Episode 31: English or Bahasa Malaysia?

I'm not the first to talk about this issue, nor this is the first time somebody mentioned it. the one question that has been plagueing our national education system since.. I can't remember when. =p the thing is, while one party decided whether to or not to apply the selected language into the system, there are always poor justification, timing and methods to support such a move.

I am not going to begin listing down the errs made by daydreaming politicians and ministers concerning this matter, and neither am I fancy of any of their half-assed ideas. this problem will affect not the current generation, the uncles and grandpas who sit behind their desks in air-conditioned offices waiting for their retirement day to come, but the younglings (as in Star Wars xP) who in 10-20 years time will be the main drive for our country.

And as I said earlier, whichever move taken, should be emphasized upon, and strengthened. achieving results in an education system requires time and patience. once applied, it may take years to see what the end products will look like. and in our country's concrete case, this very important rule of thumb (which can be proved by our own history) is seemed to be overlooked-countless times.

the main POOR argument raised AGAIN and AGAIN-applying of this language will lead to deterioration of that language. or, if we are stuck with this language and not use that language, our country can never develop with the world.

WTH.

and again I stress my point. strengthening either is ENOUGH. when 1 language has gained dominance, the second language, although second in the list, would still be regarded with definite importance. ie, if we have Bahasa Malaysia as main language in schools, new subjects like EST will act as auxiliary tools helping students to gain better understanding of information of similar nature, which they learned in Bahasa Malaysia. more auxiliary subjects can be formed to further support the students. and auxiliary, doesn't mean compulsory.

And if English were to be taken as the main language, I can't imagine still in 20 years time secondary school students would actually converse in English the whole time, but ultimately, the whole system is trained in the business, students find it easier to grasp materials thanks to having competent teachers that are exposed several years to the mechanics of teaching in English. while at the same time, Bahasa Malaysia, even 2nd on paper, would still have high social capabilities, and if it worries too much having employees who can't speak Bahasa Malaysia, tests can be made. :)

so, in brief, whichever language is taken in as the more important, the development of the 2nd most important language will just follow suit. the f*****g problem now is, nobody wants 2nd place! damn it. so here we go again, in a game of tug-of-war. orang melayu kata main tarik tali. :) and the future looks as dim as ever.