HOW STUPID IS NAJIB! YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED NOT PROUD WHEN MALAY GRADS HAVE TO SELL ‘NASI LEMAK’ BECAUSE THEY CANNOT GET JOBS, DR MAHATHIR RAPS NAJIB REGIME’S POOR GOVERNANCE

THE need for Malaysian graduates to work as “nasi lemak” sellers and Uber drivers is due to the failure of the government in providing an education that prepares them for the job market, said opposition leader Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“We cannot be proud when the graduates are selling nasi lemak or working as Uber drivers, because they are bearing the burden of not having a proper income.

“They are forced to sell nasi lemak because they do not have job opportunities. We are training them to their full potential, not to be Uber drivers and nasi lemak sellers,”   Dr Mahathir said during a question-and-answer session during PH’s policy talk on Facebook today.

He said it was an “embarrassment” to the nation that its graduates needed to resort to selling “nasi lemak” in order to make ends meet.

“This is the failure of the government,” said the 92-year-old former prime minister-turned-opposition leader.

“If we want them to sell nasi lemak we should have a university that teaches them how to sell nasi lemak.

“We don’t have that kind of university.”

Dr Mahathir added in his speech earlier that the youth unemployment rate (11%) is three times more than the current national average (3%).

He said instead of increasing budget allocations to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Putrajaya should be building up the education system.

“What we see is that the government is reducing the education budget allocation (instead).

“Like university (allocations), the budget is reduced to RM1.1 billion and we find that there is more allocation for the PMO; three to four times more than my time,” he said.

“We find that the allocation for the PMO is so high, and we believe that this high allocation is not listed in the budget and is being used to give allowance and salaries that are not in the budget.

“Like the fishermen, Imams and village leaders salaries that make the government popular, but its benefit as a whole is reduced, this is the problem now,” he said.

Another commenter identified as Lutfi Ismail, asked Dr Mahathir whether youths will be incorporated in the PH administration in the future.

Dr Mahathir said that while every opportunity will be given to youths to utilise their training and their ideas, society could not sidestep the experience and value of the elderly.

“We believe in the young generation; they have an idealist viewpoint, where the situation is peaceful and the country is developed, but to achieve this, it is not easy.

“We need unity among the youths and their idealism, with the experience from the elderly, with this only we can realise the ideas.

“As how much as we welcome the youths, we cannot sideline the experience of the old, as experience is the best teacher,” he said.  

He also reiterated that foreign investment should be used to the advantage of Malaysians to get better jobs and increase living standards.

“Education, job opportunities and investment has a strong link together; if they are not together it is a mismatch,” he said.

– https://www.themalaysianinsight.com