TUNKU ABDUL AZIZ: English proficiency will empower us

By : Tunku Abdul Aziz
NST

IT never fails to amuse me to see our reaction to international surveys in which Malaysia is included among countries that are put under a microscope and examined in detail for purposes of comparison on a range of social, economic and political issues.
We waste little time in discrediting those who show us in unfavourable light, and on the very rare occasion when we are praised for achieving something against the best in the world, we literally go over the top.
We tend to behave as an insecure child would who simply could not come to terms with reality -- a forgivable failing in an immature person, but the same traits underpinning our national behaviour and psyche suggest a disturbing character defect.
Let us confine ourselves to two international surveys that make the greatest emotional impact on us, the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (TICPI) and the Times Higher Education Supplement-Quacquar elli Symonds (THES-QS) World University Rankings.
In the case of the TICPI, which first came out in 1995, showing Malaysia at roughly the half-way mark but well below Singapore, the reaction to begin with was unexpectedly hostile.
Then prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad was quick to dismiss the findings as a Western ploy to belittle our achievements.
The promoters of Transparency International Malaysia found themselves in a frightfully difficult position with the former prime minister firing a salvo, so early in the day, across the bows of the good ship "Transparency".
We were upset and humiliated by the repeated accusations made by our powerful detractors that we were part of a foreign conspiracy to blacken Malaysia's image.
When they realised that the TICPI was an important barometer of governance and was developing into the most authoritative single measure of comparative international corruption, with implications for foreign investment, their tune changed a little.
If the revelations now in the public domain are to be believed, then there is absolutely no room for complacency.
The THES-QS ranking of world universities has done its worst to the pride and fortunes of our self-proclaimed "world class" institutions of higher learning. It has, in one fell swoop, destroyed the myth of intellectual excellence of our universities.
Some vice-chancellors have taken the strictures in their stride, while the others who have thrived on, and made a virtue of mediocrity, have not been slow to question the validity of the methodology employed.
Some outstanding work is being done in many of our universities and they should continue to address internal weaknesses so that they will, in time, achieve academic excellence that has so far eluded them.
Learn from the surveys but do not become obsessed with rankings. We must first strengthen the foundation of our higher education through policies that encourage rather than control and regulate.
Excessive controls stifle new ideas and initiatives, and it is difficult for vice-chancellors to operate effectively in a highly regulated bureaucratic environment.
Today, the truly great universities of the West owe their outstanding contributions to knowledge in several important areas of human endeavour to the freedom of action they have enjoyed, to develop educational excellence without let or hindrance.
Politicians should not intrude into areas they least understand and in this way, they can hold universities accountable for results.
From my conversations with some of the more astute vice-chancellors, I have gained the impression that they would greatly welcome being left to their own devices to get on with their work on a day-to-day basis. It is a fair request.
There are today, 20 public universities and 15 university colleges in the country. But as we all know, bricks and mortar do not a university make: outstanding teachers attract outstanding students, and in combination with a dose of intellectual freedom, they form the ingredients for an ideas-challenged community of scholars.
The notion that having a doctorate is all that is required of a university teacher is one of the reasons why our standards are dismally low.
The output in terms of research publications in international journals of some of our university teachers is abysmally low even by Southeast Asian standards, so I am told.
Our future as a small nation, naturally not counting some two million Indonesian cousins in our midst, depends for the most part on our ability to compete with the best.

I cannot believe that we can be competitive globally unless we are prepared to recant our stand made more than three decades ago against the use of English as the language of instruction in our national schools.
That policy has crippled our competitive position and Singapore stands as a shining example of practical and sensible pragmatism. And haven't they reaped enormous benefits from keeping standards high?
Displacing English in the name of nationalism has put this country back at least 50 years.
The unintended victims are the Malays who can find reasonable employment only in government agencies. With an English education, they do not need crutches to make their way in the world.
Before I am accused of being a cultural renegade, or worse, let me say that I am not suggesting that English should replace Bahasa Malaysia as our national language. It is the language of the whole of the Malay world; it is our unifying language.
I know about the argument that is being trotted out by warriors of Bahasa Malaysia that China and Japan do not need English to achieve global economic power. We are neither China nor Japan.
We must not forget that they are both homogenous societies with a very long tradition of respect for scholarship and learning.
They have a great capacity to absorb scientific and technical knowledge and have enormous resources for translating every book on every conceivable subject into their languages. Their strengths differ from ours and so are their social, economic and political imperatives.
Let us, as we become increasingly immersed in the globalised economy, think in global terms so that we may meet squarely the future challenges that are bound to come our way.
We can only do this by empowering our people to equip themselves with the language of world trade and communication.
Make English the language of instruction, Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin compulsory languages, and Tamil a school subject where there is sufficient demand for it.
This change in our education strategy would bring enormous benefits to our young people of all races, particularly the rural Malays, whose only opportunity for engagement with the enlightened and exciting world of knowledge is by acquiring proficiency in English, which is denied them.
Our universities would be transformed and would attract international faculty members and students. We would set our students free from the intellectual constraints, incestuousness and inbreeding that unfortunately characterise the Malaysian campus environment.
A change of this magnitude requires of our leadership moral and intellectual courage of the highest order, but this will make a dramatic difference to the way we compete for opportunities: for the Malays, doing without the reliance on government largesse for basic survival would make them a more confident people.
On reflection, if I had been born in a kampung where education was limited to reading, writing and arithmetic, I would be still ploughing with a water buffalo in a padi field instead of annoying a lot of people with my opinion column in English.
And if you, my readers, had not been exposed to the English language, you would be spared the pain of reading all this. Worth thinking about.

Review On English Use In Teaching Science, Maths After Study, Says Abdullah

PENANG, Feb 17 (Bernama) -- The government will consider requests for the use of native languages in teaching science and mathematics at primary schools, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi says.
The review, however, would be made after an indepth study on the effectiveness of English in teaching the two subjects, he said in a dialogue with the Chinese community here Sunday.
"Not only the Chinese have requested it, the Malays have also asked for it. So, we are doing it for both.
"Now, the two subjects are being taught in English and it has to continue for a certain period, only then it will be studied and reviewed," he said.
The Education Ministry has been using English as a medium of instruction in teaching Science and Mathematics since 2003.
On the shortage of teachers at Chinese vernacular schools, Abdullah said the matter had been discussed by the Cabinet. "We need more people to train teachers for the Chinese vernacular schools and this thing is being sorted out," he said.

tunku : and yet there are people shouting/screaming that we are teaching Science and Mathematic in english.i hope the government stick to it and will not change it.