YOURSAY 'The Malay community must wake up and start demanding that all government leaders send their children to local schools, colleges or universities.'

English was once our competitive advantage

your say Malaysian Born: The fact is we have no choice but to pursue a high standard of English for our children to ensure that their future is secure.

It is time that parents step up to the plate and make the future of their children the priority. They must hold government leaders to account, and warn them that they would punish them with their votes.

Bahasa Malaysia is important and should be taught in schools, but let's be clear - Malaysians need to be global players in order to survive. Excellence in English is not optional for our children.

Insider: I am Malay. Ini bukan masuk bakul angkat sendiri (This is not to praise myself). I just want to share my views for what it's worth.

I went to English-medium schools from Standard 1 to Form 6. My family speaks English at home.

My four children are all doctors. Amongst others, I attribute this to the English language. It was in 1970 when I was studying in Australia that the government decided to abolish English-medium schools.

I knew then that without the English language, the nation would lose its competitive edge. It's happening now. By the way, I am no lesser Malay by speaking English.

Reform: Our first language in the family is English. Our children and grandchildren start with English right from the day they can talk. They learn Malay when they enter the ‘tadika' (pre-school).

By the time they reach secondary education, they are conversant in both languages. That's how we manage to suit ourselves with the system. And we are Malay.

Johorean: Like many parents, my wife and I made sure our three children have the best head start in English by speaking to them in the language from the time they were born and invested heavily in their education so that they will be in the top 5 percentile in English.

Now we are glad that their standard of English is at least one to 3 years ahead of their peers in school, even at international level, and we are confident it will help them a great deal in their future pursuit, whatever field they choose to pursue.

We took this course of action because we cannot trust the government to provide a decent level of English education. If the government doesn't find a way to improve our poor English in school, we will be nowhere when countries like China catch up.

Geronimo: Sensing the emergence of China as the next economic giant, Singapore decided to make Mandarin the language of instruction. This was in the mid-80s.

After some trial runs, they found that it would be more advantageous if they were to retain English, and they were not wrong. In order to compete in the global market, Singaporeans are now proficient in two languages, English and Mandarin. But where are we?

Singaporeans know how to put round pegs in round holes, but Umno is trying to put square pegs in round holes.

If Umno say that our education system is as good as they say, then the Malay community must wake up and start demanding that all government leaders send their children to local schools, colleges or universities.

Anonymous: The children of BN leaders are being sent to foreign schools to study and become better off and better educated than their Malay counterpart from the kampongs.

The Malays are the ones to lose the most in the end. The rich Chinese send their children to study overseas and few return to serve the country.

The BN government is aware of this situation, but choose to remain stubborn just to please the ignorant rural Malays to gain votes.

Anonymous: Who is the culprit that destroyed the English-medium schools and replaced it with Bahasa-medium schools and caused a massive drop in the standard of our education in the country?

That culprit is still living and talks nonsense from time to time although his era is long gone.

Curious: Is there a way to stop people who are so eager in shooting themselves in the foot?

If they cannot see the benefit of being able to master English (not at the expense of the national language, of course) and even more so reject it for whatever reason, then my children can forget about their competitive advantage.

Father And Son : There is no point in debating what is good and what is bad, just ask the education minister who forced the decision down our throats which school their children are studying.

No 'flip-flop' in PPSMI issue, claims Muhyiddin

Free & Fair Election: DPM Muhyiddin Yassin, of course, it's no flip-flop. We know you have done your study and you have thought of the matter throughly many times.

But do us a favour - next time, when you think, think silently, will you?

My THOR: A million civil servants to run the government? Numbers do not matter. What count are the KRAs (key results areas) and KPIs (key performance indicators).

Many government servants do not really know their job scope/SOP (standard operation procedure) because there is no KRA demanded from them from their superiors. As a result, their productivity is questionable and subject to their political inclination.

As long as one is loyal to the Umno's government, their future is assured. Here lies the answer why Umno needs one million civil servants as the majority of them are party members and they are Umno's ‘fixed deposit'.

Anomnim: I want the same weed he is taking.

 

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