I was reading through Mack’s post on unemployed graduates in Malaysia. I left a comment, which subsequently led to a heated debate. I don’t appreciate being called a racist since I pride myself for not being one. I might be a “country-ist”, if there’s such word, but no, never a racist. If it serves to prove my point, I’ve had lusted over males from about every race in and outside Malaysia.
Anyway, back to the main point of this post. I want to talk about what I think about the 60,000 unemployed graduates in this country. It has been established that these 60,000 graduates are unemployable due to lack of proficiency in English, lack of IT skills, lack of communication skills and whatsnot. Then recently, The Star published an article pointing finger at their parents. Apparently, the parents have raised their kids in such environment that they have become socially incapacitated, selfish and spoilt and thus unemployed. But my question is, are these kids unemployed or unemployable?
Being unemployable is as good as being dirt on the street. Being unemployed could mean anything - bad economy, bad attitude, choosy employers, unemployability and so on.
On the parents
For one, I certainly don’t believe 60,000 sets of parents are capable of turning their kids into young adults who are spoilt, selfish and incapable of communicating. There are 20 million people in Malaysia, 2 million of them in Kuala Lumpur and you’re telling me there are 120,000 adults who have no inkling on how to properly bring their kids up? Lets leave all the bad parenting and their social problems out of this debate and focus on parents who have seen to it to make sure their children graduate from Universities. Is this group of parents, 120,000 of them, incapable of bringing their children up?
On the graduates and Universities
I pity the graduates. I certainly feel they’re the true victims here. Chez revealed that the racial ratio of the unemployed graduates are (70:30, bumiputra:non-bumiputra), I can’t verify that figure but if it’s true, then it has confirmed my deep suspicion. Why do bumiputras make such a big chunk of the unemployed graduates? The crux of the matter is not their race, it’s the handout mentality (which would have affected anyone of any race). The truth is, people who are having it too easy usually do not know how to appreciate what they’re enjoying. Here’s an illustration:
Students having things too easy >>> Many bad grades >>> Universities freak out >>> Universities lower passing grades (politically motivated or status motivated, who knows?) >>> Many students graduate >>> Many of them have no real qualifications to boast about >>> Truth revealed during job interviews >>> Surging unemployment
In the article, students with foreign degrees are said to be more employable than their counterparts. These students pay a minimum RM40,000 to acquire a basic foreign degree. These students (the less affluent anyway), myself included are pressured to recover the cost of their education by making themselves at least employed. Say if a bulk of these graduates were unemployable, how do you think these private institutions are going to survive in the long run? By hook and by crook, they must churn out employable students otherwise their good names will go down in flames. From personal experience, my university constantly conducts assessment on lecturers’ performance, students’ performance, the modules and so on to sustain the university’s performance. Lowering passing grade to allow students to pass is unheard of. However, that does not mean private institutions thrive on eliminating the black sheep, they do allow these students to graduate (after exhausting the final opportunity), abeit with less stellar certificates.
The solution to this should be allowing equal opportunity for everyone. This way everyone is encouraged to compete while those who are not made for competition could seek other greener pasteurs. And eventually standards of university can be raised and sustained.
On the employers
My question is, are they lacking of employable graduates? If they’re not, then it brings to us to another probable reason, that there are simply not enough jobs to go around. My fear is that all this brouhaha surrounding the mystery of unemployed graduates will eventually lead to a mass paranoia among graduates in Malaysia.
This will ultimately lead to them to clinging to a job that underpays and overworks. And then, they leave the jobs. And then, they are alleged to have attitude problem. And then, other graduates scramble to occupy the vacancies. The employers? They have nothing to lose. The winner in this mess ultimately would be the them.
Which magical entity will see to it to create more jobs? Oh, appear before me please…
On the government
Government, what government? No mention also? The government is great and has nothing to do with this. Hail the government.
Unemployed or unemployable?
Either way, you’re doomed. There is no one to be blamed except for yourself. Sure, these problems were bred from certain sources but the fact that you already knew this should make you stronger, not more pathetic.
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This is my personal opinion, flawed or not I’d love to hear your take. Personal attacks however will be promptly deleted.
suanie said:
on November 10, 2005 at 2:05 am
So back to point 1, it’s.all.about.the.attitudes.
lydia said:
on November 10, 2005 at 2:30 am
i think the thing that makes the situation worse, is the denial and the pointing-the-finger mentality. facts n stats right under the nose, and some ppl can juz turn it the other way round. it’s high time that problems ought to be solved by looking at the core, n not juz the surface.
now, if onli the relevant authorities can see that.
Ben said:
on November 10, 2005 at 2:34 am
oh, what a good post.
i wonder about my employability back in malaysia. it’s bad enough with the low average salary, with the demand for jobs rising, i don’t see how the the average salary will keep up with high inflation rates… it’s so sad.
cyber-red said:
on November 10, 2005 at 3:22 am
dependency theory ya’ll.
rewarding ppl thru loans, then they bite the hands that feed them bla bla.
