Republic of virtue, 3/09

Are the Malay linguistic nationalists betraying our children?

Posted by admin

Friday, 13 March 2009 15:45

We need to look at how best can the children of Malaysia be served through multiple languages and through the importance of the English Language. We need to step back – many steps – and look at our philosophy of education, our paradigm of teaching and learning, our training of teachers, our caste and class system in our ‘information-overloaded’ educational system, our politician’s constant interference in schools and in controlling the minds of our children and our teachers, our destiny as a multicultural nation demanding us to master multi-linguistic possibilities, and finally how we have built in successes and failures into our school system. A REPUBLIC OF VIRTUE Dr. Azly Rahman ( dr.azly.rahman@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/ Nationalists are nationalists. Some remain rooted in the language which shaped their personal reality, in a world of shifting views and multiple interpretations in which one become sub-texts of both Grand and Subaltern narrative. Nationalist are nationalists. In a postmodern world, we sometimes do not know who the enemy of these nationalist are. Perhaps the enemy lies within. Fear of one’s own shadow? Nationalists are nationalists. They can remain so. They need to evolve into globalists grounded in the love of many cultures, still. Perhaps like many, I am an advocate of the critical importance of the English Language as, at this point in history, a language not only of commerce, the arts and humanities, but also an inspiration for revolutionary movements that challenges colonialism and imperialism as well. In order to understand the enemy, one must speak its language. Stamford Raffles knew this well when he was sent to the Singapura to be christened as its “founder”. The enemy is corruption and social cancer wrought by casino capitalism, spoken in English globalized by high speed Internet, mutating the mind, body, and soul of natives and savages transforming them into neo-colonials. The enemy is the dimension of language that installs regimes and systems of oppression that leeches off blood sweat and tears of the natives transformed into indentured post-modern slaves. The English language of the modern imperialism system and the Gog and Magog of the maddening capitalist world is the enemy. Many a revolutionary writer opposed to colonialism wrote in the English Language – from Jonathan Swift to Joseph Conrad, from Eric Blair (George Orwell) to V. S. Naipaul, from Karl Marx to Raymond Williams. Of course for Malaysian children we do not expect them to be passionate of the Greek mythology, the philosophy behind Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, The Chronicles of Narnia, or translation of Ramayana and Mahabharata, or even the Adventures of Asterix – we hope this will one day be a reality when we throw away our TV sets and ASTRO channels or our iPods or Blackberry. And start reading. Of course this is a long road for Malaysian children to be engaged in world literature in (English) translation and be a little be more learned and refined and to expunge any sense of racial superiority such as “ketuanan this or that”. Long road to freedom. There is a reality at hand. When a Malay poet laureate and a chief of a language preservation council (I hope this is a close enough translation of ‘dewan bahasa dan pustaka’) and a hundred other Malay Language jihadists were pepper-sprayed for protesting against the English as a language of instruction, we have got a national problem. What is the message? What is being symbolized? What is the signification? What is the issue? What is the non-issue? Where is the sensibility? Where is pride? Where is prejudice? Where are we taking this argument? These are difficult questions. Essentially, in my opinion, the value of teaching the applications aspects of Science and Maths in English is that hopefully the teachers will work harder with the students to master the lingua franca. Perhaps later, when there is mastery, teachers and learners themselves can explore the humanities and social scientific aspects of Maths and Science, and ultimately in their later years understand the philosophical and political--economic aspects of the two "subjects". One may then, in one's old age, read the biography