By Syed Akbar Ali
If you have been watching Astro Awani, I have made a few appearances on the talk shows on Awani including Meja Bulat and also Vantage Point with Mano Maniam. The most recent topic we discussed was ‘branding Malaysia’ on Vantage Point. It was only 24 minutes of recording with two people speaking, so it is less than 12 minutes of talk time each. I couldn’t say everything I wanted to say.
I managed to say a little about language. I wanted to say a lot more but time was short. So I want to pursue a little more of my thoughts about language here.
As a nation that needs to maximize its economic opportunities (just like any other nation) we are not branding ourselves right when it comes to language. In fact we are losing not just economic opportunities but we are also becoming worse as an incohesive nation (this is not by anyone’s deliberate design, it is because of changing circumstances or economic evolution beyond our control which also does revolve around language, religion, technology and even the rise of China)
I did speak about the Dutch in Holland. The Dutch and Malaysia have some great similarities. Both our countries are relatively small and strategically located in the middle of vast, vibrant and racially diverse economic regions. The Dutch sit at the mouth of the Rhine River - the entry point to continental Europe. Their port of Rotterdam, until 2004 the largest port in the world (overtaken by Shanghai) is still the gateway to Europe. From Rotterdam the Rhine is navigable all the way to Basle in landlocked Switzerland, passing Germany and France as well.
The Dutch are known as the ‘world’s shopkeepers’. They sell everything to the world. They cut their teeth in trade around the North Sea and also up and down the Rhine. To enable them to do this well, they learnt to speak "commercially viable" languages. Most students who go to school in Holland can speak up to three other languages (English, French and German) which (not coincidentally at all) are the main languages along the Rhine River as well as across the North Sea.
This fluency in foreign languages enables them to maximize the trade and economic opportunities presented by their strategic location in Europe. The Dutch are very successful as a nation and they enjoy an advanced standard of living. The Dutch are therefore more "Truly European".
Malaysia too is indeed “Truly Asian”. We have the major regional peoples all living together in our country. South East Asia is substantially Malay centric with Malaysia, Indonesia, Southern Thailand, the Phillipines, Brunei and Singapore being essentially Malay in history, culture and language. We are also right next up to Thailand, the Phillipines and also close to Vietnam, Myanmar, China and other countries in this region.
There is an increasing growth in trade and people movement across this region and we are smack in the middle of it all. Malaysia will always be the crossroads of people movement and interaction in this region. We need to really take advantage of this situation. It can provide us greater trade and economic opportunities.
Like the Dutch, we too must teach all the regional languages in our schools especially in schools that border different countries. Imagine schools in northern Perak, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Penang teaching Thai to our students. Actally why havent we done this yet?
To digress, when I was in Penang Free School in 1978 the toilet sign in school was also written in Thai. I assumed that there were many Thai speakers in the school too. From Penang my friends and I went camping to Pulau Langkawi – at that time Dr Mahathir was not the PM yet. There were hardly any roads on Langkawi. There was just a wooden jetty at Kuah onto which you had to jump down from the boat at high tide.
And on Langkawi, the lingua franca was also Thai. Many locals watched Thai TV (kickboxing) just like in Padang Besar on the Perlis-Thai border. They also listened to Thai radio. Among themselves they spoke Thai.
If our people in the border regions (Perlis, Kedah, Penang, northern Perak, Kelantan) could speak Thai, it would greatly facilitate trade, business, investment and people movement between Thailand and the northern part of the Peninsula. This will mean more economic development for all sides. Isnt that a good thing?
The same goes for our relations with the Phillipines. There are many Filipinos visiting not just Sabah but also Kuala Lumpur. If we could speak the Filipino language as well, it will give rise to greater opportunities for business, trade and tourism between our countries. Lets learn from the Dutch. Learning the regional languages will amplify our strategic location in the middle of this region. It will bring us commercial benefits. Lets do this yesterday.
