There is but only one way to improve English — that is by reverting to English as the medium of instruction. Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad could hold his own in international forums because he was educated in an era when English was the medium of instruction. That is the way to go if the quest for knowledge and practicality to cope with globalisation were the honest objective.

Things get complicated when other objectives are canvassed. If the primacy of the Malay or Chinese language were to be upheld, whether for reasons of national unity or cultural hegemony, the above objective cannot be realised by half-hearted measures.

For as much as a man cannot serve two mistresses satisfactorily, so the cause of English cannot be served by accommodating other imperatives. Let us not pretend that it can be so.

The official policy laid down by Umno supreme council to improve English by using it as a medium of instruction to teach Mathematics and Science is unlikely to improve the grasp of all three subjects.

If proficiency of English as the medium of instruction for Mathematics and Science were not achieved because of limited usage how could knowledge in these two technical subjects be improved when the medium of imparting it — English — is not itself grasped?

The policy is likely to fail as future events will show. Yet the farce must be maintained because the policy is an appropriate concession to Mahathir's desire to improve English without conceding on the Malay language status.

Chinese educationists have used the above argument to reject the official policy in part due to the cultural chauvinism of safeguarding transmission of Chinese cultural values through primacy of Mandarin in Chinese schools. The fact that English standards are deplorable in Chinese schools and will continue to be so have not been openly admitted.

The Chinese-based political parties have now come out with a brainwave to circumvent this dilemma. The mother tongue (Mandarin) will continue to be the medium of instruction for Science and Mathematics. Nothing is changed and the status quo is maintained. The concerns of Chinese educationists who have influence on the power base of these Chinese-based parties are therefore addressed and allayed.

But Umno's 'big brother' ego must be assuaged as well. BN component parties cannot be seen as going against Umno's policy by having Chinese schools accorded special exemption. Otherwise, it is heresy.

As a face-saving device for Mahathir and Umno, MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik said that extra classes on Mathematics and Science taught in English outside school hours will be conducted by Chinese primary schools to "improve English" (see 'Extra English classes to be held', Star , Oct 24).

That English can be improved in such a manner is a fatuous argument.

If the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English is rejected for normal school hours and curriculum on grounds that comprehension of all three subjects will suffer, what can be achieved by this same discredited method outside school hours in the extra classes?

This is clearly a farce and what the Chinese-based parties and educationists are doing is not much different from Malay-based parties and educationists in defending the primacy of their own languages. The symbolic value of their mother tongue must be upheld at all costs?

Finally the symbolism of deferring to Mahathir, his vision and the government policy too must all be catered for and ruffled feathers all be smoothed.

Unfortunately, it is the children who will suffer in having to go through the charade of extra after-school classes so that every other adult policy maker and politician can go through the motion of double-talk and double-think and intricacies of balancing competing objectives to uphold their favourite symbols.

Symbolism therefore in national life is always more important than truth and honesty — even if it means our children be sacrificed in pursuit of education.

If symbolism is given more importance than truth and honesty, national life and calibre can hardly be ennobled, and farce and hypocrisy will continue to reign! But what is new?