I quote from Dr Musa Mohd Nordin's letter University-bashing unscholarly approach :

' ... the Koreans who are at the cutting edge of stem cell research and the Japanese who do not babble a decent word of King James' English have not been the least compromised in their quest of excellence and leadership in the medical sciences'.

I have to point out that in most of the top Korean or Japanese universities, the medium of teaching is still their own mother-tongue. However, when it comes to international conferences, their presentations have to be made in English.

So, I believe Musa has used the wrong example to support his claim that there is no need of 'linguistic artistry and gymnastics'. I do believe you need excellent communication skills in your medium of teaching whether it is your mother-tongue or English.

I was once told by a head of department at a prestigious local university that if I wanted to teach

in the department, I would not be allowed to use English entirely even though the Education Ministry requires the teaching medium at that university to be in English.

He asked me to use a 50:50 ratio ('English campur Bahasa') to deliver my lectures in case the students lacked understanding of what I was talking about.

I presume the poor English standard among the majority of students has partly driven the imbalance and incompetence of teaching at our institutions of higher learning.