What the writer pointed out in the letter Graduates need to look at work differently is correct but probably not the full picture.

I am a Malaysian citizen currently working and living in Europe. Visit the cinemas, restaurants, pubs and supermarkets here and you'll realise that the attendants, waiters or shop assistants that work in these places are mostly university students doing part-time jobs to earn extra pocket money.

It is not uncommon as well for graduates to take up temporary jobs while hunting for permanent ones that are better suited to their qualifications. Evidently, this tends not to be case in Malaysia. However, the real reason that graduates in Malaysia look at work differently is because it is more likely they are paid differently.

Malaysia appears to have decided that the country only needs to produce or train university graduates and simply import the rest. Hence the large influx of foreign workers to fill jobs that are labour intensive.

It is totally unrealistic to expect students in Malaysia to compete with these foreign workers who are willing to work long hours for low pay. There is absolutely no incentive for a shop to hire a student as part-time shopkeeper if an imported worker is more than willing to work full-time for the same wage.

Similarly, there won't be much incentive if 20 hours of part-time work a month won't even pay for a decent textbook.

In the Netherlands where I now live, you can make a fairly decent living working as a road builder, bus driver or waiter. In fact, you probably won't earn any much less than the average engineer or accountant for as long as you're willing to put in the sweat and hours.

A carpenter here may not have a university degree but he can be a professional in his own right with all the relevant paper qualifications. Just because he works more with his hands than his brain doesn't mean that he should be paid any less.

In fact, some jobs that are labour intensive need to be more financially rewarding in order to attract people with the right kind of skills and attitude.

Malaysia continues to fail to recognise the need for home-grown skilled and semi-skilled workers. All labour intensive jobs are considered 'low class' and therefore there are little efforts to improve skills quality.

In the long run, Malaysia will not have Malaysian plumbers and in fact, won't have in place a system for anyone to gain the qualification and skills of a plumber. All plumbers will be imported and because the Malaysian market is deemed to be low-paying, these plumbers will come with dubious qualifications and skills.

You may have had the most brilliant mechanical engineer to design your home's central air conditioning system but you'll probably find it leaking everywhere all the time due to, yup, you've guessed it - poor plumbing.

Clearly, it is not hard to see that it will be all downhill from there onwards.