Yes Ilchew I did make that comment and edited it out soon after, as it was misconstrued to be that I was calling the malaysian guys monkeys which was not what I meant. The saying is common where I come from, and it is used to say that you get what you pay for, and while yes you can pay less and get recruits from certain areas, it has been shown in the past that these recruits have not been succesful for whatever reason. Whether that reason is due to a difficulty with english, or just they are not able to adapt in time to a different ATC culture I don't know.
Having trained one of the guys briefly, he had a big problem here, because, as executive controller on a sector, you are responsible to do all the calls, as well as the strips, as well as coordinate revisions etc. So effectively 1 guy doing the job of 2 1/2 back home, if not 3. Thats not saying that the work here is harder or easier but it is certainly different and handled in a different way.
Anyway I am sure if you are from KL, you can talk to the guys concerned and find out first hand why they didn't make it (while you're at it ask them if they have seen an Australian Air Force Coffee cup belonging to one of the the OJTI's here, that went missing the same day one of the trainees got cut
)
And the comment about who trained the controllers, yes of course most of them were trained by Serco, but some were also trained by local GCAA employed guys, so as to avoid that kind of accusation and did those guys do any better? No they failed as well. The guys were given every opportunity (actually more than usual I would say), and had their training extended and still couldn't make it, so don't go blaming the training.
As far as the beer goes, from what I hear you guys are paid I think it better be me that buys the beer.