Finally, the government has made the official announcement to extend the mandatory retirement age for civil servants in Malaysia from 56 years to 58 years effective July 1, 2008 together with a few other demands by Cuepacs related to the calculation of pensions (from 25 years to 30 years of service) and the Penilaian Tahap Kecekapan (PTK).

Nevertheless, I still feel that the timing is not right to extend the retirement age because during this period (July to August), universities will be holding graduation ceremonies for fresh graduates and they will immediately face a bleak future because the biggest employer in the nation will drastically minimise - if not completely stop - recruiting officers and staff come July 1 for the next two years.

The prime minister's general and simplistic statement that extending the retirement age would not affect employment opportunities for fresh graduates is not convincing without any statistical proof or proper research or study/report shown or done on this matter.

Logically, it does not make sense when the government, being the biggest single employer in the nation with almost 1.5 million posts, stops recruiting new staff because tens of thousands of government servants will not retire and leave the service for the next two years.

Although a public announcement has been made about extending the retirement age, I have yet to see a comprehensive programme planned by the government to tackle the impending unemployment problem especially among the graduates with the implementation of this new retirement policy.

The public cannot be too dependent on the private sector for employment because the economic outlook for the coming years is not very good.

With the current rise in the price of foodstuffs - especially rice and wheat-based products - the Agriculture Ministry should revive or seriously plan comprehensive programmes (like Siswazah Tani) to train and provide loans to produce graduates who will also be farmers on a commercial scale.

These graduates could plant either padi or other potentially profitable crops, like dragon fruit, because such programmes, as the saying goes, will help ‘kill two birds with one stone’ in tackling both the graduate unemployment problem and the country's high dependence on imported agricultural products.

In my humble opinion, the recalculation formula for pension payments is sufficient enough to benefit the pensioners with a 20% increase in their monthly pensions to help meet the high cost of living while the extension of retirement age can be implemented later when the situation warrants it or when it is more conducive.