Dr Mahathir said university graduates were highly-trained and should instead have jobs that match their capabilities and education. ― Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 — Tertiary graduates earning a living by becoming nasi lemak sellers or ride-sharing drivers is a sign the country does not have enough high-income jobs and not something to boast about, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

The former prime minister said such developments suggested that Malaysians were now struggling to get by with just a single job, rather than any indicator of growing entrepreneurship.

“We cannot be proud of those involved in selling nasi lemak or becoming Uber drivers. This is for them to sustain their income as they have no income sources,” he said during his second Policy Talk session broadcast “live” on his official Facebook account.

Dr Mahathir, who is also the chairman of federal Opposition Pakatan Harapan, said university graduates were highly-trained and should instead have jobs that match their capabilities and education.

He claimed that those involved in selling nasi lemak or driving part-time for ride-sharing services did so only because they have no job opportunities.

Dr Mahathir further claimed that it indicated the government's failure in ensuring university graduates are employed in jobs with salaries matching their ability levels.

“It's not that we want to train them to become Uber driver and to sell nasi lemak, if we wanted to sell nasi lemak, we should have a university that teaches us how to sell nasi lemak, but we don't have such universities,” he said.

“This is something that shames the country when graduates sell nasi lemak. This shows the government's failure to match training and mastery of knowledge with job opportunities,” he claimed.

Dr Mahathir was responding to a question from the public that said university graduates who become part-time Uber drivers are effectively taxi drivers, and which criticised the parading of graduates who set up nasi lemak stores as “testament of economic success”.

The question also alleged that this reflects the government's failure in creating jobs.

Dr Mahathir's Policy Talk session today was focused on the youth, and he highlighted the importance of the connectedness of education, job opportunities and investment.

Dr Mahathir, who was recently named Pakatan Harapan's candidate to be PM, spoke of the alleged mismatch between the training of university graduates and the demands of the industry.

He claimed that government funding for research and development at universities have been slashed, and that there has not been increased allocation for fields such as technology, engineering and information technology.

“Because we don't have such allocation, we find when they graduate from universities, there are no job opportunities because there must be a match between their knowledge and their job which they will do when they grow up to get income.

“We find that the unemployment rate among youth is very high. The unemployment rate among youth is three times higher than the national average. The national average is three per cent but for youths, it is 11 per cent,” he said.