*yawn*
ppl should just stop being picky. pronto.
diggo said:
on November 10, 2005 at 9:34 am
Seems like the M’sia’s bumi mentality…
The tertiary institutions in M’sia are not known to churn out good quality graduates. That is why the most leave the country for further education. Take for example sarawak, most ppl with the minimum capability will sent their son/daughter for an overseas education.
IMHO, the bumi handouts mentality is the sole culprit. Competition for jobs will always be there. In the end, wat r ur strenghts tat u can contribute will move u up the ladder… no one will want to forever holding down the same job.
stalker said:
on November 10, 2005 at 11:42 am
if they still want to depend on silverspoon, let them be. if they still left behind, they can’t help it but to blame themselves. just my opinion.
BawangMerah said:
on November 10, 2005 at 12:53 pm
I always find it funny when the problem is about soemthing else, but people like to drag in racial discrimination at every chance they get. I guess benefit of doubt is hard to come by nowadays. More likely many are still insecure about racial integration.
But why blame the parents, if their kids turn out unemployable? There are kids who come from broken families, but succeed in not only getting good grades but also good life. It’s always about the mentality to succeed. And the mentality of wanting to live your life by your own means. To be independent as much as possible. Even if you’re spoon fed, if you don’t want to stand on your own two feet, then there is no way you’re going to move forward. There are people who even if they are spoon fed, still insist on standing on their own two feet and be successful.
People can change if they want to. The question is, would they want to?
Ps. everytime I read your blog, I see white page with long set of text. I thought maybe you like the simple layout. Today I read using firefox, then only I see the layout. Turns out opera’s default setting indentifies itself as IE, kekekek. Change to mozilla then ok.
spot said:
on November 10, 2005 at 3:43 pm
It’s sad when the desperate cry of “racist” is used to shut down any discussion on the factor of race.
That being said though, kimberly, the ratio provided by chez actually answers your question of “Why do bumiputras make such a big chunk of the unemployed graduates?”. The ratio is approximately that of Malaysia’s racial demographic (isn’t it 60:30:10?). Hence it shouldn’t be too shocking to see the demographic ratio reflected in any statistic.
I agree that the “discrimination” is the major factor, BUT the problem lies not in the concept of Malaysia’s affirmative action (which is what the “discrimination” is, in theory) policy itself.
Affirmative action is necessary. Our problem is that affirmative action, as practised in Malaysia, has gone wrong.
I say that there should be affirmative action quotas to enter university. The reason why it’s so unpalatable to us in Malaysia, is that the quota benefits the majority, unlike in the US.
Where Malaysia has gone wrong, is to lower pass marks and to make the syllabus easier. Why? Artificial generation of pride.
Affirmative action should be utilised merely to facilitate access for certain segments of society, on the acknowledgement that those people need to be helped because of a particular characteristic (which really, was originally impoverishment). Beyond that, it should be based on merit.
What we see in Malaysia, is the misdirected extension of the affirmative action into giving that segment of society a feeling of entitlement to reap rewards/benefits(some call it “rights”) based on their distinguishing characteristic, ie race.
admin: yes, i have given thought about that too. the ratio of unemployed graduates is reflected in the ratio of Malaysia’s population, which at 1st sight would seem to break down what i have put forward. however, as the handout mentality by the majority affects the standards of universities, the standards themselves eventually will affect those without the privilege of handouts too. hence, the existing ratio. and yes, i can’t agree more with your take on affirmative action.
The_Discriminator said:
on November 10, 2005 at 9:04 pm
No matter what , those posers will shut us up just because what we said to them are so called racist . Serve them right I say , as they still blur by their self denial , like the UM Chancellor about the ranking . My mom , who studied in UM before , laughed at the recent UM’s state .
infin said:
on November 11, 2005 at 1:18 pm
Besides being unemployable (lacking communication skills/requisite skills/brains) they’re basically kids who don’t understand that a life of work is spread out before them, since they obviously aren’t finding other ways to earn a living. Some of them will just idly wait for some job to come along with out actually applying for it, some of them are content to sit around until their parents complain about the lack of employment opportunities when their kids lie, saying there is no work to be had.
On the other hand, I’ve had the wondrous opportunity to train these unemployed grads for the government SLG schemes. While there are some obvious kids who’d rather be somewhere else, there are still those who’re genuinely interested in acquiring the skills and knowhow that would help them to land a job, who’ve been unable to do so because of their lack of experience and/or professional qualifications.
So we can deduct two further reasons for unemployment - fresh grads without experience/professional qualifications aren’t preferred for the job and fresh grads can be too choosy for their own good.
I say, slog it out for a year at some low-paying job and use that experience to get a better paying job, if possible one that provides good career options. Rinse and repeat until one finally gets a job worth working for. ‘Course, some employers don’t take lightly to people making the jump every year, so that would be a 2 year minimum if one could take it.
bottle said:
on November 12, 2005 at 2:30 am
the graduates are to blame just themselves. they have the brain, but they don’t know how to think with it.
i’ll slap them one by one