Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) devoted almost half of the November issue of its monthly magazine, Dewan Bahasa , to articles opposing the government's move to use English in the teaching of Science and Mathematics in all schools next year.

The articles ran headlines like ' Bahasa Melayu bahasa Sains dan Teknologi ' (Malay the language of Science and Technology), ' Imperialisme Bahasa (Language imperialism), ' Berakhirnya sakti Melayu ' (End of Malay power) and ' Bahasa Kebangsaan kita, tanggungjawab kita ' (National language, our responsibility).

The opposing voice in the 67-page magazine flipped the stony silence maintained by DBP when the Umno supreme council first proposed the language change policy in a meeting in May.

The article on language imperialism written by editor-in-chief Zulkifli Salleh slammed the government for glorifying English language through various policies to achieve the goal.

Unfair labelling

"Groups defending the Malay language were considered defectors and narrow-minded. However, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's action to introduce the teaching of Science and Maths in English was considered as far-sighted," he said in the article.

"These English language custodians favour the easy way out by labelling those who do not agree with them as defectors, extremists and chauvinists."

The opposing groups hinted at by the editor included the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall and Chinese education movement Dong Jiao Zong which Umno leaders and ministers had labelled as "extremist and chauvinist".

Zulkifli cautioned Malaysians against becoming a victim in the globalisation aspiration. No society can escape from the globalisation movement but losing one's language and culture in the process makes one a victim, not a supporter of it, he said.

In another article that posed 'The end of Malay language power?', the writer described the use of English in the teaching of Science and Maths as "the awful language policy".

'Anglicisation' of education

Writer Prof Shaharir Mohamad Zain said the Education Act (Private Higher Learning Institutions) 1995 had led to the 'anglicisation' of local education, which has resulted in about 700 private colleges that use English as the medium of instruction today.

An even more awful consequence, he said, would be the gradual 'anglicisation' in the teaching of Science and Maths from 2003 to 2005. He claimed the policy would 'sterilise' the Malaysia Translation Institution, DBP and writers in Malay language, and hence, spell the end of the Malay language.

Shaharir also criticised the local Malay media for blacking out Malay opposition to the language switch.

"The plan to 'anglicise' Science and Mathematics was obviously only Umno's (or its top leaders) doing, seeing as Chinese component parties in BN did not agree with the policy. Strangely, the (Umno) government is so eager to expand the 'anglicisation' policy to religious, Chinese and Tamil schools.

"They feel uncomfortable about their children improving their knowledge of science and maths using their own language. Those leaders won't accept any educational facts about the advantage of using mother tongue in the evolution of society," the writer added.

Several other articles also cited studies and views that support Malay as the lingua fraca for Science and Maths.

'Not official stand'

However, DBP director-general A Aziz Deraman when contacted by malaysiakini yesterday, said the magazine articles opposing the language switch did not represent the official stand of the organisation.

"These are opinions from the public and scholars whose articles we have collected and published. Their opinion is not the official stand of DBP," he said.

Aziz declined to comment when asked if the organisation support or oppose the controversial language issue.

"The government has decided to proceed with it, so it should not be an issue [for anyone] to raise anymore," he said.

DBP was set up as a statutory body by the government in 1956 to promote Malay as the official language, and the Malay culture and heritage in the country.