The other language that is becoming commercially most expedient in this region is Mandarin. The 1.5 billion strong caravan from China has started moving along the Silk Road. Like it or not, this is a juggernaut. It is going to “trade” with everything in its way.
We have extra advantages here in that our 7.0 million strong Chinese citizenry is also well placed to gain commercial advantage for the country. It will be farsightedness if we teach Mandarin to all Malaysian school kids. The future is all about economic and trade opportunities and how competitive we become. Learning Mandarin will give us another head start.
If we cannot compete, please don’t blame other people. In the 1950s we could not compete, in the 60s it was the same. The 70s saw some improvement, the 80s had high hopes. Then in the 90s the IT revolution made the gap wider again. The "digital divide" is now getting even wider. (Just how many people can read the Blogs? Very very few. So how many people can share the information that you and I are sharing now? We cant be writing on the wall)
In 2000, China popped out of nowhere. Then technology is advancing at lightning speed – and mostly in the English language. The gaps are widening again. Going into 2020, others are racing way ahead of us. So in relative terms we are falling behind again. We must do everything that will make us compete better. Lets not do anything that will make us waste time, waste our life and be unable to compete.
There is not much point teaching Arabic in school (or sending our students to study in Arabic countries). It is a waste of resources. There is also no point in writing road signs in Jawi. I think this is unthinking behavior. The purpose of signboards is to show the way or point the direction. What is the point of writing in Jawi which definitely cannot be understood or read by the vast majority of Malays. Stop any Malay on the street and ask him or her to read a Jawi sign and they will go blank.
In the old days I am the guy who (once in a while) used to buy the Utusan Melayu newspaper – just for the heck of practicing my Jawi reading. Nowadays you can organize a Treasure Hunt just to go looking for the Utusan Melayu newspaper. I don’t think it is in print anymore. If it is, I dont know where to get it. For those of you who are not familiar with the Utusan Melayu here is a picture, thanks to Google Images. The front page headers were printed in pink colour !
Boleh baca tak tajuk utama? Jangan klentong.
It says "Sikap orang kaya utama barangan import di selar" (I think).
Just to test my theory, I asked my better half if she could read the title. We broke up laughing when she went "Sikap orang kafir . . " The point is few people read Jawi. And definitely Jawi cannot be read by Chinese and Indians - who are also our citizens. Takkan kita tak peduli orang lain? So why the big fuss about Jawi signboards?
And it has now become a silly political issue. Some ‘tak ada modal’ politicians (Malay and non Malay) make the Jawi signboards a big issue. It only causes tension. Tak ada kerja lain ke?
Regular Roman letters (Rumi script) signboards are fine and can be read by everyone. That is the No. 1 purpose of signboards – to communicate. Jawi signage just fails to do that.
And now one clown in Penang says that if the Pakatan wins the next General Election, they will also make Chinese and Tamil the national language of Malaysia. I say thambi, anna what about Kadazan Dusun? Or Iban? Lu mari sini turun kapal (macam ‘tok saya juga) sudah mau bikin ‘national language’ kah? Dahsyat lu. Mana boleh?
Then what about the Sikhs, the Malayalis, the Telugus, the Benggalis, the Uttar Pradesh and the 'Pakistan' ? They are also Indians. Why not include them in the national language? I think we can get Sikh newsreaders but what time will RTM slot them in? Depa bukan bangun sahur pun.
And what do you mean by Chinese? Namewee has made a song complaining why despite the Hokkiens being the majority, all the Chinese business in Malaysia is controlled by the Cantonese speaking? (That’s what I understood ok.) So shall we have Hokkien and Cantonese too as our national language? Why should the Hokkien majority defer to Mandarin?
One Tamil friend pointed out to me that despite there being almost 100 million Tamils in India, Tamil is not even an official language in India. Habis macam mana mahu jadi official language in Malaysia?
In Malaysia, most Tamil speakers are at the lowest rung of the economy. Meaning that in Malaysia, the Tamil language has not been able to move the Tamils up the economic ladder. Before you Tamil warriors get upset, the same applies for the Tamil language in India. Many Tamils in India are poor. The exceptions are the Tamil computer software engineers and software writers in India who all must speak English – the language of wealth and economic advancement in India. English illa, kaasu illa (no English no money).
