PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar has questioned whether BN can truly implement its manifesto promise of generating three million new jobs.

“The commitment to create one million new jobs, specifically skilled jobs, which was promised by Pakatan Harapan is not merely election talk but it is our commitment stemming from the failure of BN’s administration to fulfil its promise.

“The question of equal importance is whether BN is able to carry out its manifesto of creating three million new jobs when only 2.26 million jobs have been created since 2010 to 2016,” she said in a statement today.

She pointed out that BN’s promise this election, at three million jobs, is less than its promise in the 13th general election (GE13) where they had said they would create 3.3 million new jobs.

Questioning BN’s reason for this reduction, she also said that the ruling government had not fulfilled that promise from GE13 either.

“This is a clear sign that BN is also not confident of their policies in preparing these job opportunities to the rakyat in the next five years.

“The sad reality is, most of the new jobs are not in the highly skilled category and they are dominated by foreign workers, a result of BN’s lopsided policies,” Nurul Izzah said.

Throughout caretaker prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s administration, jobs created have been much less than the target, with his National Transformation Program only adding about 679,000 or 30 percent of highly skilled jobs, while the rest at low or semi-skilled jobs, she said. 

Even though they are in control of Malaysia’s resources and capabilities, 60 percent of new jobs BN has created are low or semi-skilled jobs, she added. 

As such, Nurul Izzah said, Malaysians should not completely believe in BN’s promise about generating new highly-skilled opportunities through Malaysian Vision Valley and TVET.

“It is clear that BN does not care about the welfare of locals, when only two out of every 10 new jobs are filled by Malaysians while the income growth rate for 60 percent of foreign workers far outpaces that of local workers at 33 percent from 2010 to 2016.

“Today, there are still many Malaysians who have small salaries of below RM1,700 a month,” she said.

Not only that, she also said that under BN’s rule for the past five years, the number of unemployed graduates and those earning low salaries have increased.

Statistics from the Higher Education Ministry proves that almost one in every four graduates in 2016 failed to get a job as of last February.

“Malaysians have long felt the weakness of BN’s policies and track record.

“At this moment, it is not fantastical promises and empty words that the rakyat want to hear, but the ability to fulfil these promises for the rakyat.

“That is what has long been fought for and implemented by Harapan,” she said.