By Syed Akbar Ali.
Folks Tun Dr Mahathir is running a poll at his Blog
http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog/2009/03/pengajaran-dan-pembelajaran-sa.html
to show the Government what the public thinks about the switch to Malay for Maths and Science. Do take the poll and vote your conscience.
The Poll now stands at 22069 votes or 81% NOT AGREEING with the switch back to Malay versus 5302 votes or 19% (ONLY) in support of the Government's decision.
Total votes so far is 27,371. You can only vote once.
Please tell your friends, sms about it and lets get it up to 100,000 votes or more.
I hope all my Blogger friends will run their own polls or provide a link to Dr Mahathir's Blog site.
Lets pull together on this one. The Government has bungled big time. But at least through the Blogs and the alternative media the public has the right to be heard. Make your voices heard. If we make known our disagreement we can make them change the policy.
Friday, July 10, 2009
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21 comments:
WE SUPPORT
ENGLISH FOR SECONDARY AND ABOVE.
BTW, TUAN SYED, WHY ROCKY
NEVER SAY A WORD ON THIS?
APA PENDIRIAN BELIAU??
Yes, let's make known our disagreement. The alternative media and blogs too are the voices of the people. Although I doubt the government will listen (didn't they said the decision was irreversible?), let's hope they don't ignore the voice of a true statesman, Tun Mahathir. I trust he will force the issue.
I share the same view as anon 1:01pm. Why is Rocky silent on this issue?
I think Rocky is caught between a rock and a hard place! So, it's likely he won't go against Najib.
Nuraina has come out in full support of not scrapping PPMI.
I am supporting Dr.M on this one.
I challenge Najib, Muhy (our Education Minister who didn't know they don't teach basic English grammar anymore) and Gapena to go for a National Referendum.
This is a very, very big issue and we cannot let politics and ultra-patriotism wreck our childrens' future.
1 simple question. Chinese and Indian children are not born with the Oxford Dixtionary in their mouths. So, why should they have a better command of English than rural or urban Malays. The answer is the lousy half-baked and half-past six teachers who teach English in Malay, especially in the
rural areas!!
Get teachers with a degree in English or Eng Lit trained further for 2 AND THEN ONLY send them on national service to all the rural schools, but pay them well (learn from S'pore). The results will be astounding within 10 years. Or recruit them from India to save on costs of expats from UK; the Indian accent may be funny, but we put up with Scots and Welsh accents before.
There are no short cuts to success!
Poll tidak akan menunjukkan keputusan yang sebenar walaupun 100% tak sokong apa yang kerajaan lakukan. Ini kerana faktor urban menyebabkan mereka yang menyokong tidak dapat lakukan kerana kekangan masalah seperti kemudahan internet dan tidak berminat mengunjungi blog tersebut
Salam Uncle Syed,
I personally think the education system needs a major overhaul. We cannot afford to allow English to slide further from where we are at present. It is detrimental to nation building.
I am a product of National School (1989 - 1999). I speak and write fluent Bahasa Melayu. I could converse in passable Mandarin and Cantonese but could not read/write Mandarin. Today I am catching up in learning Mandarin mainly because it will be a language to be reckon with as China's prominence continue to grow. My English language grasp is only slightly better than my Mandarin. However it is still neither here nor there. My spoken English is passable but nothing fantastic. It could be better and I am continuing to improve on it. I consider myself lucky as I can still find a decent job to support myself after university (Sebab boleh bertutur dalam BI). Having gone through the whole system itself these are the pertinent questions I want to pose to our Education Minister, past and present and politicians in our Government specifically UMNO. And no this has nothing to do with RACE.
1. Why change a proven formula? The British left us with a sound education system. Why in the haste to 'Melayu-nise' everything and anything, you throw the Baby out with the bath water? Shouldn't we just improve the system? Localize where is needed?
2. Why change the medium of instruction to Bahasa Melayu in the first place? Do you know how difficult is it to study Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Maths using Bahasa Melayu? Most of the scientific terms are borrowed from English.