of Sir Isaac Newton, Rene Descartes, Henri Poincare, Paul Erdosh, Albert Einstein, Steven Hawkings, etc. Or even read translations of Hamzah Fansuri or Ibnu Arabi. English Language is one important vehicle for such exploration. My question is: what is the fate of linguistic nationalists in the age of globalization and deconstructionism? For whom will such nationalists continue to serve? But ultimately, why are the adults arguing for the next generation when the former should be allowing the latter to chart their own intellectual future? Or-- could the answer be in the passion for teaching and the need for an entirely new pedagogy? We are only beginning to peel the layers of complexity of the issue of teaching of Science and Maths in English. We need to go beyond the data and conclusion presented mundanely passed as the ultimate truth why we need to teach Science and Maths in the Malay Language. We need to rise above the simplicity of concluding, the reductionism of our arguments, and the shallowness of our claim of the need to be ultra-nationalistic about the language of instruction to be used. We need to look at how best can the children of Malaysia be served through multiple languages and through the importance of the English Language. We need to step back – many steps – and look at our philosophy of education, our paradigm of teaching and learning, our training of teachers, our caste and class system in our ‘information-overloaded’ educational system, our politician’s constant interference in schools and in controlling the minds of our children and our teachers, our destiny as a multicultural nation demanding us to master multi-linguistic possibilities, and finally how we have built in successes and failures into our school system. Daunting task for us. Requiring supra-nationalist thinking. But if, in Malaysia, linguistic nationalists are merely players in a world’s-a-stage build by ‘tuans of this and that ethnic group’ under the ideological direction of ‘ketuanan this and that,’ we must rewrite the script. Language shapes reality. Or maybe language is reality. Or maybe, in the case of the nationalist, language confines reality. Their reality. In multicultural Malaysia, in a world past post- and hypermodernity, our language policy ought to make possible multiple realities, multiple worlds or knowing. So that our children may become world-wise Malaysians. [OUR USUAL REMINDER, FOLKS: While the opinion in the article is mine, the comments are yours; present them rationally and ethically. AND -- SET ALL I.S.A. DETAINEES FREE] Comments (21) ... written by purpleshoppe, March 13, 2009 16:14:48 our linguists and teaching forces are bunch of graduates who failed to get jobs and by the grace or UMNO got themselves hired into the once revered teaching profession la! teachers themself cannot speak and understand proper english, how to teach in english? and in our sejarah text book, they keep false assurnce and re-assurance that Bahasa Melayu is the "lingua-franca"... still living in the history of Kejayaan Selat Melaka sebagai ibukota perdagangan bla bla bla.... Malay language is Malay supremacy..... and now suddenly change syllabus to english... and then flip flop.... and then now national la, linguistic la... kesian our budak-budak sekolah masa depan dan peminpin masa depan semua pun bakal jadi flip-flop under the current education system report abuse disagree 4 agree 36 ... written by ONGJJJ, March 13, 2009 16:15:35 Never mind laaa. Just go back to pre NEP days where English medium, Malay medium, Mandarin medium, or Tamil medium schools co-exist, and parents are given the freedom of choice to choose the path for their children, with Malay language taught as the national language. The free market will weed out the irrelevant ones. No need to scream or riot or tear one's hair out etc. Remember the nostalgic days when the various races were better assimilated & more tolerant than today evincing the failed compromise attempts to-date. Look what happens when one try to fix a wheel that is not broken in the first place. Haiz. report abuse disagree 0 agree 68 ... written by greenarrow, March 13, 2009 16:46:10 More & more Malay & Indian parents are sending their children to Chinese Medium School..the reason was they hope their children be able to progress and think far ahead for Self Development like the Chinese..a proof : this