The time has also come where we must seriously consider merging the school system into just one school system ie based on Bahasa Malaysia and English only. We need to abolish the Chinese and Tamil language school system. The Chinese and Tamil language heroes say that if Chinese and Tamil schools are abolished, their language and culture will also disappear. Wrong.
There are 1.5 billion Chinese in China who will make sure that the Chinese language, culture and the Chinese people will never disappear from the face of the earth. The same argument applies for the 1.0 billion Indians in India. This however is Malaysia. It is not and cannot be China or India.
When Chinese, Indians and anyone else migrate to Australia they learn to speak English in a jiffy. No one asks for Tamil or Mandarin to be made national languages in Australia. No one sings the Waltzing Matilda in Tamil or Mandarin in Australia.
The same logic applies to Malaysia. It is high time non Malays in Malaysia learn to speak Malay like a native Malay. Getting straight As for Bahasa Malaysia in the SPM does not mean anything if you still say ‘saya api kereta naik mari’ or ‘saya naik keleta api mali sini.”
It is not cute anymore. Actually it is quite embarrasing. Please lets speak the language the way it should be spoken.
To conclude, I must stress on the usage of English. In the present economic ecosystem that impacts our country and our racially diverse range of people, English is the jalan pintas, the short cut to economic advancement, wealth and happiness for all of us.
Of course the wealthy Malay text book publishing mafia at Dewan Bahasa Pustaka as well as the very wealthy Chinese textbook publishing mafia at the Dong Zhiao Zhong will strenuously disagree. Their bank accounts are at stake. We have to focus on the English language. There are no two ways about it.
The main medium in all our schools should be English and Malay. Science, Mathematics and perhaps a few other subjects must be taught in English. The other language being Malay. Percayalah if we don’t do this, lagi 50 tahun pun kita akan masih merangkak, meraba, mengelabah dan merana.
Malay should be the language of politics, the language at home and in the neighbourhoods but it is not yet the language of economic and technical advancement. Not yet. Our future generations must sort that out, AFTER we have become an advanced, modern and independent people.
40 years have gone by and now we see Malay speakers more at a disadvantage. If the world had stood still since 1970, it would have been ok to drop English and switch to Malay. But the world has not stood still. More people in the world now are English dependent. More people around the world are advancing at a rapid pace by speaking and relying on English.
The Internet, IT, the mind boggling and almost magical technology is available in huge quantity in English. Who is going to translate all that into Malay? How are the makcik and pakcik in the kampong going to know anything about all these new developments around the world? Do we just condemn them to harvesting oil palms, potong getah and tanam jagung?
Melayu boleh bangga dengan bahasa Melayu, tetapi jika kekal dalam keadaan miskin, how much good will that do for us? Please consider this very carefully. In whatever we do, let us use common sense and see what is good for the people.
30 comments:
Dear Sir,
I am surprise to find there are still people who is as brave as you in penning your thoughts on such a sensitive issue.I would like to thank you for coming out such an article.I am for one is the product of the English medium school.Though my level of education does not reach university level,but with the language that I adore so much,has brought me to what I am today.I make sure all my children can speak at least 3 languages.2 of my daughters are well verse in Russian and German.3 others can speak Mandarin by putting Chinese at shame.All of them speaks English as their lingua franca.
Who is going to translate all that into Malay? ask google translator to do for me, :)
Utusan Melayu in Jawi is available as a free pullout from Utusan Malaysia every Monday. I also setuju 100% re your 1Sekolah idea. But you have to change the Education Minister to have the PPSMI reviewed.
salam tuan,
Minta izin untuk share di facebook
Terima kasih
misteclplan : boleh. Silakan.
Anon 5:12 tq. gua jarang baca UM.
