news focus

During a recent lecture on globalisation at the National Institute of Public Administration (Intan), Japanese professor Yoshihara Kunio made several recommendations for developing countries facing the challenges of globalisation.

In his latest book, Globalisation and National Identity: The Japanese Alternative to the American Model , Kunio notes that as of 1997, the top one percent of the United States (US) population held 40 percent of the nation's wealth with the top five percent holding more than 60 percent.

Together, the 400 richest Americans are worth more than US$1 trillion, which is equivalent to the wealth of 50 million households in the bottom half of the US population. It was also noted that half a million of Americans were homeless.

Besides creating huge income disparity and social problems due to poverty, globalisation via the adoption of the American economic model may possibly lead to the loss of local culture and languages in developing countries, says Kunio.

In his lecture, he gave the example of the 'one directional influence' of the US upon Malaysia which led to the increasing influence of US businesses and the English language.

As a consequence, he said, there will be a 'cultural split' among Malaysians in which there exists an English-educated minority who will benefit from the fruits of globalisation as opposed to 'an oppressed' Malay-educated group.

"The Hawaiians (in the US) are culturally and economically oppressed because their language is not in the mainstream and their culture has became a sub-culture," he reasoned.

Kunio added that in order for developing countries such as Malaysia to avoid the same fate as the Hawaiians in the age of globalisation, they should adopt four strategies which were practised by Japan which were:

- Providing mass education to enable the population to learn about social morality;

- Government intervention in the economy to soften the impact of competition;

- Strengthening the national language as a medium of communication and

- Strengthening the national culture to enhance national identity and the sense of pride among the population.

Unconventional basis

Some of Kunio's recommendations would appear to be nationalistic in its tone, but the professor maintained that he was not a nationalist.

Asked how would he apply his recommended strategies of strengthening the national language and culture in a multiracial Malaysia, Kunio explained that he believed that instead of just emphasising one national language for a population of diverse ethnicity, the government should allow room for the development of mother tongue languages.

"My basic idea is that while Malay should be taught as a national language, education in Chinese and Tamil should also be strengthened at the same time," he said.

"This is a difficult proposition to sell to Malay politicians, but they have to realise that the present situation is not very good and that the only way to prosper under globalisation is to build a nation on a somewhat unconventional basis," he said, adding that such 'unconventional methods' would include giving a large degree of cultural freedom to the Chinese and Tamil minorities.

Kunio said that while Malay politicians may think that if the Chinese are educated in Mandarin, their loyalty will go to China, the chances are that they will remain loyal Malaysians.

"We have Japanese, actually Japanese-Americans to be more precise, living in the United States, and even if they speak good Japanese, they are different from the Japanese in Japan," he explained.

"In the same way, the Chinese in Malaysia will not be treated as full-fledge citizens in China and the country of their identity will always be Malaysia."

According to Kunio, the question of political reality in Malaysia should be set aside in discussing the issues of language and culture in the context of globalisation.

Benign neglect

Section 152 of the Federal Constitution states that the country's national language is Bahasa Malaysia but no one should be prohibited from using (except in official purposes), teaching or learning other languages in Malaysia. Nevertheless, education, language and culture were always issues of great political contention in Malaysia.

In the aftermath of racial riots in1969, the government adopted a stronger stand to promote national language and culture. The National Cultural Policy which was adopted by the government in 1971 clearly indicated that the national culture which should cultivated among the population should be based upon the Malay cultural heritage.

Thus, oppositions parties, especially the predominantly Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP) have alleged that the Malaysian government under the predominantly Malay-based Umno would implement a 'one language, one culture policy' to gradually assimilate the multi-ethnic population under the guise of national unity despite the constitutional guarantees on cultural and linguistic freedom for ethnic minorities.

Chinese educationist groups such as the Dong Jiao Zong have also rejected various government-initiated projects such as the Integrated Schools Programme in 1985 and the Vision Schools project in 2000 for the fear that such projects will erode the character of Chinese schools.

"You simply cannot assume Malaysia can keep developing in the way Malaysia has done so far. You need a new strategy and new ideas on nation-building for Malaysia," Kunio said.

He explained that Malaysia had thrived on rapid industrialisation but countries such as China were also rapidly developing in such a manner.

And due to cheaper labour and production costs, countries such as Malaysia would be affected in terms of competitiveness. Furthermore, China is due to be admitted into the World Trade Organisation by the end of this year or early next year.

Therefore, Kunio pointed that new economic strategies are needed for Malaysia to compete in the future. He stressed that education for the population will be the key for future economic progress.

He lamented the fact that while the Malaysian government allowed mother-tongue education, it is not given much support.

"You allow Chinese education for six years but don't give much support for it. If you don't give much support to the Chinese and Tamil education, the people don't get a good education," he said.

"Although the government allowed that (education in mother tongue) but Chinese schools get a treatment of 'benign neglect'," he said while citing that children in Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong are receiving better education in their mother-tongues than their counterparts in Malaysia.

Tertiary level

After independence in 1957, Malaysia, then the Federation of Malaya had 1,333 Chinese primary schools with an enrolment of 310,000 students nationwide. Although the enrolment number in these schools has increased two-folds to 620,000 last year, the number of Chinese primary schools has decreased to 1,284 schools.

Meanwhile, the number of Tamil schools have decreased from about 670 schools in 1957 to 526 schools currently. Many Tamil schools are lacking in basic educational facilities such tables, chairs, libraries and science labs prompting MIC president S Samy Vellu himself to say, "Some schools look worse than refugee camps."

Kunio explained it is practical to allow the major ethnic groups in Malaysia to be educated in their own languages as a way to strengthen basic education for a multi-racial population.

According to him, it is better for children to be taught in the language they speak at home as it is the language closest to them.

"But make it a requirement that the students be fluent in the Malay language and Malaysian history," he said.

He also explained that students that wanted to continue their mother tongue education at a tertiary level should have the opportunity to do so.

"If they want, they should be able to go to university in the Chinese or Tamil stream. If the government denies them this, Chinese Malaysian students may end up going to Taiwan, Hong Kong or mainland China," he said.

Kunio added it is better to retain these students in Malaysia and make them feel that they are a part of the country than to lose them to other countries.

Business opportunities

The professor admitted that it may be politically difficult to accept such proposition. However, he pointed out that at this stage of development, it is better for Malaysia to prosper and develop within a multi-ethnic setting rather than to put everything under a one language one cultural policy and thus making it difficult to take advantage of globalisation.

Apart from the strengthening of basic education via mother-tongue education, Malaysia could also take advantage of its multi-racial population to create more business opportunities with other countries.

"The Tamils may have contact with India and Chinese may have contacts with the mainland. Thus, Malaysia can take better advantage of globalisation," he said.

Kunio is a professor of economic development from the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at University of Kyoto in Japan. He is a leading expert on the political economy of Southeast Asia.

Currently, Kunio occupies the Pok Rafeah chair at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (Ikmas).

KEVIN TAN is a malaysiakini journalist.