had been provened by the Great Historic Journey taken by Admiral Cheng Ho of China The Chinese had a strong determination to achieve successs...inspite the struggle & hindrances posed upon them...parent of other races wanted their children to learn the way how the chinese handles Mathematics...they believed their children will gain Accounting ability to run bigger bizness During the 80 s & early 90 s....Sciences & Mathematic Subjects were taught in Bahasa Malaysia...yet the vast majority of candidates scoring high A s were the Chinese.....that show that any language used has not undermined the Chinese students Ancestor of the Malaysian Chinese lived in a Great Land of China..a land of Hundreds of dialects....only one MANDARIN unites Billion of Chineses...there were NO FEAR to the Chinese..even another 'outerspace alien language ' been introduced to them Why 'this Group' fighting so desparately to abolish the use of English in Mathematics & Science? Mathematics is the 'FIGUREs'....its not the language...it has to do with the NUMERical calculation I had many encountering with Malay Foodstall money paying..the 'Budak layan customer' banyak kali kira salah....bukan kira lebih..tetapi kira KURANG We are honest customer...we paid them fairly & rightly Are they hinting that language was the problem that hindering their learning in Science & Mathematics ???? P O N D E R Guess this certain portion group not willing to swith & adapt to the ' Real Changes '..they rather love been pampered forever..contented with their current situation..they will never progress far..perhaps living like a PARASITEs..borrowing others Success & achievements * Panah Hijau report abuse disagree 4 agree 27 ... written by imanj, March 13, 2009 16:58:18 Dr Azly Rahman After reading both your articles,this is exactly what we as parents say.I've posted comments on other articles with regards to the English language being important,and also said that i would volunteer to teach for free,a classroom of 50 children irrespective of race/religion from the city and rural areas to speak and excel in the original Bahasa Malaysia and in the English Language. With nothing more then a pleasant classroom equipped with the basic,writing materials,books,an atlas,dictionary and most of all to free the minds of these children to explore into an adventure of learning.. I would to this for my 4 year old daughter,and any other child and prove the Ministry and this nation wrong!!. With lots of determination,patience,love,encouragement and positive attitude, children will be exposed to experiment their ability and feel good about themselves.Any child given an chance will excel,and no one can take or surpress their need to progress.. I hope people will come to their good senses and not bicker,instead understand the setbacks of how it is now,and choose to move forward without resentment. WE NEED TO ADMIT,IT'S NOT THE CHILD THAT DOESN'T DO WELL,IT'S THE INABILITY OF THE ADULT TO FIRST ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR INABILITIES.. report abuse disagree 1 agree 30 ... written by densemy, March 13, 2009 17:44:04 You bet they are. But then everyone seems to have it in for Malaysian children... its like the whole country wants to suppress and repress them Parents. Teachers. The Education System. Religion. Government... you are all guilty of selfishness beyond belief report abuse disagree 0 agree 12 ... written by densemy, March 13, 2009 17:55:43 ONGJJJ "The free market will weed out the irrelevant ones." Nice sentiment, but these are children's lives and livelihoods you are talking about A good government should decide Language Policy on the basis of what is best for the Nation and its people Not on some outdated concept of Nationalism as a means of grabbing power... or worse still a tool to foster repression and censorship. That's what this country is all about report abuse disagree 2 agree 11 ... written by savemalaysia, March 13, 2009 18:20:03 What's nationalism when our children's education and thus their future are being tossed here and there by partisan linguists? Do they care and also what do they lose if our children become non-competitive in a globalised world. These ancient-minded linguist nationalists still talk about the sanctity of the Malay language when the whole world is accepting English as the language for international communication and technology. Wake up you old-fashioned and inflexible linguists, don't you know that your action is taking Malaysia two to three decades behind time. report abuse disagree 1 agree 13 ... written by batsman, March 13, 2009 18:26:36 Dear Dr. Azly - Betrayal is a strong word. Have you considered that some people may think you are the one doing the betrayal? report abuse disagree 20 agree 4 ... written by emirateswenger, March 13, 2009 21:33:09 From chedet. 