I was appalled when I read news of Universiti Malaya (UM) lecturer Prof Dr Abdul Latif Abu Bakar of the UM Media Studies department who allegedly said during a national Parent-Teacher Associations convention in Malacca that Dr Mahathir Mahathir was a traitor to the Malay language.

Mahathir's son Mukhriz had to defend his father.

This is totally bizarre coming from an academic in Malaysia. I worry when an academic says such things when Mahathir's objective was to elevate the quality of Malaysians in science and mathematics.

Is Abdul Latif oblivious of the fact that Nobel prize winners in science and medicine and major technological innovators are from the West? Is he not aware that the world's leading journals in the sciences, medicine and mathematics are in English? It is right to start the young in English. Malaysians have barely had time to catch up in this fast changing technology-reliant world.

I totally believe Mahathir did the courageous thing at that time by encouraging the learning and teaching of science and mathematics in English. He knew others may brand him a traitor but he did it all because he wants Malaysians to excel in these areas. While I do not agree with some of Mahathir's policies, he did the right thing in pushing for the teaching of science and mathematics in English.

We will soon see more Malaysians excelling in the sciences, medicine, engineering, economics and finance (those in finance need to know the sciences to evaluate technology for investments). There will be more Malaysians with postgraduate degrees in the sciences and mathematics from the world's major universities as they will find it easier and faster to pick up knowledge in these areas. They will further engage in innovative research projects to take our country to higher levels.

I worry when academics in Malaysia are not seeing the whole picture of certain policies and think that the national language should be defended at all costs. It is dangerous to say that doing otherwise is treacherous to the language. We are living in a very, very competitive world and lagging behind would harm us economically.