Are there so many unemployed graduates numbering 60,000 because they have taken the wrong disciplines of study and lack communication skills? Minister of Human Resources Dr Fong Chan Onn has said: "Universities must ensure that their graduates are marketable. It's sad when after their studies, they cannot find jobs because they lack the required disciplines, skills, language and experience".

It is amazing this often repeated statement by Fong is nothing more than rhetoric. What the government has failed to address all these years is the issue of how many jobs are being created by the industries in the country over the last five years or so.

We all know as a fact that foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country has been shrinking and as a result new jobs are not created. To add insult to injury, companies are relocating to other parts of the world because our labour is no longer as cheap or as productive as Thailand, China, Vietnam, etc.

In addition, our labour laws are "overly protective" of employees. So why waste time investing in Malaysia? The ultimate losers are those just joining the employment market.

The SMI's in the country are hardly recruiting employees because they are still scraping the bottom of the barrel after the last recession. Their existing employees have to do more for less.

It is high time the government not look for scapegoats but address the main problems they are faced with and that is that there have not been enough jobs created in the country over the last five to eight years or so.

If universities are churning out unemployable graduates, then let's have a hard look at these universities - should they be closed down?