore.
“Their right to decide their own future must be respected,” said Rahman.
Instead, Rahman suggested that Malaysia should recover the subsidies that it had spent on educating and training its doctors and nurses, should they leave the country.
Source: Nappy on Unsplash. For illustration purposes only.
The recovered funds can then be used to improve healthcare services for Malaysians, a move Rahman said is “the only fair thing to do”.
Rahman also suggested an alternative solution in the form of a levy borne by Singaporean employers.
He called the approach a “win-win situation for everyone” — hospitals in Singapore get the talent they need, and the Malaysian government recovers subsidies spent on its medical professionals.
However, Rahman acknowledged that the solution has “never been done before” and therefore expects “a lot of technical and legal issues” that require addressing before it is implemented.
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Featured image adapted from Facebook and Aflo Images on Canva. Picture on the right is for illustration purposes only.