1. Saya berasa amat sedih apabila membaca laporan berkenaan demonstrasi yang dipimpin oleh tokoh sastera Melayu menentang pengajaran Sains dan matematik dalam bahasa Inggeris. 2. Kononnya ini akan menidakkan kebolehan bahasa Melayu sebagai bahasa pengantar dalam ilmu ini. Konon ia akan mengurangkan perkembangan bahasa Melayu sebagai bahasa kebangsaan. 3. Kita harus ingat bahawa pelajaran bukan semata-mata untuk memaju atau mengembangkan bahasa. Pelajaran adalah untuk penguasaan ilmu, pelbagai jenis ilmu. 4. Yang boleh meningkatkan taraf dan kemajuan bahasa ialah matapelajaran bahasa itu sendiri dan diperingkat yang lebih tinggi mata pelajaran sastera. 5. Sains dan Matematik tidak mungkin menolong kemajuan bahasa, khususnya bahasa melayu. 6. Ini disebabkan bahasa sains dan matematik bukan daripada bahasa Melayu. Sebahagian besar daripada perkataan-perkataan dalam mata pelajaran ini adalah dalam bahasa Latin yang di-Inggeriskan. 7. Memang benar kita boleh Melayu-kan perkataan-perkataan ini, seperti juga kita Melayu-kan perkataan daripada lain-lain bahasa. 8. Memang boleh tetapi perkataan-prkataan Sains bukan satu dua tapi beratus-ratus. Dan perkataan ini menjadi asas kepada perkataan yang mempunyai makna yang amat berlainan. 9. Umpamanya perkataan Oxygen (Oksigen) - satu jenis gas. Derivative (cabang) daripada perkataan ini adalah seperti berikut; • Oxygenation • Oxidation • Oxide • Oxidants • Deoxydation • Oxidise • Oxidification • Dioxide • Monoxide • Peroxide 10. Ini hanya bagi satu elemen daripada sebanyak 120 (11 elemen. 11. Tiap satu mempunyai banyak derivative. Tetapi ada perkataan-perkataan lain yang hanya untuk ilmu sains. Jika semuanya nak di-Melayukan, bahasa Melayu akan bertukar menjadi bahasa Inggeris, ejaan lain bunyi semacam. Sebenarnya ia bukan bahasa Melayu lagi. 12. Ilmu sains dan matematik bukan ilmu yang statik. Ilimu-ilmu ini berkembang sepanjang masa. Tiap hari ada hasil kaji selidik, penerokaan, ciptaan dan perluasan yang diperkenal melalui ratusan kertas-kertas yang ditulis. report abuse disagree 1 agree 16 ... written by Diz, March 13, 2009 21:46:12 I'm a mat salleh with a malay wife so probably don't have locus standi (although my kids went thro the SK system). I'll simply quote her response (admittedly after getting stuck for 3 hours in the jam caused by the language nationalists on Jalan Istana last week): "F... 'em, glad they got tear-gassed. If those ignorant f....ers want to keep the rural Malays stupid, let 'em get on with it." She's not a habitual swearer but it kind of says it all! report abuse disagree 2 agree 39 ... written by emirateswenger, March 13, 2009 21:50:47 13. Hampir semua ditulis dalam bahasa Inggeris. Untuk menterjemah tulisan ini kita perlu orang yang fasih dalam bahasa Melayu dan bahasa Inggeris dan faham ilmu yang hendak diterjemah. 14. Kita ada beberapa kerat sahaja orang yang berkebolehan seperti ini. Itupun dalam dua tiga bidang sahaja. Orang yang layak seperti ini tidak berminat menjadi penterjemah seumur hidup. Apabila sains dan matematik diajar dalam bahasa Melayu, orang seperti ini tidak akan ada lagi. Bagaimanakah kita hendak ikuti perkembangan ilmu sains. 15. Sebaliknya kertas ilmiah akan terus dikeluarkan beratus-ratus lagi, semuanya dalam bahasa Inggeris atau bahasa-bahasa lain. Maka tanpa kebolehan menterjemah semua ilmu baru ini akan tertinggallah orang Melayu dalam bidang ilmu yang amat oenting di zaman ini. 16. Kalau kita masih tidak dapat menerima kenyataan di atas, kaji sahaja jumlah Phd dalam bidang sains yang hanya belajar sains dalam bahasa Melayu dan tidak faham bahasa Inggeris. Berapa ramaikah dari pakar dalam bidang perubatan yang hanya belajar dalam bahasa Melayu, tanpa buku dalam bahasa Inggeris sebagai buku teks. 17. Apakah penuntut luar bandar tidak dapat menguasai bahasa Inggeris? 