It is heartening to note that the debate on English has taken a life of its own despite initial attempts to bulldoze the policy through and dismiss opposition to it as merely the concerns of "extremists" Chinese educationists.

Although I broadly support the government's position on this but not without reservations, I think it has all the elements of a spectacular flop were it to be implemented as initially conceived.

The task is so mammoth that four months is just woefully not enough to get everything in place. The urban-rural gap in the general competency of the language is so huge that the authorities would do well to take heed of the criticisms.

And then there are the fundamental issues in education that needs to be addressed more urgently like class size, school facilities, low morale among teachers and poor discipline among students. These will certainly have some bearing on the success of the new policy and stand in the way of the broad objectives of national education.

In a sense, the government should be thankful for this unwelcome, extended debate, especially the criticisms from educationists and academicians. It is better to take these criticisms and suggestions at this stage and make the policy workable rather than turning what might be a good idea into a grand failure. Education is too important a matter that radical policy shifts need be carefully thought through.

The arguments raised by eminent Malay educationists, academicians, cultural figures and Malay-based political parties, NGOs and not least Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka are certainly very valid and central to the dictum of " Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa " (Language is the soul of the nation).

Language is as integral to a nation's soul and identity as are culture and history. To destroy all that the pre-merdeka generation has struggled to develop and nurture the Malay language as a modern language for knowledge, arguably one of the objectives independence, is highly irresponsible, ignorant and insolent, all in the name of economic competitiveness.

NEP unravelled

But, amid the current furore from among those who oppose the new policies, we need to recognise that the two interwoven but nevertheless clearly separate threads of problems.

On the one hand, it is true that the new policy to use English as the medium of instruction of Science and Maths threatens to be the last nail on the national language coffin given its marginalised position in many sectors today private and public, but on the other hand, blunted competitiveness from poor mastery of English in the modern world is largely a Malay problem which I think it is truly a frightening one. It can unravel the social engineering that the NEP has succeeded to achieve in some degree and widen the gap between the races again. The swelling ranks of unemployed and unemployable graduates, the bulk of whom are made of Malays is one such manifestation and it is indeed what many believe to be the impetus for the government's drastic policy.

The need to be competitive in a globalised economy, while entirely valid, has been used as convenient pretext for those not disposed to positive sentiments of national soul and identity to use English extensively in the public and private spheres, leading to a rapid eclipse of the national language. This is rather sad, because the results of the national language policy in education was just beginning to bear its fruits, with the younger generation of Malaysians from all races able to communicate and use the language effectively.

Admittedly this has not eliminated racial prejudice completely but at least we were one step closer. The framers of the policy have also been vindicated that the national language has shown itself capable to be a modern language of knowledge at all levels of education, from primary to tertiary, with medicine and maybe law among the few exceptions.

But all that has unravelled over a short span of 10 years or so and which I feel in the main, is attributable to a lack of will on the part of the government to continue the national language project as integral to nation-building.

Malay as a foreign language

No one needs to be reminded that Bahasa Melayu is still officially the national language but for those living in the capital city, one can conduct one's affairs professionally and socially entirely in English. Expatriates can live in Kuala Lumpur for five years and still can't string a few sentences in Malay. Today, one can safely say that Malay is the language of losers and ne'er-do-wells, the urban poor and some academics deluded by out-dated nationalistic sentiments cocooned in their ivory tower.

In chic residential districts and the more upmarket shopping malls, Malay is a foreign language spoken by security guards and the lepak boys.

The unsuspecting makcik bussed-in from the kampung to be dazzled by the development will sheepishly walk away when those brown-haired KLCC shop assistants ask them if they would like any help in an unfamiliar language.

Turn on the radio and we might as well imagine that we are living in LA, from the music to the fake accents of DJs.

It is neither possible nor desirable to completely prevent the infiltration of western ways, but we could at least blunt the influence of the more negative aspects of consumerist western pop culture had we been more sensitive to the preservation of our national identity.

This lack of respect for the national language is not only prevalent among the general public but it extends among the very people entrusted to safeguard its continued status, and that perhaps explains the sad and sorry state that the language finds itself in today. Malay cabinet ministers cannot resist starting a sentence in Malay and completing it in English in front of TV cameras.

The response to the shock announcement of June 22, on the last day of the Umno annual general meeting in the hallowed Dewan Merdeka of PWTC, revealed a great deal of the psyche of the defenders of the Malay culture, religion and language. In that flood of raw emotions, arguably their most unguarded moments, they cried exclamations in English on live television for the whole nation to see.

