by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, June 13, 1991:
DAP calls for the creation of a completely different salary structure for the academic staff of universities from the 800,000-strong civil service to resolve the serious problem of brain drain and deterioration of academic standards
The time has come for the Government to face up to the serious problem of brain drain in the local universities which has gravely undermined academic standards.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Malaya, Professor Taib Osman, said in Tuesday that the University is too lose one of its most experienced cardiac surgeons to the private sector. At least three other lecturers, considered the cream of the academic staff, have also indicated their intention to resign.
In the past three years, 80 lecturers, 70 of whom are from the medical faculty, have quit the University of Malaya.
In the past decade, academic standards in the local universities had been seriously compromised for a variety of reasons, one of which is the unattractive service scheme and salary structure.
I fully agree with Prof.Taib that so long as the lecturers are placed in the same bracket with other civil service staff, the problem of the brain drain from local universities to the private sector and the continued deterioration of academic standards would continue to persist.
For this reason, the DAP calls for creation of a completely separate salary structure for the academic staff in the universities, which has no connection whatsoever with the 800,000-strong civil service salary structure.
This is radical measure, but the long-standing problem of brain drain and deterioration of academic standards in our universities justify such a radical solution.