I do not doubt the validity of the argument put forward by Josh Hong with regards to the inferiority complex our national leaders have with regards to the position of our mother tongue, be it Bahasa Melayu or Mandarin, to the extent that the government is willing to turn its back on more than 20 years of National Language Policy to revert to the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English.

Of course, we can split hairs and argue that it is just the teaching of Science and Mathematics and thus, not a negation of the said policy. Yet, as one closely involved in the education arena, I do not agree with the thrust of his argument that it is somehow wrong to implement the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English, even in the independent Chinese medium schools, just so as to preserve the nature of their characteristics.

Yes, one can and should be suspicious of our mainstream media, especially the Chinese press, for not highlighting the issue and in all likelihood as pointed out by Hong, it may well be that it will make the eventual implementation in the SRJK(C)s all the more easy to push through.

I have no personal preference, being one of those who went through the conversion from the English medium of instruction all the way till my Higher School Certificate and then to follow the implementation of the Bahasa Melayu policy all the way until my graduation.

What I hope is that our national leaders will now have the stomach to rough out these turbulent years of the implementation of the new policy and not drop it like a hot potato when it is politically expedient to do so.

Of course, things will have been more orderly if the implementation had taken a more gradual approach such as like starting from Year One and progressively working upwards. The reality now is such and I really do wonder if our national leaders have the guts to really bite the bullet and see the policy through.