SAA
I totally agree with you sir, but before we Malaysians learn other languages, we should all learn to speak Bahasa Melayu fluently. There are so many Malaysians who were born here but are unable to speak the language fluently, send them to overseas for a few years and they come back speaking english as if they were from America or England. I'm of indian and kadazan parentage, I speak malay fluently that I have been mistaken for a malay, this has given me problems sometimes during ramadhan. Eventhough I was sent to a kebangsaan school, I speak tamil, kadazan and english fluently. Who said that by having one system we will lose our heritage? Our language is our national identity. Learning other languages is important but learning our national language is a priority.
Dear Syed,
What you wrote make sense. But politician don't see it that way. Their only concern about vote and stir shit
good point but language is but one element.....what is needed is the protestant work ethic too.....
how do you get that into malaysians....the chinese don't have a problem here but the malays and indians need quite a bit of work
Syed, You are appealing to logic but the decision makers are influenced by emotions. Anyway, I sokong that the command of English must be enhanced in Malaysia.
this is ON THE MONEY [pun intended]!
as long as malaysians convolute every issue with race and religion, we will never identify the real obstacles standing in the way of our progress. neither would we be clear-eyed about our strengths and opportunities even when they stare us in the eyes.
we're too busy being bloodyminded about our race and ethnicity, something which no one can really take away from us, being that they are more biological than cultural.
then we're too busy defending the indefensibles in our religion when what we should really be doing is taking care of our faith which, in spite of ad nauseum rhetorics, is inherently individual and private.
as you pointed out, given our strategic geographic location and population mix, we could easily have been a nation of polyglots set to take advantage of the new economic reality, the steady march of BRIC. after all we're already two of the letters ahead. we should be having an edge now if we had the good sense to harness that advantage.
not too mention, we've also squandered the advantage of the high-standard of english among non-english speaking nations we were known for once. that used to be one of our selling points. not anymore! [and it's not like the standard of our malay has become sterling either].
with our non-stop racial and religious squabbles, we're truly losing the plot. we've long lost focus. instead of training our eyes outside where the opportunities are (and the real competitors and "enemies" are too, incidentally), we jegil our eyes bloodshot at each other.
what we now have as a nation is segala yang baik dan menguntungkan yang kita kendong selama ini berciciran; dan apa yang kita kejar... hmmm, apa ya yang kita kejar...?
at the moment it looks very much like scoring off each other.
in any case, until we know what it is we want, getting it/them is a moot point.
tuan syed, saya nak paparkan pautan masukan ini di FB saya. harap okay, ya.
terima kasih duluan dan selamat hari raya!
IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS & MOST MERCIFUL
'We have not sent any messenger unless he was to explain to them in his folk's own tongue. God lets anyone He wishes go astray, and guides anyone He wishes; He is the Powerful, the Wise' (Al Quran, Abraham: 4)
May you find the truth, relativity and reality of your relation with your own messenger with the above statement?
Language's consequences
If you know the meanings, you'll get the means out of it.
If you don't know the meanings, then you'll be mean.
Whenever there's no under-standing (man-kind), surely there's lying (snakes-kind).
sebagai peminat blog anda saya selalu merasa bangga bila membaca apa yang anda utarakan.
Betul, sebagai negara majmuk kita perlu hormat pada bahasa yang lain. Tapi 'dimana bumi dipijal disitu langit dijunjung' dan 'sebelum melangkah keluar nasi didapur ditanak dan air dijerang' , maka bahasa melayu sepatutnya diterima dan diguna pakai sebelum mula mempelajari bahasa lain.
Warga Malaysia perlu mendukung bahsa mereka sebelum menimbang bahasa yang lain. Jika tidak nanti ramai yang memakai topi dan baju serta berkasut kulit tapi seluarnya ditinggal kan.
Maklumkan encik samivellu, dia cakap tak kelakarla,...it is not funny anymore,...
Habib Rak : lets keep reminding them
Mekyam: boleh. Terima kasih banyak2. Selamat Hari Raya.
