Not a joke to teach English to kampung folks

The so-called national laureates, who are opposed to the teaching of Maths and Science in English, think it is a joke that Malays should forever be pushed backwards in mastering the language of science and technology.

English is the language of post-industrialism, of Artificial Intelligence (AI) philosophy, of this and that of the advanced hyper-modern society that our nation ought to understand of its underpinnings, if not ride on its wave. 

Together with the Malay or Islamic youth movement, Malay writers group and the other sentimental-illogical Malay band of opposers of English as a medium of instruction, they are plagued with a sense of vain-gloriousness and idiotic, if not false, sense of pride in defending the Malay language to the detriment of the future of the Malays themselves.

These are groups that are quite useless as participants in the dialogue for language advancement, frequently mounting arguments of pro-Malayness that are either stale, invalid and incapacitated in the face of the advent of higher science, or they are just plain ignorant of the needs of today's Malay children who are crying for a future that would not relegate them to becoming Mat and Minah Rempits (illegal motorcycle racers).

Those protesting against the extensive use of English can be considered merely troublemakers in the path constructed for the advancement of the Malays who continue to be called "lazy" by their own leaders. Leaders who are in the first place, lazy thinkers, who have failed to insist that the education system be in tune with the rhythm of globalisation.

The real joke

No, it is not a joke, mind you, to be mandating that the subjects of Maths and Science be taught in English. The real joke, in the long run, will be to see the next generation still wondering what the Multimedia Super Corridor and Tun Razak Exchange is all about, when we know that the English language as a medium of doing business, is what it is about, with these newer architectural structures the country is building to house more advanced systems of laissez-faire.

The joke will be when more and more Malay kids, and even graduates of local universities, are unable to make themselves comprehensible in interviews to hopefully gain employment in the private or semi-private sector, and even worse, the joke - the national laureate joke - will be that the interviewers will have to coach the interviewee on how to answer the interview questions they are being asked. 

What a joke the national ultra-Malay literary laureates and so-called national poets or national Malay-whatever would be then. 

That joke will be on our children, especially those "kampung boys and girls" whose confidence of mastering English will forever be damaged. What a joke it will be for their future.

I hate hypocrisy in education. I hate it when I know that in order for these "national laureates", "Malay-Muslim youth leaders", and other gangs of hypocritical defenders of the Malay language, to get where they are, to have their voice heard in the media, they themselves had to learn English and perhaps master it at a comfortable level.

They had to be able to have read great works of literature, canonical works on great ideas that move nations, and even write in English so that they could be a little known in the world outside of their Malay-language-Malay-Muslim-only literary coconut shell. They had to, I am sure.

Let us stop joking

But why the refusal to advocate for the advancement of science, technology, engineering, and maths especially when we know in this world of post-industrialism, English is far superior and functional than Bahasa Melayu which perhaps can never be at par as a language of science and technology? I repeat: Bahasa Melayu just does not have the cut yet to be a language of scientific progress.

Let us not waste our time in useless arguments over Bahasa Melayu as a language of this new nature of progress. It is not a "bahasa ilmu sains dan teknologi baru" (language of knowledge for science and new technology). It is not. It can only be an imitation of a world of high science that is already rooted in English, which is rooted in the Indo-European-Germanic-Latin world of symbolic meaning.

Just focus on first, mandating the teaching of Maths and Science, and train our teachers in getting them to the level of competency needed. Make them happy to learn English so that their children too can happily master the lingua franca. 

Use innovative ways of teaching English to help the teachers prepare themselves as an ongoing professional development agenda, and teach the teachers to stop listening to those fatalistic and defeatist advice on anti-English being given with idiotic pride by some non-sensical this and that literary laureate, and ultimately to move forward with changing times if we still wish to talk about world-class education.

It is not a joke that a Malay kampung kid can and ought to master English. I was such a kampung kid. My parents do not speak English. Nor do my grandparents and my Johor kampung folks. 

But I am glad they did not heed the advice of some Malay national laureate of this and that, of some Malay-Islamist-Salafi youth group spewing this and that Islamic confusion, nor any ultra-Malay nationalist groups who opposed the teaching of Maths and Science in English, yet sending their children to some expensive-elite-Malay-only boarding school so that the latter can take the Cambridge IGCSE or the International Baccalaureate Programme to lure them away from becoming Mat and Minah Rempits.

Let us not joke anymore about our children's future. Just have them master English. Because Bahasa Melayu can never be at par with English – as a language of today’s advanced cybernetic world. 

Don't push the Malay kids further back into the kampungs.

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AZLY RAHMAN is an academician, international columnist and author of seven books available here. He holds a doctorate in international education development and Master’s degrees in six areas: education, international affairs, peace studies, communication, fiction and non-fiction writing. He is a member of the Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education. Twitter @azlyrahman. More writings here. - Mkini

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