In his second policy talk today, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) prime ministerial candidate said many graduates end up becoming drivers for ride-hailing companies such as Uber, or sell nasi lemak to earn a living.
This, said Dr Mahathir, was then proudly shown on the media as their success.
But the PH chairman said it should be a cause of embarrassment.
“We cannot be proud that our graduates drive Uber or sell nasi lemak . Instead, we must realise that despite the high level of training and knowledge they have received, they are forced to do jobs which have nothing to do with that training or knowledge,” he said.
He said it was a sign that the job market was unable to match these trained individuals with suitable jobs.
“If we wanted them to be trained as Uber drivers or nasi lemak salesmen then we would have opened a university teaching them to sell nasi lemak, but we don’t have such a university,” Mahathir added.
The Economic Report 2017/2018 released for Budget 2018 said the local multi-billion ringgit “sharing economy” which includes ride-hailing services like Uber could potentially help the lower-income group earn more and reduce the number of unemployed youths.
The Najib administration had in the past announced an incentive to help Malaysians become Uber and Grab drivers, including giving a rebate of RM4,000 when buying a Proton Iriz car.
Mahathir’s policy talk today focussed on youth empowerment, as well as their role in any future administration under PH.
He said while the younger generation’s involvement was crucial, their full potential could be reached with help from the seniors.
“We need to have both the idealistic youth as well as those who are more experienced working next to each other.
“So while we welcome the youth, we cannot set aside those who are older because as the saying goes, experience is the best teacher,” he said.
The speech today is part of a series of talks by Mahathir, where he will also answer questions posted online about PH’s policies.
Last week, Mahathir defended his policy to make highway users pay tolls, following an attack by Prime Minister Najib Razak who called him the “father of tolls”.
Mahathir also said toll rates in Malaysia were the lowest in the world.
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