JITRA: Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamaad should not have belittled graduates who earn a living by venturing into small scale businesses like selling nasi lemak or becoming Uber drivers.
Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaacob said Dr Mahathir should not expect graduates to be able to immediately start large-scale businesses.
He said it would be wiser for the graduates to start with small-scale businesses so that they are able to learn how to manage and build capacities.
“The world has changed.. I think Tun Dr Mahathir is still trapped in his old world. It is common for graduates to start a business at a small scale and build up their capacity before they own a shop to run the business. It is not nice to belittle or to insult graduates who are selling nasi lemak to earn a living,” he said after presenting Mobilepreneur@KKLW grants to 76 entrepreneurs in the services sector from Kedah and Perlis.
Ismail Sabri said the the Mobilepreneur programme, which aimed to encourage youths to venture into business has proved that the government has never neglected the group.
He said about 3,500 youths nationwide have benefited from the programme as they are now involved in various mobile business without having to open a shop first.
“We are set a target to help another 1,000 youths to sign up for the programme this year. We can see that the youths now have keen interest to venture into online businesses and the government is helping them through Mobilepreneur and GETS (Graduate Employability Training Scheme),” he said.
Recently, Dr Mahathir had claimed that the government had failed to produce graduates that suited market demand, resulting in many graduates resorting to taking up jobs that do not match their qualifications, such as selling nasi lemak and becoming e-hailing service drivers for companies such as Uber.