Anon 4:08 : Salamun Alaikum
Anon 6:51 : Kita mesti jelas. Bahasa Melayu bahasa negara kita. Bahasa lain terutamanya Inggeris dsbnya, pentingnya untuk majukan ekonomi, perniagaan, sains, teknoloji dsbnya. Tidak semesti satu keadaan yg kekal selamanya tapi buat masa ini satu keadaan yg amat perlu. Sekian.
SAA
Salam tuan syed,
next time boleh tolong announce tak kalau tuan syed nak on air kat astro awani ke, kat mane2 channel ke, asik admire baca blog je nak gak tgk real time punye speech.
Tq , MOSTB
dear sir
During the 60's,70's the chinese schools struggled to survive but however it began to flourish when the education system switched from English medium to B.Malaysia. I wonder if we switch back to English medium, would the parents send their children to english, malay, chinese or tamil school? The parents know best what is good for their children.
btw, i met a malaysian studying pharmacy in Indonesia, to my surprise she said the class is conducted in english.
one good example - just see how teruk the english spoke by MACC lawyer when he cross examined Dr.Pornthip !!
bahasa yang begitu teruk.memalukan!!
..agreed to all the points raised..question is, what is the course of actions that we can take?..we meaning the ordinary, long suffering citizens like me from Bachok and elsewhere in this country who watched helplessly on the going ons whilst muttering dissent?..we recognised the power of our vote..but look at the choices that's facing us...between the devil and the deep blue sea is to put it mildly..the fence is buckling from the weight of the sitters like me..we need better leaders..show us a recourse..
Syed,
As always the Victors wrote all the History books & Ruled...with the common English language...
Only a "Matured 'Elected' Political Leader & its 'Stabilised' Government" would be able to take advantage of the Global "Opportunities that abound" to move forward in the 21st Century context...
Unlike Bolehland's "Political Leader that Usurped his Position"...
Two years down the line, he has yet to move beyond his 1Malaysia Rhetorics...
In Desperation he encouraged & created the Ibrahim Alis etc...
To put us back to the 1969 days!
Just to share this...
Wake-up, Prepare Your Kids for China - http://www.financetwitter.com/2010/08/wake-up-prepare-your-kids-for-china.html
"Aug 25 2010 - An empire is just like a stock. A stock can go up from $1 to $500 a share and then from $500 back to $1.
Likewise great empires such as Roman, Qin, Mongol and Ottoman saw their rise and fall in the history of mankind.
Now we do not talk about empires militarily but rather economic powerhouse.
Economy invasion is the most successful weapon used in the modern colonization game.
Everybody is happy with this method of colonization because no life is lost and you get to enjoy the nice taste of Coca-Cola, Starbucks Latte, McDonald’s burger and other products manufactured overseas – minus your money of course.
One of the interesting and never-ending debates is of course the following: Will China become the next super power-house leaving United States eating the dust?...
What we all know is China will not repeat its mistake twice after the collapse of the old empire.
Didn’t China invent paper, compass, printing, gunpowder etc? Heck do you know that the famous U.S. oranges were once taken out from China to the New World to be planted and now known as Sunkist?
So what shall you do? Teach your kids Mandarin.
But then the Malaysian ruling politicians are busy asking such human-capital to go back to China (stupid isn’t it?)" Unquote.
You be the judge.
Cheers.
Dear Syed.
You made a lot of sense to me, and that's why I visited your blogs regularly, for straight to the point view and outside the box thinking. Please carry for a better Malaysia. Well done !!
Selagi orang melayu tak pandai Bahasa Inggeris selagi itu lah mereka merosot dan ketinggalan.Tidak ada sebab mereka tidak dapat mempelajari bahasa inggeris. Ramai mak bapak tahun 50an dan 60an tidak pandai membaca pun. Tetapi anak anak mereka fasih dalam bahasa Inggeris. Keadaan in berubah pada tahun 70an dimana timbul kumpulan saperti Perkasa sekarang yang nak perkasakan bahasa tetapi memusnahkan bangsa.
