English instruction should be for all

I REFER to Datuk Azman Ujang's professional and non-political article in theSun on May 5.
Most of us would surely agree with Azman's headline, "Being English savvy is a must". Both he and almost all of us in prominent positions of leadership today, whether in the professional or even political fields, would not have come so far without a good grounding in the English language, which we studied so well in our time. Indeed, our political leaders know this only too well.
But they have played politics with the teaching of English for the last 40 years since, as Azman says, our nation has sidelined English.
At the same time most children of our educated and prominent political leaders have thought it only right and proper to give their own children the best English education at home, especially abroad. This is a major contradiction for which they have to be held accountable to the Rakyat.
Is this political practice of double standards fair and reasonable? Our leaders must serve our people first and not their politics and their short-term vested interests please.
With this misplaced policy of marginalising the teaching of English, our national competitiveness, graduate employment, productivity, national self-esteem, national and individual confidence, and our future prospects, have and will continue to suffer and even decline!
What must be done to improve our poor English standards?
We need to develop a national consensus by doing the following:
> Strengthen both the standards of Bahasa and English in our whole education system. The allocation of policy priority, time
and resources must be about equal in our national schools for Bahasa and English.
> Our vernacular and religious schools should also be incentivised to teach more English.
> We cannot afford to continue to marginalise our Malaysian students, who have and are deprived of learning English that can raise their potential to succeed better in their future careers and incomes, and lifestyle.
> Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan's sound proposal to re-establish English medium schools in Sabah should be granted by our political leaders who understandably, are almost entirely educated in English. The minister's solid idea could be adapted by the whole of Malaysia. Why should our ministers deny this rich privilege of learning more English to our own children, our youth and our future leaders of TN50?
> Any resistance to the re-emphasis on the teaching of English can and should be professionally, and even politically, countered and overcome with logic and not egoism nor emotion.
> Our educational standards at schools and also universities are relatively low, according to international ratings and rankings. Largely, this is due to our poor standards of English that were much higher before. But if the lack of qualified teachers in English is the main cause of this problem of poor English, then surely we have the imagination to churn out more English teachers in the shortest possible time. The best way is to give them more attractive incentives. Then even many retired teachers, as well as some parochial teachers and parents, will be persuaded to promote the teaching and study of the English language, for the benefit of their children!
> Most importantly, however, our leaders must realise that what they have done and will continue to do is a serious disservice and injustice to the majority of our children and grandchildren, who cannot afford to learn English outside the regular school system. They will not be able to get the best jobs and the best out of life. Unfortunately, the majority of these children who are deprived of learning good English will be from the poor, rural and depressed urban areas, and sectors of our multiracial society. This can have very sensitive and disruptive implications on the building of national unity and the future of our nation!
Conclusion
For all the reasons above, we hope the government in its wisdom, will introduce more teaching of English, together with Bahasa, Chinese and Tamil, and other languages in our school system, as soon as possible.
Hopefully Sabah will get its wish to have the English medium or dual-medium schools in Sabah. Then other schools in the country can follow Sabah's good example.
Parents can be given a choice or be persuaded to send their children to schools that teach more English, as they are the taxpayers and should also know what is best for their own children.
This vital choice should not be left to some thoughtless parochial politicians. It's too precious a choice.
However, those parents, teachers and pupils who choose to remain conservative and parochial, could choose the old way and deny their children access to learning more English and adaptation to a rapidly changing world of the digital economy.
Finally, we appeal to our leaders to serve our people first and not their own parochial political short-term gains at the expense of long-term better prospects and greater progress of our people and our beloved country! May God bless Malaysia.
Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam
Chairman
Asli Centre of Public Policy Studies