Inevitable march of English

However, this lack of will to maintain the national language in its esteemed role in our national life, for all its bleakness, needs to be seen as separate from the problem of poor mastery of English among the Malays. The enhanced role for English as an economic expediency will not necessarily lead to the decline of Malay if we have a clear vision on the place of both languages in the scheme of things and have the political will to follow it through.

Much as we love our national language, without which we are a nation without a soul, in today's world the march of English is inevitable as Latin and Arabic once were at different epochs of human history.

Like it or not each society has to come to terms with it without selling out its soul; English is just integral to globalisation.

And it is not just any globalisation. In the French media, some cultural critiques call it Anglo-Saxon globalisation, referring to its origin and domination by corporate America.

The old argument that Japan, South Korea, Germany and France become industrially developed using their own languages whereas India and the Philippines are economic laggards despite English, is jaded and flawed. Of course scientific progress can be achieved using any language, including Malay, but what is more important is the people's attitude to knowledge and the social-political environment.

Remember that there are two vastly different Koreas and similarly once there were two Germanys. But with English's pre-eminence today, nations ignore it at their own peril.

It is this integration to the globalised world economy that forces even fiercely proud nations like France and Japan to make some concessions to English.

I was invited recently to give a lecture at the Annual Scientific Session of the Japanese Society of Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery. All the sessions were conducted in Japanese except for the international symposium in which I participated. My host, an assistant professor of child health at a Japanese University who had spent two years at a children's hospital in Canada, told me that the professional society for adult cardiology has been conducting their scientific sessions in English for a few years already. Those like him who have had the benefit of spending time in the west, understand the importance of English for international networking and career advancement.

Denial syndrome

I think the problem of lack of competence among young Malay graduates is serious enough to call it a "crisis" and this must have led the government to announce a drastic policy shift in education.

Working in a government-owned corporatised institution, I get to deal with a number of financial and management consultants, representatives of multinational medical equipment and pharmaceutical companies etc., and it became clear to me that the English competence required in these organisations would have selected out many local Malay graduates at the interview level.

Complacent with the false assurances that Bahasa Melayu is the language of government, the professions and commerce, the Malay students would be rudely jolted into reality on their first job interview. This can potentially lead back to the scenario racial segregation in the economic sector and the professions, rolling back what has been partially achieved by the NEP.

I have to admit that this is an over-simplification of the situation. Although the English competency divide is largely Malay-non-Malay one, but not unlike the digital divide, it is also very much a rich-poor as well urban-rural divide.

Accepting that the over-emphasis on English in the economic sector as well as in urban social life has regrettably gone quite out of hand, the denial syndrome among some of Malay language nationalists will, in the short term aggravate the language divide further to the detriment of the younger generation of Malays, and in the long term impoverish the Malay mind for, like it or not, English is a vast repository of humanity's collective intellectual and cultural heritage in print form. Every work of some value right up to the Greeks' golden period is translated into the language. If not for any other reason, English competence can release the Malays from being captives of Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian .

In a lengthy paper by a Malay academic on the current issue, the writer made the bold claim that English needs only to be learned by diplomats, journalists and tourist guides, and this amounts to no more than 2,000 people.

A Sasterawan Negara (writer laureate) writing on this site recently, seemed to have echoed a similar view though not quite in such specific terms. While the concerns over the marginalisation of the national language into bahasa pasar are very valid, such a view will not serve the Malays well. Not to mention that such career-streaming from an early age is reminiscent of Soviet totalitarianism.

Bigger problems than English

It is unfortunate that every issue of national importance is heavily politicised by both sides of the divide and the present one over English is no exception. I tend to agree with the government's view that some subjects Mathematics and Science in the proposed new policy need to be taught in English just to widen its usage to allow for sufficient practice.

But the argument that humanities subjects instead be taught in English does stand to reason as this would be a more involved way of learning the language. Furthermore beyond the age of 15, not all students take up pure sciences.

Whatever it is, this is an issue that requires the thoughtful contributions of the experts, i.e. educationists and academicians as well political and social organisations.

At the same time, the whole issue needs to be framed within the broader context of Malaysia's educational system. A great many views have been aired over the deteriorating standards and politicisation of education in Malaysia, from the kindergarten to tertiary levels. Poor facilities in rural schools, demoralised, unmotivated poorly paid teachers, serious disciplinary problems among students and parental neglect or unrealistic expectations are perhaps a bigger problem than English.

At the tertiary level the loss of academic independence, suppression of dissenting views among academics and students by forced pledges and undemocratic laws, and political control of university administration have turned our campuses into moribund institutions, and that shows in the surveys that rank Asia's universities.

In this regard, the call for a Royal Commission on Education on the whole is most timely. After all, the last Royal Commission was nearly half a century ago and the world has changed a great deal since.