SABOTAGING THE NATIONAL POLICY ON BAHASA MELAYU!
… TO SUPPORT THE EXISTENCE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS AND THOSE WHO CAN’T SPEAK THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE WELL!
By Mansor Puteh
Do we know what was happening with the Malay/English issue that had happened of late?It’s got nothing to do with what everybody was talking about, especially those who are bent on supporting the use of English for the study of science and mathematics.
It’s not that.
The truth of the matter is that the non-Malays, mostly, had managed to sabotage the national policy of the government which had wanted to encourage the use of Malay, the national language for everybody. And they were already encouraging the private sector to use Malay as the medium of communication.
Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) even refused to accept letters in English, and replying to them in Malay.
And the government had tried to train graduates who were proficient in Malay over English, thinking that the private sector would welcome them to offer jobs to them.
But it turned out that those who had excelled in Malay are the Malays and the non-Malay students or graduates were grappling with the language and could speak and write in it.So those people in the English language newspapers and other non-governmental organizations (NGO) and other individuals sprung into action to deny the use of Malay as the national language in the private sector, which is purely to ensure that the non-Malay graduates their standing.
And no wonder, even those in the government who had steadfastly tried to insist the use of Malay as the main medium of communication and education became guilty as such and began to jump about on the beat created by those who did not want to use Malay.
This is the truth of the matter.
And as a result, the scores of thousands of Malay university graduates who were said to be not bankable or suitable to work in any international companies were left without jobs, which were taken by the non-Malays who could speak better in English but not so in Malay.
It is also to deny the over-flooding of Malays in the organizations, where they were not welcome earlier, and till today so that the private sector can be seen to be non-Malay dominated as it is till now.
The private sector, as opposed to the government sector in Malaysia, is still dominated by the non-Malays, because they own most of these companies. So they seemed to have the right of way.
They had managed to fool even the government who began to accept their logic and thinking because they claimed those who are not proficient in English would not be marketable. Or, worse, the graduates who are Malays who do not speak and write well in English are said to be less intelligent or qualified. So the government had no choice but to ‘retrain’ them, so that they are marketable.
They think the top Malaysian graduates who are proficient in English are to be exported and not utilized in the country because they are marketable.
Don’t they realize that it is not our business to provide graduates and trained personnel to foreign countries and all the university graduates that we are capable of training should be for our own use?
And the English language papers also seized the opportunity to further drum up support by their editorial policies, by claiming that English is an international language and more suited for the new generation of Malaysians.
Okay, once and a while, the public comments and commentaries by those in Pena and Gapena and other individuals who support Malay. This is just to ensure that they are not seen to be biased to the core when they are so, since they are writing in English so they need to get those who are fascinated with this language for their business.
It is obvious that they are.
This stereotyped mentality does not bode well for their intelligence. Because those who claim that the mastery of English to be important, are still in the country and who are not about to go anywhere.
It is because they are not able to go anywhere in the world with their English that they are shouting on top of their voice to claim that the language is more important than Malay in Malaysia. How wrong. And how childish they are! Have they mastered the English language? Have they acquired any interesting knowledge using this language?
The ploy of these English language newspapers must be exposed. They also fear if the use of Malay become more widespread, chances are their papers will become obsolete, with fewer and fewer readers who will want to read them in the future.
There is no future for English language publications in Malaysia if less and less Malaysians are interested to use English, as can be seen now.
If the trend of using the national language was not thwarted, chances are some of the English language publications, especially the magazines would have suffered bad business and some of them might even have to seize publication altogether.
English is definitely not the language of unity in Malaysia; worse, it has become a convenient tool by some quarters to use it as a medium of discontent and to sow discord.
Ironically, those who are comfortable in the English language in Malaysia can never find any platform anywhere in the world where they can express themselves on anything in this language.
So few Malaysians who have made it abroad using this language. So they have to do it in the country, where they can show to the others who are not too fascinated with English how conversant and good they are in this language, especially in their social relationship with each other.
This is what English is good at in Malaysia, for social communication and not for the acquiring of knowledge.
By Mansor Puteh
Do we know what was happening with the Malay/English issue that had happened of late?It’s got nothing to do with what everybody was talking about, especially those who are bent on supporting the use of English for the study of science and mathematics.
It’s not that.
The truth of the matter is that the non-Malays, mostly, had managed to sabotage the national policy of the government which had wanted to encourage the use of Malay, the national language for everybody. And they were already encouraging the private sector to use Malay as the medium of communication.
Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) even refused to accept letters in English, and replying to them in Malay.
And the government had tried to train graduates who were proficient in Malay over English, thinking that the private sector would welcome them to offer jobs to them.
