Stick with English

Reading the letter to TheStar by DR ABU BAKAR ABDUL MAJEED, DR MEGAWATI OMAR, of the Research Management Institute, UITM, Shah Alam -->Stick With English I was struck by what he said, that our children lament that the moment they are out of school, they discover that they need English in almost every aspect of their daily and academic lives, especially if they live in cities. They have been so handicapped that, even in the day to day functioning of their lives, these students and graduates seem to be dysfunctional. Switching back to Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of teaching the important subjects will only serve to aggravate the situation, leading to future Malaysians unable to challenge and compete in the global arena.

If I am not mistaken, one of those reasons given by the Education Ministry to switch back to Bahasa Malaysia as the teaching medium, was that the rural students have been unable to cope with English and have been marginalized in Examinations. In this instance it can be said that the "mountain" [ie. the rural students poor command of English] cannot come to "Mohamad", then "Mohamad" must go to the "mountain". Putting it in another way, do we want our rural students to continue to lack behind even in the day to day living in Malaysia, not to mention that they will be severely handicapped when they leave the country? Upgrading the education system to ensure the rural students can cope should be the objective of a caring Government.

Do we want to see Malaysians, especially the rural children, fall behind and live lives filled with insecurity and inferiority because of the deficiency in the English Language? Do we want to remain in the backwaters of progress, while even countries like Indonesia and Vietnam forge ahead?

We should re-think this issue. Can our leaders rise above parochial politics, or do they waver at the first sound of the naysayers? Malaysia's diverse mix of races will have more than its fair share of sycophants and self styled champions of 'race and culture', but the Govt has to be able to rise above such bigotry if our future generations is to have a chance in this challenging World

Think about it

We cannot afford to ignore the importance of English