Where has Azman Hashim, the Universiti Malaysia Sabah pro-chancellor been all this while?

Has the chairman of the AmBank Group been so busy counting the money, or minding the financial markets that he failed to notice the steady deterioration of the English language among our graduates?

The decline in English proficiency did not happen overnight. It has been steadily going downhill for several decades.

On 28 March, Azman urged new graduates at the UMS convocation ceremony in Kota Kinabalu, to make a special effort in improving their English to boost their chances in the job market.

Isn’t it odd that other members of the academia throughout Malaysia have been largely quiet about the low proficiency in English?

Are the lecturers petrified of their careers stalling, or face being sacked for speaking out?

What about the union of teachers/lecturers? Are they also in denial?

Malaysian students must be thoroughly confused. Pro-chancellors and the odd professor tell them they should be more fluent in English. On the other hand, politicians tell them Bahasa Malaysia will supersede English in communication. Who is right?

Promoting Bahasa Malaysia is a vote winner among the Malay electorate. To prolong their political careers, politicians are prepared to sacrifice our children’s futures.

Successive politicians have failed us. So, why should we trust any politician from Umno-Baru to have a plan to improve English in our schools?

They ruled the country since Merdeka. Instead of progress, the opposite happened.

Umno-Baru nationalists use race and religion to brainwash the Malays. They have successfully convinced many Malays that speaking English is unpatriotic.

After the 13 May 1969 racial riots, a state of emergency was declared and the erstwhile deputy PM Abdul Razak Hussein ran the country via the National Operations Council (NOC).

Razak became PM in 1970 and enticed Dr Mahathir Mohamad back into Umno. Mahathir had been cast into the political wilderness for his insubordination towards Tunku Abdul Rahman.

Mahathir enjoyed a meteoric rise in Umno, became a Senator in 1973, and was embraced into the Umno Supreme Council before being rewarded as minister for education in 1974.

Mahathir oversaw the replacement of English in our schools, and was instrumental in clipping the wings and silencing the voices of both the academia and students in universities and colleges.

Students and academics who became politically involved were severely punished.

Mahathir’s affirmative action policies led to many non-Malay teachers and lecturers being sidelined for promotion.

Non-Malay teaching staff at Mara colleges and universities were left out in the cold. Some left and sought work overseas, others taught until retirement or resigned and set up private tuition centers.

Mahathir wanted to stamp his mark on Malaysia, and willfully destroyed the foundations of a sound educational system which we inherited from the British.

Our schools and higher institutions of learning were among the best in Asia.

Promoting BM is a vote winner among the Malay electorate. To prolong their political careers, politicians are prepared to sacrifice our children’s futures.

The destructive Mahathir made a mess of Malaysian education in order to fulfill his racist agenda. Ketuanan Melayu was about to be born.

Cynics claim that many Malays who became teachers did not have a desire to teach, but entered the profession because they were not suitably qualified for other disciplines.

Teaching was the last resort and preferential to unemployment.

Others claim that as government servants, they would gain easy access to attractive loans for buying homes and cars.

Today’s old guard, like Mahathir, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (Ku Li), and Muhyiddin Yassin, were party to Umno tinkering with our education.

They failed to think long term. They refused to consider the consequences of dumbing down Malaysian education.

The decline in our educational standards began in the seventies. Ku Li, the MP for Gua Musang, must have foreseen the destruction which Mahathir and his ilk had released on Malaysians.

At a Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) convocation ceremony in 2014, Ku Li warned graduates that the level of both education and fluency in English was substandard.

He should have spoken out earlier when he was finance minister (1976–1984). The finance minister holds a powerful portfolio and is able to exert much influence.

He could have stopped the destruction before it worsened.

In 2016, at the launch of the Malaysian Education Blueprint (MEB) on higher education, the erstwhile deputy PM and education minister Muhyiddin Yassin expressed surprise at the poor standard of English among Malaysian school children.

He was puzzled that children who had completed their pre-school, primary school, secondary school and tertiary education failed to converse in English.

For years Malaysian parents and employers had expressed concern over the low quality education and poor English. Was Muhyiddin not listening?

By the 1980s and 1990s when the effects were obvious, Ku Li, Muhyiddin, Anwar, Azman Hasim and other prominent Malaysians in banking, business and industry could have alerted the PM and cabinet. What stopped them?

If you want to destroy a nation, just tinker with the education system.

However, it is not too late to reverse the trend.

So, if you want to put things right, you must speak out and elect the right man to represent your voice in parliament.

Source:

1. Free Malaysia Today: UMS pro-chancellor laments poor English among fresh grads

(Mariam Mokhtar is a Freelance Writer.)