18. Sekali lagi perhitungan perlu dibuat berkenaan jumlah mereka yang dari kampung yang memegang jawatan tinggi dalam Kerajaan dan swasta kerana lulus dalam bahasa Inggeris dan mampu berhujah dalam bahasa berkenaan. Yang menentang PPSMI pun dari kampung juga tetapi dapat kelulusan bahasa Inggeris. Bahkan mereka sering berbahasa Inggeris. 19. Duta dan diplomat kita, berapa ramaikah yang hanya boleh bertutur kata dalam bahasa Melayu yang memegang jawatan penting dalam Kementerian Luar? 20. Pakar sains dan perubatan dan juga pegawai tinggi Kerajaan sering dikehendaki mengambil bahagian dalam persidangan antarabangsa. Apakah mereka dapat berhujah dan mengambil bahagian secara berkesan dengan menggun hanya bahasa Melayu? 21. Saya bukan hendak memandang rendah bahasa bangsa saya sendiri. Tetapi saya perlu terima hakikat yang sebenar. 22. Bahasa sesuatu bangsa akan dipelajari oleh orang asing jika bangsa itu amat maju dan terkenal dengan ilmu yang dimiliki dan diterokai olehnya. Demikian sebelum abad ke-15 Masihi orang Eropah terpaksa belajar bahasa Arab kerana tamadun Islam pada masa itu gah dan amat dinormati. Tetapi selepas orang Islam ketepikan sains, ilmu perubatan dan hisab, orang Eropah tidak lago mempelajari bahasa Arab. Sebaliknya orang Arab dan Islam terpaksa belajar bahasa Eropah. 23. Jika kita ingin bahasa Melayu digunakan dengan meluas kita perlu majukan diri kita dalam semua bidang terutama bidang ilmu dahulu. Sebelum daripada itu minat untuk belajar bahasa Melayuu akan terhad kepada sekumpulan kecil sahaja. 24. Kita belajar sains dan matematik untuk memajukan bangsa kita supaya satu hari mungkin kita akan terkenal berkenaan dengan penerokaan dan kajiselidik oleh kita dan orang lain akan belajar bahasa kita untuk mendapat ilmu yang diteroka oleh kita. 25. Penguasaan ilmu amat penting bagi masa depan seseorang. Janganlah kita perjudikan masa depan anak orang kerana kononnya kita seorang nasionalis yang begitu sayang kepada bahasa kita. Sayang bahasa tidak boleh melebihi sayang bangsa. Mereka yang sayang bangsa mereka ingin lihat bangsa mereka maju, berilmu dan dihormati dunia. Hanya kerana boleh bertuturkata dalam bahasa sendiri tidak akan menjadikan bangsa kita dihormati dan disegani orang. 26. Akan rosaklah bangsa dan negara jika dasar negara ditentukan oleh orang yang berdemonstrasi. Lebih rosak lagi jika yang berdemonstrasi didalangi oleh politik pembangkang. Pretty strong arguments I'll say. How many books on Quantum (Bahasa, Mandarin, Tamil) have you come across? or for that matter Symmetry, Vertex Operator Algebras, muon/gluon and top Quarks. Say we have a go at translation or having an equivalent word in Bahasa. Carry it on to its logical conclusion and we would have an Englishfied or whateverfied Bahasa. I strongly believe one should retain ones mother tongue and national language but they are other ways to achieve it. report abuse disagree 2 agree 12 ... written by JaguhKampung, March 13, 2009 23:58:39 Parti yang melaungkan Ketuanan Melayu, yang membela nasib bangsa, agama dan negara, namanya pun bukan Bahasa Melayu. Apa nama UMNO? "Untuk Melayu Not Orang-lain? report abuse disagree 0 agree 3 ... written by SiHangChai, March 14, 2009 00:38:31 These betrayers are actually mostly UMNO members themselves who started the anti-pembelajaran Sains & Matematik dalam bahasa Inggeris. Seriously think who are the leaders in this protest groups when it all started last 2 years ago? report abuse disagree 1 agree 2 ... written by Proud_2b_Malaysian, March 14, 2009 02:09:32 Arguing about the prominence of Malay being lost when Maths and Science is taught in English is absurd. The point is that the skills of our children in Maths and Science have dropped and the argument should be about improving those skills. We are missing the forest for the trees here. http://proud2bmalaysian.wordpr...ong-thing/ report abuse disagree 0 agree 3 ... written by gorshan, March 14, 2009 11:43:44 we need two system of school in this country. the national language medium and the international language medium. the national language school conducts all lesson in Malay with one class set aside for English language and the international language medium school conducts all lesson in either English,Mandarin,Tamil or French or Swahili with a class set aside for Malay language. religious class should be kept out of schools(unless defined as 'mission school and sekolah agama')and confined to homes and respective church,temple,madrasah,gurdwara,synagogue where