by Zairil Khir Johari
Yesterday, BN candidate for the Telok Intan by-election, Dato’ Mah Siew Keong unveiled his manifesto. Amongst other things, one of his main pledges was to build a university for the suburban constituency.
The setting up of a university in Telok Intan is of course a positive suggestion, as it will not only help to serve the southern Perak region, but also catalyse local economic growth. As the incumbent Federal government, it is irresponsible of the BN to make the construction of the university conditional upon winning. By-elections should not be turned into buy-elections as voters by blackmailing voters.
Greater need for high-paying jobs
However, simply building more universities will not solve the problem faced by Malaysian youth. The real problem occurs after graduation when many are unable to get jobs and end up being underemployed or working in jobs that do not commensurate with their qualification.
According to the latest available World Bank data, youth unemployment in Malaysia stood at 10.3 per cent in 2012, which is higher than our regional peers such as Thailand (2.8 per cent), Singapore (6.7 per cent) and even Japan during its economic turmoil (8 per cent). While the Federal Government points out that 10.3 per cent is low compared to European countries, it makes absolutely no sense to make such a comparison when Europe is going through a sustained economic crisis.
The figure is even higher when youth underemployment is considered. According to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Dato’ Sri Abdul Wahid Omar, 15.1 per cent of Malaysian youth are employed in jobs that are not on par with what they deserve as graduates. Compounding this is the fact that 70 per cent of our workforce comprises unskilled or low-skilled workers, a ratio that is again alarmingly high compared to our neighbours.
The Federal Government must therefore take responsibility for the fact that tens of thousands of our graduates remain either unemployed or end up underemployed even after spending four years of their lives earning a certificate that is supposed to help them get well-paying jobs.
The solution is not more universities
It is clear that the problem is not the lack of universities, but the lack of jobs that not only suit our graduates’ qualifications but also pay commensurately.
To resolve this problem we need to update the syllabus and course content of our universities in order to make them more relevant to the needs of industry. In addition to that, we should also be focusing on emerging trends and high-paying, knowledge-based industries rather than the current syllabus that trains our future workforce in skills that are out-dated the moment they graduate.
In addition, the Federal Government needs to put more investment into up-skilling and re-skilling workers, and reduce the widespread over-reliance on cheap, unskilled foreign labour. There also needs to be more incentives to mechanise and automate in order to create skilled jobs that pay better.
In the Pakatan Rakyat state of Penang, a RM3.3 billion Information Technology Outsourcing-Business Process Outsourcing (ITO-BPO) Hub has been launched that will see the creation of tens of thousands of high-paying, knowledge-intensive jobs.
Already, the likes of Citibank, Wilmar, Air Asia and many others have been attracted to relocate their shared services facilities in Penang. Citibank, for example, now employs more than a thousand local employees who are entrusted to manage transactions worth USD5.8 trillion annually.
Alongside the existing manufacturing sector and other services such as tourism and health, the ITO-BPO Hub is set to propel Penang into a high-income economy.
Thus, while building more universities may seem like a good idea, it is pointless to do so if it will not result in social mobility and better-paying jobs. Instead, the government’s focus should be on facilitating value-added, higher-productivity industries that will be able to give local Malaysians a decent income and a better life. -The Rocket
