PH AIMS TO MEET JOB PROMISE

Govt will try to fulfil pledge of providing 1 million jobs, says Mahfuz

PAKATAN Harapan’s pledge to offer one million jobs, as per its election manifesto, will be carried out based on the government’s ability and capabilities.

Deputy Human Resources Minister, Datuk Mahfuz Omar, said the government will try to fulfil the promise within five years. However, he noted that he was ready to apologise if there were some pledges which could not be met due to obstacles.

“We will try our best to give the best to the people in the form of job opportunities.

“However, the people have to be ready to make the leap from being civil servants to the private sector or from being salaried workers to entrepreneurs if there was a need to shift in that direction.

“We will do so to the best of our ability from time to time. As for those (pledges) which we cannot meet, we have to apologise to the people,” he said after officiating the Kedah-level Career Carnival @ Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) here yesterday.

The carnival, now in its fifth installation, is being held simultaneously nationwide and offers 20,000 job opportunities, courtesy of 350 employers. In Kedah, 1,200 jobs are on offer involving 29 employers.

For this year, up to Aug 31, 124,118 successful job placements were recorded involving 34,398 graduates and 89,720 non-graduates. From the total, 134,805 placements were done via the nationwide carnival programmes.

However, Mahfuz said from the total number of successful placements, three to five per cent of job-seekers failed to report to employers despite having secured positions.

“We want applicants who do not want to accept the positions to inform us earlier so that we can offer the position to other candidates,” he said.

On another note, Mahfuz, who is also Parti Amanah Negara deputy president, said the party welcomed the move to include a “free and fair” declaration as part of the steps to improve the general election mechanism.

“It’s up to the Election Commission if they want to include this declaration as a condition for general elections.

“I can accept it.”

On comments by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that Pakatan Harapan component parties are mired in financial crisis, he said party leaders must find their own way to seek funds as the government was not about to implement political financing.