The champions of Bahasa Malaysia who took to the streets are doing a disservice to the Malays. Looks like they want their race to be a failure.
Wanting English to be taught for Science and Maths does not make us lesser Malay. Do we have soul if we Malays are lacking behind universally or fail to be employed ?
I love my race. I love my language. But it does not put food on the table. It does not enable my children to compete globally.
Let's take a reality check. 60% of the Malay graduates are unemployed. They do not perform well in job interviews because of the English handicap.
So the multi-national firms tend to employ the non-Malays. The non-Malays who go to the same school can be good in Bahasa Malaysia, English and their mother tongue.
Malays will continue to be the losers if the language in schools is just Bahasa Malaysia. I think the so-called proponents of Bahasa Malaysia should instead do something to address why the Malays are not fluent in English and some even fail their Bahasa Malaysia in exams.
Scan the newspaper now and we see many international companies, foreign embassies and foreign universities offer scholarships. But who got them > Who got the coveted Asean scholarships ?
It is not because the Malays are not intelligent. But not being fluent in English has made them less confident to sell themselves well. Do we have to rely only on JPA and Mara to further our studies overseas ?
When i got back to my hometown in Pahang, i am happy to know manay relatives' kids got straight As. But these kids are shy to speak English for fear of being teased and rebuked. I have come across remarks like "oh eksyennya, cakap Mat Salleh" (such a show off, speaking in English !)
Another sad thing is the standard of English is deterioting in our foreign service.
A newspaper report said out young diplomats are no longer able to write communiques. That is why the government still retained many ambassadors on contracts although they are well past retirement age.
When are we going to have world class diplomats like the late Tan Sri Zain Azraai or Tan Sri Razali Ismail, who were tutelaged by Tun Ghazali Shafie ?
And where are our artistes on the internation stage ? They are on par with others in terms of English, they are contented to be jaguh kampung - with a few exceptions. It is such a shame when even Indonesian leasers are now well-conversant in English.
I know rather well one or two of the proponents of the Bahasa Malaysia.
We always converse in English and they are fluent at that. Why do they want to deprive our future generations to be as good as them in English ?
ISZAN ISMAIL,
Petaling Jaya.
**Taken from STAR Newspapar Malaysia dated 19 Match 2009
2 comments:
I saw this article a few weeks before. This is indeed the reality: The advances that we need are in the hands of the westerns, so switch to BM, and you'll lose the most essential link in obtaining these.
I agree with that....that's why they are weak....We suppose to be open-minded due to this globalisation issue....hey...english man....if u not speak english well, you will be omitted from the competition in the early stage just like what the article said for the interview...that's a disadvantage...So, it's not a bad idea or should I say, is a very good idea to use english just in Maths and Science, Singapore use english in all subjects except mother tongue..they have lose their identity and Malaysia still have sejarah and geografi to maintain in malay...so, why they still live in the coconut shell??
Post a Comment