Meeting Malaysians in Boston

I'm amazed at the number of comments generated by the TARC post. I was surprised that TARC's diplomas are not recognized by the government but after some careful thought I realized that this shouldn't be so surprising. Anyways, I think it's time to move on to other topics, some old some new. But first, an update on my Boston trip and why I haven't posted anything in more than a week.

I was in Boston last weekend presenting a paper at a conference and met a few interesting Malaysian students while I was there. There was Jian Wei, former VI boy and a JPA sponsored Stanford undergrad who was in Boston for his spring break. There was Elaine, currently working in Boston and graduate of Wellesley College, one of the top women's liberal arts colleges in the US. There was Shien Jin, a Malacca High School boy, a graduate of MIT and will soon be graduating with a PhD in computer science from Harvard. There was Sui Lin, a Kuen Cheng grad and a JPA scholar (who took UEC exams instead of STPM!), who is currently in Wellesley. (for more on top SPM scorer Sui Lin check out this old Jeff Ooi Screenshot archive) There was Nick Choo, U of Texas (Austin) graduate who is currently working at a hedge fund in Boston and who kindly hosted us and cooked us excellent chicken rice! (Thanks Nick!) There was Karen Teoh, an old friend from my Singapore days (who didn't join us for dinner), a graduate of Yale who's doing her PhD in History at Harvard. And finally there was Cheong Soon, a fellow La Sallian who lived and grew up in a same neighborhood as myself (Section 5, PJ), who worked in Singapore for 13 years as a journalist before switching careers to do his PhD in History at UCal Berkeley.

There were a few things which struck me about my meeting with these Malaysians.

The first is that most of us took different paths to get where we are today. Sui Lin, was in a Chinese educational environment all her life before coming to the US and even had the guts to take the UEC exam, which many people say is even harder than STPM! Shien Jin applied to and got accepted by MIT after his SPM. Karen studied in Kuen Cheng at the primary level and went to Singapore to do her O and A levels before going to the US. Cheong Soon did his undergrad in UM and then worked 13 years in Singapore before going back to school at the PhD level in the US. So, there's no one single path to higher education in the US.

Secondly, many of us have different intellectual and experiential interests. Sui Lin has worked with the World Bank, NGOs (in her summers) and is interested in the social as well as profit driven aspects of the financial world. Karen is doing her PhD on the impact of education on women in all girls Chinese and missionary schools in Singapore and Malaysia, a topic which few (or any) have worked on in the past. Cheong Soon is looking at how ethnicity is portrayed in Malaysian newspapers prior to 1969. Shien Jin's PhD was in the area of cryptography. It's always refreshing to hear the kinds of things which different Malaysians are up to when I meet them here in the US.

Thirdly, many of us still feel a strong attachment to Malaysia and feel that it is still home to us. I plan to return to Malaysia eventually. Sui Lin expressed the same sentiment to me. I'm sure that the others, if given the right opportunities will gladly return to Malaysia, even if it is for a short term assignment or work related opportunity. I'm sure the same sentiment is shared by many Malaysians overseas. If the government can demonstrate that it is willing to be more open in its approach towards employment and promotion opportunities be it in the civil service, in the public universities, in the hospitals, in the GLCs, many qualified Malaysians will be willing to return and contribute their part. After all, family, friends and food are all to be found in Malaysia.

Boston is a great place to visit, especially when it's not snowing. It was great to meet up with some old friends and get to know some new ones. It was also a great honor to listen to Malaysian poet laureate Mohammed Haji Salleh, who is currently a visiting fellow at the Harvard-Yen Ching Institute, who read some of his poems at the conference I was attending. But all good things had to come to an end and I returned to Boston with my wife last Sunday and prompted fell ill, hence my lack of posts for the past week or so. I'm almost recovered now and have a few posts to get off my chest so here goes!