I had a good English education which has enabled me to earn a respectable income in Malaysia in the private sector owing to my proficiency in the language which has never deprived me of losing my own identity and my own mother tongue.
So, I can very confidently state that now I have a good command of several languages which is the typical identity of a progressive nation like Malaysia with a population gifted with many kinds of talents and characteristics.
There is no denying whether we like it or not that English language has become a language of the world for business, commerce, education and scientific research and the ensuing findings that so vital for human development, are written in that language.
In this 21st century, English stands supreme and all scientific and medical developments to name a few, are chronicled in that language and if one has only a marginal knowledge about the language, one tends to misinterpret or totally lose the gist of the subject or research paper.
That does not mean we are degrading or undermining the importance of our own national identity and language. It can move side by side with the English language and give us the pride and dignity of a progressive and a visionary nation.
Sadly, Malaysia hitherto, has never seen an Education Minister with a proper educational and academic qualification and thus be in a position to see the real educational needs of the country and implement the proper criteria of vision and foresight.
Education is the survival of the nation and the young minds must have a proper guidance not just for them to acquire 10 or 15 distinctions but have the ability to analyse and see in broader perspective and not have a restrictive and confined thinking which most employers today can attest today as being the trend.
In Malaysia, education policies change like we change our sweaty and used clothing. Each education minister though grossly unqualified to make a proper national decision, relies on an one-sided and biased advice to make his final decision while discarding the valuable input of people in reputable positions and being true academicians with vast and invaluable experience and exposure in the educational field.
English has always being a foreign language to me and a legacy of the British Empire who purportedly known to have plundered the territories they occupied but they have also introduced and taught us something which we cannot deny that has brought us from being a nation of rubber and tin, to a nation competing with the best of the best of today. Incidentally, rubber was introduced into then Malaya from Brazil and the tin industry was developed by the British.
Consequently, to completely remove English from the mainstream subjects in schools and only confine it as a foreign language, will give us a pathetic and embarrassing outcome.
Ultimately it should not be construed as worshipping English at the expense of our own national identity. However, it should be reviewed and looked at by Malaysians as a language that is closely tied up with our survival in a crowded environment where everyone looks into providing not just tax havens but a work force that understands and able to work in cohesion with the required norms and conditions of middle and upper management teams.
Serious thought therefore is earnestly solicited from the government of which some of them are still the legacy of the so called British colonial inheritance to see the vast advantages in a free and pragmatic manner for the future of all Malaysians. Education surpasses race and religion and what we sow now is what we are going reap in the future.
It is and never should be played in the political arena just to gain supremacy and continued rule. Educational policies if properly implemented, paves the way for growth and survival in a very confined and competitive world that is expected to be more constrained and choosy in the coming years.
Our young need our proper guidance, not our destruction because of our greed and selfishness for immediate gains.
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