DPM's Ops Isi Penuh

In my posting Mandarin masks "mei yu gongzuo" more than 2 months ago, I mentioned that many bloggers were pissed off with DPM Najib for having the double-face and double standards to criticise some in the private sector for discriminatory practice in recruiting only those who are proficient in the Mandarin language.

I categorised the bloggers into two camps, where one camp demanded of Najib to criticise the government’s own discriminatory recruitment practice as well, while the other camp was more erudite in pointing out that employers advertised for Mandarin speaking staff as a job-related requirement rather than for specific ethnicity.

By now Najib realises he cannot conveniently shift the blame on to the private sector, and said that the Second Finance Minister would be meeting government-linked companies including private companies to offer them double tax deductions if they provide executive graduate training programmes for the unemployed graduates.

He also wants the Higher Education Ministry to review university courses to ensure they are relevant for graduates to get jobs upon graduation. He said: “The curriculum in colleges and universities should reflect the demand in the market.”

Amazing. He actually realised that.

Then he added an even more amazing pearl of wisdom, that the Education Ministry should also study the weaknesses in the school curriculum as many of the unemployed graduates could not communicate in English.

What about Mandarin? He seemed to have forgotten his earlier accusation.

Finally, he came to the solution: he instructed the Public Services Department (PSD) and Public Services Commission to speed up the recruitment of graduates to fill some 30,000 vacancies in the civil service. That should halve the figure of unemployed graduates. He revealed that 70% of the 60,000 unemployed graduates are bumiputras.

It's Najib's Operations Isi Penuh (fill up to full), though not with petrol but jobless university graduates.