Having said that if you cannot speak Malay you should not be a citizen of this country.
dear sir
Also, ask why most of the elites and politicians send their children to international schools if our system is so good.
While our neighbours Indonesia,China etc are emphasizing English , we are de-emphasizing english even-though we started it as mainstream medium first.
The Minister of Education says that we should not be too distracted as none of our universities are within the top 200 in the world. In fact UM went further down the ladder. You know why? It is because both lecturers and students are not good in the English language.Its as the simple as that. If the Minister does not know that then what hope is there for my country. By the way I bet he sends his children to international school and to foreign university.
Why are Malaysians so obsessed with race and religion?
What makes you think that your race is the chosen one?
Many Malays are employed by non Malay business owners. Malays should quit their jobs then and see if they can make it on their own.
Many non Malay businesses find that the bulk of their consumers are Malays. These businesses should stop selling to the Malays then if these non Malay business owners think that they can make it just by selling to their own people.
We need each other. Malaysia will only make it when we work together.
Bo doh la all of you. Bodoh sangat sangat.
For those who think that non Malay Malaysians should leave Malaysia just because their command of Bahasa Malaysia is poor, then don't complain when non Malay businesses refuse to hire Malay graduates whose command of the English language is poor. You've had your chance to improve over the years. But no, they see other skills and attributes that the Malay Grad can add value to their businesses. It's the same, some non Malay Malaysians may have a poor command of Bahasa Malaysia but look at their other positives la.
Let's help each other improve la.
You guys are quarrelling like children but are in fact nothing like children.
A child sees another and all that child wants is to be friends with the other kid. That child does not know colour. That child grows up to be racist because of his or her upbringing at home which, forms part of the external environment and affects other children.
When Serbs, Croats and Bosnians started killing each other, I'm sure all of them realised that they in fact had things in common when the massacre started, the blood of their dead loved ones, no matter Serb, Croat or Bosnian, turned out to be red.
And all of them cried when they lost their loved ones. No matter Serb, Croat or Bosnian.
You watch TV also in colour, you even subscribe to high definition for example so that the colourful images look even more real to you, it's obvious that colours bring joy to your life la Bodoh.
I am of Malay-Chinese and Indian-Bugis parentage.
People I meet always wonder what my race is. I tell them that I'm human. They keep asking me the same question whenever they meet me the next time.
I've experienced racism in Malaysia because of my looks, my choices in life and the language that I choose to speak.
Gila la, why so obsessed with race and religion la?
God created all of us. Why do you choose to hate or kill another fellow human being then, God's creation.
If you are a true Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Bahai etc., you will not be racist and neither will you be a religious extremist.
Let's be obsessed on Malaysia's plan instead and make it together.
Japan is famed for its automotive and electronic industries. So is Korea. India for IT. China for its industry. Singapore as a hub for nearly everything, and it excels in nearly everything it chooses to focus on. All of these countries have a plan.
What's Malaysia's plan? It's not clear to me. More than 50 years of independence, more than enough time. Maybe, all of us should leave Malaysia then.
Selamat Hari Raya to all Malaysians.
Especially with the end of apartheid or end of extreme religion as incentive, whatever the language and preference, so long as the citizens of this nation are loyal to it's interests in a way that does not shame the rulers, harm the neutrality of the civil and syariah courts, do not practice corruption, nor nepotism or pen abusive laws (such as Toll Concessions, AP-System, Forced Military Conscriptions, impose on non-Muslim proclivities and preferences) . . . you can be sure that all Malaysians will do their utmost to ensure the nation's future.
Thus only love of the people for the rulers who effect emancipation of the disenfranchised minorities or double standard extremism afflicted groups, can ensure well distributed prosperity and a SINCERELY joyful citizentry - for as long as the world's current paradigm of nation based citizenships's lasts.
