BIASES AGAINST MALAY GRADUATES?

Bias against Malay graduates

19th. April 2005, The Star, Page 10, Nation

No Proof of biases against Malay graduates

There is no proof that certain companies are discriminating against employing local Malay graduates on the grounds that they lack the necessary skills,said Deputy Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin.

“We do not want to make the assumption that there is racial discrimination, but we also ask why the entry of graduates into certain companies tend to be those from a particular race,” he said.

Youth chief Datuk Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said companies could no longer use their “1,001 excuses” for not hiring local Malay graduates as Pintar would provide graduates with the skills necessary to gain employment. However, he believed that a lot also depended on the graduates' ability to convince the companies to hire them.

Hishammuddin and Khairy were responding to a question on whether other races were being favoured over local Malay graduates in the hiring process.

Pintar is a two-month internship programme where the best bumiputra students from six public and private universities in the Klang Valley are selected to be placed in top corporations for on-the-job training. The programme’s 28 partners include MNCs, GLCs, & premier PLCs.

Asked why only students with a CGPA of 3.5 and above were being selected for the programme, Khairy said it was wrong to assume that students with a high CGPA could easily gain employment.

ANALYSIS:

Why is this question constantly nagging the representors of Malays? Is it that they are paranoid, or are they playing the tune of racial discrimination?

The question of employability and being employable in corporate sectors has much to do with corporate decision-making based on the needs and strategic fit of individuals meeting the organizational criteria and objectives. The basic philosophy of business entities is largely grounded in their goal setting - that is, PROFIT & GROWTH!

So, the question to be posed should have been: "Why is the corporation choosing Ah Chong instead of Ah Mad? Is it because of the skin? Nay! Is it because of the fact that he is a Malay graduate? Nay! Then what?

The likely answer will be: "It doesn't matter whether he is Ah Chong or AhMad or Muthu, or George Bitch". What matters is: does that person fit the corporate needs and is he able to perform to bring in the business that generates the profit and continually do it such that the company will extract his efforts to generate profits.

There are many Ah Chongs, Ah Bengs, Maniam and Samy who are also unemployed - JOBLESS GRADUATES!

So, if the UMNO youth leaders which also represents the whole Malaysian spectrums are pondering, it should include all unemployed graduates and should not insinuate the racial divide and biases.

Paradoxically, if we take a hard look on the employment of graduates to civil services, it is undoubted that the employment policies is inclined towards Southward racial polarity. PERIOD!

Being a Malaysian, by birth, it saddens me that the racial divide is constantly be propagated by the sectorial political masters and political representors. Instead of striving to seek harmony and integration of the population as a whole, as as Malaysians in general, the sectorial representors are continually harping on racial biases of Malays, which paradoxically sould have been the other direction. PERIOD! How true it is that when one points a finger at others, the other four fingers are pointing back at the propagator.

So, what is the problem of those unemployed graduates? The fundamental issue is: we are now producing graduates with the same mould and machine as 20 years ago - ARCHIAC AND ANCIENT. The Universities are not keeping up with time and changes. The global economy is evolving, and the needs of corporations are HUMAN CAPITAL. Did the universities produce Human Capital or Human Resources?

If we take a good look at the graduates, you will find that they are lacking... they can't communicate, they can't take stress, they won't work long hours, they want managerial positions, they want high salary and good renumerations and benefits and paid-holidays.

WHY? Because they had been spoon-fed and breast-feed all those years of their lives in schools and colleges. They were paid to study (Scholarship holders). They were taught to learn by rote. They were assisted to pass the exam. They were special and pampered.

Now, upon graduation, they are out in the open - facing the warth of the commercial world. The cultural shock began. They won't be pampered anymore. They had to strive and produce results to justify the the salary paid to them. They have to meet clients; convince clients of their products or services. But, many can't communicate clearly and tactfully. Many still behave as if the world owes them a living; that should the corporations fails to pamper them, UMNO Youth is there to help them and punish those corporations. In the end, we scare away foreign investors, including local investors. It is as though every corporation must accomodate incompetencies and mediocrity and to provide subsidies....

Whose fault is it? Do we go on threatening corporations so as to derive subsidies?

These problematic gradutes are not Malays only. They include Chinese and Indians too. Basically, they were those childrens whose parents have pampered them by giving them too much monies to entice them to go to college. Colleges and Universities also played a big part in moulding them to be what they are - unemployable. They were taught to learn by rote, they were assisted to pass exams, they were given notes and research papers. They were provided with almost anything they need for the 3-4 years in Universities. So, they need not spent time in research and surveys; and they graduated as automatons with puerile mindset, and with a strong conviction that the world owes them a living - ie, thats their rights and privilege.

But for many of the Chinese and Indians, who weren't scholarship holders, do not have parents who are rich, and those that had scholarships have to sent back some of those monies (derived from scholarship allowances) to assist their parents to make ends meet - they know that they had to graduate and be employable. They cannot disappoint their parents who had high hopes rested upon them. They know, they had to graduate and get a good job and pay packet to survive and at the same time, contribute to the family expenses plus the educational and financial needs of their younger siblings. They will take any job that brings in the monies, no matter how tough and stressful it may be.... and they were employed!!!!!

Would those unemployed look within themselves and search their own weaknesses? Would those political masters do the same too? How many people have parents like Khairy who can afford to sent their children to Oxford and Cambridge; and how many daughters does Pak Lah have to generate rich son-in-laws? Khairy is a lucky and blessed person; but many others won't be that lucky!!!!!