The human resources ministry should channel part of its RM100 million allocation for retraining programmes towards teaching Mandarin to unemployed graduates.

In a statement, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said this would make jobless graduates more employable.

He was commenting on Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's recent call for an end to racial discrimination by employers by highlighting proficiency in Mandarin.

Disagreeing with the interpretation, Lim said employers are only responding to the demand for Mandarin-speaking staff and that this has nothing to do with favouring any ethnic group.

"Malays who speak Mandarin are employed, just as Chinese who are not proficient in Mandarin are not hired," he said.

He accused Najib of racial discrimination for not criticising firms that only hire those who speak English.

Economic reasons

Lim cited the June 26 cover-story of news magazine Time Asia, entitled 'Get ahead! Learn Mandarin (han yu)' as testament to the expansion of Mandarin use globally.

"Unless the government wakes up to the importance of Malaysians, including non-Chinese, being proficient in Mandarin, we will be sleeping when other countries take advantage of the expanding Chinese market," he said.

Although Mandarin is a tough language to master, Westerners and Asians, particularly the Japanese and Koreans, are learning it for economic reasons, he said.

"Requiring employers to stop recruiting those who speak Mandarin is no different from forcing them to lower their standards," he said.

Lim added that the number of unemployed graduates is increasing each year because they lack the job skills required, not because of discrimination by employers.