After denouncing politically nepotistic Oligarchs - the HM Agong and HHs Sultans have but a simple task to do, treat Mankind in Malaysia justly as Malaysia's signatory of the Human Rights Article 1 and the Hadiths An -Nisa’:1 and Al-Hujurat:13,against Asabiya, and exonerate themselves from the suspicions of both citizens and the world of the tacit approval of the UMNO-Putra racist faction's APARTHEID and extreme ill gotten wealth.
One edict to bind them all - IN TRUE UNITY AS EQUAL CITIZENS. The Ruler's Collective can dally no more, and to act in the best interests of the citizentry is the only duty and distinction between of those of true blue blood and the materialistic, unethical and unprincipled politicians and bureaucrats.
Excellent post, in particular the reference and comparisons to the Dutch.
Had our leaders been brave and far sighted enough to demolish all vernacular schools, sekolah agamas' and asramas 20 years ago, and replace them with a single school, making it compulsary for EVERYONE to learn english, malay, mandarin and hindi/tamil, can you imagine what kind of country we will be today?
We are situated right smack in the middle of 3 economic powerhouses: Indonesia, China and India. With our wealth of natural resources, the world will prob be talking about Malaysia, not Singapore or South Korea.
Of cos, there will be ppl who say that it is too difficult to learn 3-4 languages bla bla. But you knw what, newsflash:- the good things in life dont come easy, sometimes you have to work hard for it.
The harder you work, the luckier you get. And I find it amazing that this simple fact can be so hard to understand...
Anon at 12:08 is correct. 30-40 years ago the Chinese schools were in precarious state with low student enrollments. But thanks to the Gahmen's messing up the English system to make it "more Malay", parents started switching their children to the Chinese school with its now-better syllabus. It did not help either that our national school system was wrecked by successive Menteri Pendidikans with nationalistic flip flop policies for their own political prestige.
The result is now we even have non-Chinese pupils enrolled in Chinese vernacular schools. Over in Penang where there's a relatively ample supply of seats, the percentage of Malays can be 50% in some schools. My relatives constantly get requests from Malay & Indian parents to 'tarek kabel' and get their children in.
If we are to make the national school the premium choice for ALL Malaysian parents as it was in the 50s to 70s, we need to improve its "market appeal". Get rid of all those deadwood and kangkongs inside, starting from Muhiyiddin, Wee and Puad, and down to people like Siti "Balik Cina, India Anjing" Inshah. The syllabus needs to be more inclusive of other races & religions and not just Malay or Islam-centric.. this has been a major gripe from parents who prefer sending their kids to Chinese schools.
Regarding the Cina Bukit accent, ask anyone in KL or Selangor.. and they'll tell you its more understandable than the 'bak brok bek grwob' of the Kelantan-Terengganu Malay accent. No offense to anyone from "Kelate" or "Tranung".
Tuan Syed,
I fully agree with you.I think no matter what language we use as long as that language can advanced us into a prosperous,technologically advanced and peaceful country then we are in the right track.As it is now,I don't see any other language other than English that can serve that purpose.I remember those days when I went the Govt.school where all subjects were taught in English (except the subject of Malay Language)I as a Malay, had so many friends of Chinese,Indian and other origines and we had never felt more happy,united and secured.Now with Bahasa Malaysia as the main medium of instruction in the primary and secondary schools most of our students could not master English when they go for higher studies at the IPTs.Using Bahasa Malaysia as a medium in Govt,schools is a one step backward and not otherwisw.My wife is an instructor in a private internasional college where some of the students are from the African states.The medium of instructions there are of course English,and poor you! the Africanoes are doing better because their schools back home are all in English and the Malay students are lagging behind because they cannot absorve the lessons that well.What a shame!I think that goes to many other IPTs as well.
So,please remember that English is
still the most widely spoken language in the world,very advanced and with millions of books written in almost any subject.So,since language is only a tool for communications and acquiring of konwledges, why not use it.A Malay cannot be less Malay by speaking or mastering English or any other languages.In fact he becomes a better Malay,is'nt it? And considering our historical background and for the purpose of racial unity I think English is the best option.
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