OCT 12 — Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's recent remarks saying that the government is committed in making the national language the teaching medium in local universities have led to a controversy. Even former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who claimed to have been a fighter for Bahasa Melayu since 1947, said it would be wrong to conduct courses of higher learning institutions in Bahasa Malayu. Undeniably, Mahathir has always commented on national affairs even after stepping down as the prime minister, but it is seldom for him to bluntly criticise the Education Ministry. The Education Minister's remarks seem to have again showed the people that the government is retrograding.
Citing China, Japan and South Korea as examples, Muhyiddin said that these countries have used their mother tongues as the teaching medium in higher learning institutions but are still able to highly develop. Therefore, he believes that local higher learning institutions should also empower the national language and gradually switch the teaching medium of critical courses such as engineering, law and medicine from English to Bahasa Malayu. The ultimate goal would be to have 30% of Science courses and 70 per cent of Social and Humanities courses being conducted in Bahasa Melayu. Obviously, the Education Ministry is sparing no effort in pursuing this wrong direction.
After globalisation became the trend in the 1990s, our country started to use English as the teaching medium in higher learning institutions following the awareness of the importance of English. Getting back to the old path now is undoubtedly heading towards the opposite direction of the world development trend. The main reason enabling China, Japan and South Korea to make brilliant achievements in science and technology is because they are having advanced and rich technology books in Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages, allowing their people to gain wide scientific knowledge. Meanwhile, the people of China, Japan, South Korea, France and Germany have also been actively learning English to ensure that they can maintain competitiveness in the trading and academic fields. As for Malaysia, we are having very limited books or publications on technology or other professional fields in Bahasa Melayu. If courses in higher learning institutions are conducted in Bahasa Melayu, how are the students going to master the ever-evolving academic and professional knowledge?
The official language status of Bahasa Melayu is undoubted and very strong. Education policies should be made based on professional considerations to avoid confounding with unnecessary political factors or personal narrow-mindedness, resulting in sacrificing a generation's future. Education policies should be meant to cultivate international talents and strengthen the ability of the younger generation to master international languages like English and Chinese. It is the only way to make our people more competitive internationally.
The failure of our tertiary institutions to improve or make a breakthrough on world university rankings is greatly related to the lack of competitiveness. In September this year, Universiti Malaya (UM) is the only Malaysian institution that has made it to the top 200 of the QS World University Rankings 2012-2013, ranked at 156. Meanwhile, the National University of Singapore (NUS) tops Asia by advancing to the 24th position in the world rankings. Singapore and Malaysia are geographically located so near yet the gap of their university rankings is so big. The key lies on the ability to master international languages.
It is the people's misfortune when leaders try to turn the clock back. Higher learning institutions must use English as the teaching medium to help the younger generation get rid of kampung mentality and proudly step onto the world stage.
— Sin Chew Daily
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.
