Why we must learn from Singapore’s drive to developed nation status Posted on 27/03/2014 Sonia Ramachandran PETALING JAYA: Do we want to be like Singapore? “Yes. Most definitely. I think it’s not a bad idea to emulate its success. If we were like Singapore, at least Malaysians would speak and write better English than, say, the Americans,” wrote former law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim in his blog. But Zaid did go on to say this was “wishful thinking for now.” “There are plenty of reasons why I think we will not be like Singapore. Our Malay leaders, whether from the Barisan Nasional or the Pakatan Rakyat, are very protective of Malays. “They will want the Malay language to remain the sole medium of instruction in schools. They will not encourage bilingual (let alone multilingual) capabilities for fear that Malays will lose their Malay-Muslim identity if the use of English is widespread,” Zaid wrote. Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) founder Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa agreed that Malaysia should emulate Singapore if she wanted to compete on the same level as other countries in the world. Ahmad Farouk pointed out that although language was part of the country’s heritage and that Malay was the lingua franca of the country, it wasn’t the lingua franca of the world. “English is the language of business, science and technology. In order to compete internationally, we have to excel in English. “People say language is the identity of the nation. We cannot compare ourselves with the Japanese and Germans because they have translated many books and journals into their native languages,” he told theantdaily. Pointing out that this wasn’t the case in Malaysia, he questioned where the country would be in 20 years if being nationalistic was paramount to acquiring knowledge. “If you want to be nationalistic, then translate more works into Malay. What is the National Translation Institute of Malaysia doing? It just seems to be republishing books by ministers instead of translating works from other languages. “For the medical field, there are hardly any books or journals translated into Malay. We are going to be left behind,” Ahmad Farouk said. He said the ministers’ actions in being nationalistic were in actual fact victimising the Malays. “The ministers are trying to be nationalistic in their approach but they are sending their children overseas for studies. “In the country, however, they want the Malays to be backward. The Malays here are victimised as their reading material is limited. They are controlling the minds of the Malays by controlling the language. “If the Malays cannot read in other languages and looking at the number of books being banned as well as the limited number of translated material, they can direct the way the Malays think. It’s a kind of mind programming through language,” he added. To be a known civilisation, he said, the language of the civilisation of that time had to be learnt. “The Malays are proud that the Western civilisation learnt from Baitul Hikmah (House of Wisdom, which was a library, translation institute and academy established in Abbasid-era Baghdad, Iraq.) “The Western civilisations did that by learning Arabic and translating the works of that time into English and other Western languages. But the Malays forgot that the Islamic civilisation learnt from the Roman and Greek civilisation before that and they did this by learning the Greek and Latin languages and translating them into Arabic. “It is a continuous cycle. If you want to be a known civilisation, you have to learn the language of the civilisation of that time. Now it is our time to learn the language of the civilisation of the 21st century and that is English,” he said. He said while many Malays are proud of the Arabic language, it is not the language of the world. “Greece annually translates five times more books from English than the entire Arab world. So Greece is more prolific than any Arab state. “If you want to take the nationalistic stand and catch up with the current civilisation, then you must translate more English works into Malay. Otherwise, just let people learn English,” Ahmad Farouk said. In his posting, Zaid compared this with Singapore where he said Lee Kuan Yew (former Singapore prime minister) had wanted Singaporean Chinese to be “Westernised” and opted for English in schools from the beginning. He wrote that Lee was not worried that the Chinese would somehow be “lesser” people if they were modernised and Westernised. “Our Malay leaders on the other hand are always worried if Malays are “Malay enough” as a result of modernisation. “Lee Kuan Yew was not interested in reinforcing the religious or moral dictates of the Chinese community. He focused only on aspects of public morality that were necessary to build a strong nation. He was not concerned if the Chinese were good Buddhists or Taoists. In this sense, it helped that he was not ‘God-fearing’ such as our leaders are,” Zaid penned. theantdaily/news/2014/03/27/why-we-must-learn-singapores-drive-developed-nation-status
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:14:42 +0000
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