weekend classes can be held and paid for by government. report abuse disagree 0 agree 10 ... written by Diz, March 14, 2009 17:46:26 Totally agree with Gorshan. The single biggest (and simplest) way to improve standards in national schools would be to make Agama, and the thoroughly pointless Moral, extracurricular subjects. This would free up time in a crammed timetable, encourage the Chinese to return, remove the medieval influence of the ustaz, and open up the world of rational thinking to the Malays. Win-win all round... but far too sensible for the cowards in charge of Malaysian education policy to countenance! report abuse disagree 2 agree 8 ... written by apa jadi, March 14, 2009 18:47:15 Dr. Azly, This is one article I don't get your point. Are you hitting at those demonstrating linguistic nationalists for opposing M&Sc in english or are you hitting at the linguistic nationalists for their myopic views of the globalising world? We can have a million rhetoric over this linguistic contortion in teaching M&Sc in English, while the English standard keep dwindling to that of Thailand and Indonesia, while politicians keep harping on this issue for their wealth and power. Do politicians really care for these kids English? The afford sending their kids to international schools or overseas for wholesome English environment, while the ordinary Malaysians have to take the secondary role by learning it through M & Sc. We can have a million mental trajectories to Mars and beyond the universe, but it does not help the students picking up the language in a proper way for as long as we go through this contorted process of learning. Some of us parents have made our own prerogatives clear. Screw all these bullshits of learning M &Sc in English. We make sure our kids learn English in the proper way. We have paid for their extra lessons elsewhere. That's the bottomline. I have friends' kids graduated from English medical colleges or overseas universities after going through six years of Chinese Independent School. These kids have no problem with English. Was it the work of Maths and Science in English? Ponder! report abuse disagree 7 agree 7 ... written by Milo, March 14, 2009 22:41:56 No one should have an issue with the importance of English. The real issue is how to teach and promote it effectively. For all we know, the government may be sincere in wanting to promote english thorough maths and science - but is it the best way? Apa jadi brought up a very good example (I have the same observations) of many of those who are from Chinese schools having no problem at all with english. I even know of children studying in chinese schools who are better in English that Mandarin! Their "secret" is no secret really - they speak english at home and with friends and get good tutorials on the subject. This is a clearly observable fact, and if true the approach taken by the government will not achieve its objective as planned. Surely those in the government think tank can come out will better solutions with all the feedback. Or are they REALLY keen in improving the english of say the malays (in particular)? report abuse disagree 0 agree 11 ... written by nrama, March 16, 2009 04:34:53 All the hooha over languages will become quite academic if we do not pay attention to the LANGUAGE OF THE HEART. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by Wisdom above, March 17, 2009 10:06:43 What happened to the printed rules that says that if a candidate failed to get a minimum " Credit C6 " at SPM/GCE , one cannot get a Full SPM/GCE certificate ? If "they refused to learn English language" even as a "single subject" and do well at it, what is the point to force them to study or use English in any other subjects. report abuse disagree 0 agree 7 ... written by takbolehtahan, March 24, 2009 12:31:32 THe rural folks have learnt how current umnoputras have gotten super rich by not studying English ... it's their children! So why should other rural folks want their children to struggle in English, work hard and be honest? Umnoputras have crafted out new values for the Malay race ... corruption, corruption, corruption, then laziness, selfishness and stupidity. YOu see that now in the new breed in umno youth. Studying Math and Science in English has nothing to do with the new umno values for progress within the party. report abuse disagree 0 agree 0