But it turned out that those who had excelled in Malay are the Malays and the non-Malay students or graduates were grappling with the language and could speak and write in it.So those people in the English language newspapers and other non-governmental organizations (NGO) and other individuals sprung into action to deny the use of Malay as the national language in the private sector, which is purely to ensure that the non-Malay graduates their standing.
And no wonder, even those in the government who had steadfastly tried to insist the use of Malay as the main medium of communication and education became guilty as such and began to jump about on the beat created by those who did not want to use Malay.
This is the truth of the matter.
And as a result, the scores of thousands of Malay university graduates who were said to be not bankable or suitable to work in any international companies were left without jobs, which were taken by the non-Malays who could speak better in English but not so in Malay.
It is also to deny the over-flooding of Malays in the organizations, where they were not welcome earlier, and till today so that the private sector can be seen to be non-Malay dominated as it is till now.
The private sector, as opposed to the government sector in Malaysia, is still dominated by the non-Malays, because they own most of these companies. So they seemed to have the right of way.
They had managed to fool even the government who began to accept their logic and thinking because they claimed those who are not proficient in English would not be marketable. Or, worse, the graduates who are Malays who do not speak and write well in English are said to be less intelligent or qualified. So the government had no choice but to ‘retrain’ them, so that they are marketable.
They think the top Malaysian graduates who are proficient in English are to be exported and not utilized in the country because they are marketable.
Don’t they realize that it is not our business to provide graduates and trained personnel to foreign countries and all the university graduates that we are capable of training should be for our own use?
And the English language papers also seized the opportunity to further drum up support by their editorial policies, by claiming that English is an international language and more suited for the new generation of Malaysians.
Okay, once and a while, the public comments and commentaries by those in Pena and Gapena and other individuals who support Malay. This is just to ensure that they are not seen to be biased to the core when they are so, since they are writing in English so they need to get those who are fascinated with this language for their business.
It is obvious that they are.
This stereotyped mentality does not bode well for their intelligence. Because those who claim that the mastery of English to be important, are still in the country and who are not about to go anywhere.
It is because they are not able to go anywhere in the world with their English that they are shouting on top of their voice to claim that the language is more important than Malay in Malaysia. How wrong. And how childish they are! Have they mastered the English language? Have they acquired any interesting knowledge using this language?
The ploy of these English language newspapers must be exposed. They also fear if the use of Malay become more widespread, chances are their papers will become obsolete, with fewer and fewer readers who will want to read them in the future.
There is no future for English language publications in Malaysia if less and less Malaysians are interested to use English, as can be seen now.
If the trend of using the national language was not thwarted, chances are some of the English language publications, especially the magazines would have suffered bad business and some of them might even have to seize publication altogether.
English is definitely not the language of unity in Malaysia; worse, it has become a convenient tool by some quarters to use it as a medium of discontent and to sow discord.
Ironically, those who are comfortable in the English language in Malaysia can never find any platform anywhere in the world where they can express themselves on anything in this language.
So few Malaysians who have made it abroad using this language. So they have to do it in the country, where they can show to the others who are not too fascinated with English how conversant and good they are in this language, especially in their social relationship with each other.
This is what English is good at in Malaysia, for social communication and not for the acquiring of knowledge.
Comments
I regret your article is confine only to the narrow minded reader who will agree with you.
Open up and your will see. I have gather more knowledge and able to communicate with anyone with my command of English. I thank the Malaysian government for that. I have met people of other nations like Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, France Germans who are struggling to understand and communicate in English. I have been to US, UK and they were surprise i can communicate so well in English.
Now that you have more access to internet and globalisation, there is more need to learn English.
So I totally disagree with your view.
I agree with u when u mentioned that we are not in the business of producing quality graduates just so that they can be snatched up and used by other countries. However, reverting back to Bahasa (in teaching Maths and Science) is going to bring on a new phenomenon. Most middle class and upper class families will be sending their children overseas or to local international schools to ensure that they receive an education based on world standards (and not on the flip flops of BN). Do you think these students, upon graduating, will opt for jobs in malaysia?? Hahahaha.... These brain drain will inevitably bring about massive exodus of able and potential leaders till it reaches a point where Malaysia will be known as the land of the old, poor, backward,morally degraded and oh yeah, Malays.
There it is in a nutshell. If you want to hold Malaysia in a state of backwardness then do it in BM. And many people, the people who support the use of BM, do want Malaysia to stay backward, repressed and subservient
Strange isnt i?. But not as strange as your comment that English is not the language of unity. English is the only language for unity in this country.
Societal pressure will ensure that English dominates regardless of what the UMNO fools think. English speaking Malaysia will forge ahead further widening the divide between the have and those left behind
So you see Mansor, unless you are going to lie around reading malay love stories/gossip columns and poetry all day long, or have plans to become an UMNo politician, better get used to english.