3. I agree that being Malaysians, we should be fluent in BM. It can be a way to unite our multi-ethnic society. But please, not at our rice bowl expense. We have to admit that BM is just not a lingua franca in the international arena. It is not even a lingua franca in South East Asia. Unless some Ultras want to claim that Bahasa Indonesia is actually Bahasa Melayu? I think the Indonesians would NOT be pleased.
4. Do not give flimsy excuses like France, Japan, China etc. do not teach Maths and Science in English and they are doing fine. Are they? I would like to hear a Scientist, Mathematician even an IT architect to tell me if this is true. Try to write a programming language in BM.
Try translating C Sharp into BM.
5. Are we less Malaysian, if we are fluent in English? Malaysians are a contradictory bunch. One hand they say, English is our former colonist master language (especially with the kampung minded folks. By the way, let bygone be bygone), the other hand they worship those Mat Salleh tourists/expatriate. Ever notice how these Mat Sallehs get better treatment than locals when it comes to say, services? Ha! Talk about hypocrisy.
6. If you want to improve the Bumis lot so much, you should put extra concentration in teaching them English. That language is an access to a wealth of other information, not just science,math and technology but literature as well. Then they can translate these newly procure knowledge back to BM.
By the way, Uncle Syed, you are spot on regarding the recruiter being instructed not to hire graduates from UiTM. I am a headhunter and sometimes, I have to say (not that I am racist or anything, my partner is Malay), these kids cannot speak decent Engrish (nope, not even English). And ironically, most Malays corporate figures that I have come across are either sent overseas for undergraduate studies/Masters or from national schools in privilege housing areas (usually alot of middle class non-bumis). There are one or two who succeeded that come from very humble and dire poverty background but these are few and far in between.
Mae
Salam Tuan Syed,
Have voted and said NO ! Have sent sms's to others to vote.
On another note, correct me if I'm wrong here !
FACTS:-
Tun Mahathir - Prime Minsiter from 16/7/81 to 31/10/03.
Tan Sri Dato' Seri Musa Mohammad - Education Minister from 1994 to 2004.
Tun Abdullah - Prime Minister from 31/10/03 to 03/04/09.
Datuk Seri Hishammudin Tun Hussein - Education Minister from 2004 to 2008/9.
PPSMI was implemented in 2003 in stages.
So from the above data, siapa yang tak buat kerja ? (Oooops ! I forgot ! Any of Tun Mahathir's ideas kalau tak jadi, blame him !)
The pool is biased. Macamana org kampung yang tiada kemudahan internet nak mengundi. Demografi pengundi juga boleh di pertikaikan apatah lagi kerana pool ini di buat oleh TDM yang menyokong PPSMI. Pastinya pengunjung blog beliau bersimpati dengan beliau. Pool perlu di buat oleh agensi bebas dan sampel yang betul. This pool totally biased.
i'm going to bet that if the 'no' for revert can affect the current admin, i'm going to buy 1 book of yours to read. i actually stop hoping anything from the current admin from the moment that 'man' wants to appoint his 'ex' as some sort of advisor. seems like that 'man' is more clown than his 'ex'. appointing a brought down 'mud' as advisor! give me a break! i hate belittling people, i really need to blame this on my lousy anger management skill.
Bro, I have voted in Chedet's blog.
Many people say that Dr Mahathir's poll is not representative as maybe many in the rural areas do not have access to the net. Maybe the Merdeka Center can conduct a poll which is more representative of our population? Can you pull some strings.
Also, there is an interesting comment from a blog which highlight the difference between Najib's understanding of the PPSMI implementation and Dr Mahathir's and I dare say many parents understanding of why the PPSMI needed to be implemented, must read, very profound and I do believe that Najib is really caught off balance on this one:
http://sensecredaccountability.blogspot.com/2009/07/patutle-ppsmi-dimansuhkan-ds-najib-pun.html
So far the politicians have their day making this and that decisions purportedly for the 'good of the nation.'
I still do not understand why the Malays are quite determined to vandalize themselves. We were hoping that the new team can provide leadership to bring out the nation from the free-fall ..but it is sad to say that they are ticking all the wrong answers given multiple choices.
The PPSMI thing is a vine to stop the fall but again they just couldn't see it.
