Malaysians would all stand to benefit from an education system that teaches them to be bilingual in English as well as Malay, said former international trade and industry minister Rafidah Aziz.

“If you have a bilingual modus operandi in the education system in the education system, that would benefit us all,” she said, pointing out that this would produce bilingual youths.

“We should have a parallel medium, which is English and Malay. Where relevant, we use English; where relevant, we use Malay.

“It depends. If you are dealing with science, mathematics and anything that has got to do with international exposure, use English.

“If you are talking about Malay literature, never mind, use Malay. So choose the subject,” she said when met by reporters in Kuala Lumpur today.

Rafidah added that she was bilingual because it was forced upon her, but it was for the good.

Earlier while taking questions from participants at the Asean Youth Leaders Summit, Rafidah shot down the suggestion by one participant that an Asean language should be adopted as the lingua franca, saying that using English would be more pragmatic.

“To my mind the easiest way would be to speak English, “ she said, adding that the alternative was that an Asean country would have to learn Vietnamese, or Bahasa, or whatever.

On a another matter, she told reporters that she had gone through the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreeement (TPPA) and stood by her earlier statements that it would bring more benefits than disadvantages.

“I have gone through what we have offered and what we are requesting. Personally I am happy because what we wanted we got, including market access, including exemptions, including carve-outs.

“So in short, it would benefit us more than it would cost us,” she said.

Rafidah also dismissed concerns that TPPA's provisions on intellectual property rights for medicines would increase their cost, saying the costs are not entirely dependent on data protection.

She said the cost of developing drugs was very expensive, and no one would want to do it without such protections.

Incentive for Brunei, Malaysia

“The cost of medicine is not really based on that data protection. It is based on the cost of making the medicine, the marketing and the promotion, a whole lot of elements. It (data protection) is not the factor,” she said.

Malaysia is due to debate in Parliament on whether or not to sign the TPPA in January next year.

Among others, the agreement requires Malaysia to introduce a new five-year data protection period for a new class of drugs known as biologics, as well as other measures that would make it equivalent to an eight-year protection.

In turn, pharmaceutical companies are required to register their new biologic-based drugs in Malaysia within 18 months of them being approved anywhere else in the world, or forfeit this protection.

This incentive is provided only to Malaysia and Brunei under the TPPA in a bid to encourage pharmaceutical companies to bring new drugs to the two countries quickly.

Critics of the data protection provision argue that it would delay 'generic' versions of biologic drugs (biosimilars) from entering the market, meaning that the prices of the drugs can be kept high for longer due to a lack of competition.