Salam Syed,
I always follow your blog..even I'm thousand miles away in Maldives..
I totally agree with you on the issue of teaching math and science back to Malay..its nonsense..what a 'flip-flop' decision by our government..at least they should maintain English for secondary school.
Regards,
Joe (ex-Aseam)
Syed,
I always follow your blog..even I'm thousand miles away..in Maldives..
Now our government is trying to be popular by reverting back the teaching of maths and science to Malay..its nonsense..what a 'flip-flop' decision by our government..at least they should maintain English for Secondary school and above.
Regards,
Joe (ex-Aseam)
The government is making the right decision. The non bumi is happy to see the bumi, including my family and relatives going backward in education and unemployed in future.
Thank you to you the Government of malaysia for making us stupid.
I loose hope and BN, dont expect any vote from me.
I can't believe I am saying this but go and vote against the government's reversal on PPSMI at Mahathirs's blog. Every vote counts.
I've also voted on chedet's blog.
On a slight digression, two commentators above say that this blog vote is biased. I don't disagree.
Obviously, the next question is why are the people in rural areas not having access to the internet ?
That in itself is limiting the education of people in the rural areas, no matter what language !
wow, vinnan, I cannot believe it also. Its a good suprise though. Just goes to show that Malaysians, for all our disagreements politically only wants what is best for our country.
Tuan,
Zulkifli Noordin wrote his comment in his blog arguing that Philippinos who can speak English end up working as maid only. I think he should come out from his tempurung. Those who are in Oil & Gas sectors know that Engineers & Technicians from Philippines have been earning good salary in the middle east long time ago because they are technically sound and able to speak in good English. But now, the trend is a lot of Malaysians being employed by Pak Arab on the basis that we have better knowledge & experience, able to speak in English well. Furthermore, we are muslim and Pak Arabs have high regard to Tun Dr. Mahathir as well.
Logam
Now Utusan Malaysia has entered into the picture. Here's the poll results (at this time of writing) of the three sites:
Utusan Malaysia:
Yes - 8,429 votes (72.0%)
No - 3,069 votes (26.2%)
Don't Care (Tak Kisah) - 203 (1.7%)
Total Votes - 11,701
Tun Mahathir's Blog:
Yes - 10,577 votes (14%)
No - 64,230 votes (86%)
Total Votes - 74,807
Nobisha's Blog:
Yes - 176 votes (48%)
No - 194 votes (52%)
Total Votes - 370
I'm tempted to total up the votes of all three sites but they may not reflect the true voting patterns - not knowing the voters' composition (low-income, middle-income, etc), duplication of votes (some may have voted in more than one sites), etc. etc. But bearing in mind these limitations, let's do it anyway
Total for all sites:
Yes - 19,182 votes (22%)
No - 67,493 votes (78%)
Don't Care - N/A
Total Votes - 86,878
You can draw your own conclusion. Will it end the polemics? I doubt it. Arguments for and against the poll results will persist, e.g. pro-government stance of Utusan, pro-Mahathir bias in Tun's blog poll, inadequate sample size in Nobisha's poll, etc. For sure, Utusan's headline will scream "YES to scrapping PPSMI" when the polls end..
How do we end the polemics and find a closure. Referendum? Many bloggers have already suggested this. But will the government be willing to do it? Your guess is as good as mine. Our reasoning is simple: the education and future of our children is at stake. And if bloggers who are concerned about the issue can unite and collectively pressure the government, then who knows...?
As blogger Mind No Evil puts it forcefully, we are "messing up our future generation".
We have this stupid 'patriotism' equation amongst stupid political players for a very long time.
If we had stuck with one policy for the last 50 years, we would have been 50 years ahead by now, regardless of what ever language was chosen then.
A call for change should not be taken in toto to mean change for the worse.
I have a suspicion that after the Manik Urai bi-election, this policy will be reviewed once again.
A vote on Che Det's blog will only fall on deaf ears.
A GOOD MAN DOES NOTHING.
We should have more English classes in schools other than only teaching Science and Maths in English.
The leaders of our country should let English schools to continue 2 decades ago.
I agree with jon pour do care. Do not blame others for what you had done stupidly in the past.
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