Dr M’s dilemma

We refer to Dr M and the New Dilemma (The Star, Friday March 11).

Good sense must prevail in education. Our dilemma with education seems to be sending us adrift further and further away from the very object of getting an education and achieving national integration.

Our education is a matter of national urgency. In order for us to enjoy peaceful progress, we must pay careful attention to our education framework and ensure that we will meet our desired outcome.

One certainty is that we should always take steps forward to progress.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s English education views have also been discussed by Tunku Abdul Rahman. Fortunately, they agreed on one good thing. The Tunku dedicated a whole chapter in his book on this subject.

Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al Haj, First Prime Minister of Malaysia. “The case for English and Malay.” In Viewpoints, 192-200. Kuala Lumpur: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd, 1978.

Below are the excerpts:

We obtained our Independence constitutionally and after that, we had to seek the help of the British to educate and train our men to take over our country in order to give the best possible Government to the people. As a result of this, we have enjoyed progress, prosperity and peace, which other countries have never enjoyed in this part of the world.

Malays only form 48 per cent of the population of Malaysia and we cannot, however much we wish it, do everything to our liking. We must find a happy medium to please all these people who have accepted this country as their home, and it is our duty to make it an object of their loyalty as well.

Unless it can keep abreast with changes and keep pace with progress, no nation will enjoy peace.

Every citizen of this country should take pride in the Malay language and make a special effort to excel in it, not just to speak Bahasa but to read and write it. A nation without a language is a nation without a spirit and without a soul. If we can take pride in being Malaysians, then we must take pride in our national language. Otherwise all this profession of loyalty is but empty talk.

No sensible person will begrudge any plan by the Government to implement the two languages: that I have learned from experience. The Malays also need Government help – hence our Five Year Plan.

Those who benefited under the Plans are now happy and contented. But we must not carry out the policy too far, and the Plan must not be one which can be likened to robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Those aggrieved by this policy will not give their co-operation, and without it and the help of the non Malays, already established in big businesses and trades, whatever one does and however much one tries to help the Malays, it will not proceed smoothly, but invite criticism and resentment.

Education, at whatever level, can make or unmake a man; in the same way it can make or unmake a nation. Our leaders are well aware of it. And they all ensure that their children receive the best education possible. In contrast, boys in the kampungs do not have the same opportunities; my object is to give them the best possible education. I have said that when a good brain is not properly utilised it can be a source of danger to the society and to the country.

At the moment, the danger is not too great, but I feel that before the situation deteriorates the Government should act by setting up a Commission to review our education policy.

We must restore confidence to the many races here who have placed their implicit faith in us Malays. The experiment we have carried out in our schools has not proved all that successful, and if we take cognisance of that now, we may be able to put it right. This matter is of the utmost importance to the nation and we must look into it as soon as possible.

The whole trouble with the people is that they obstinately refuse to look at facts objectively. For this reason, we have been weak, and that weakness has been the cause of our subjection in the past to foreign rule.

A student finishing Malay school at the age of twelve has achieved little to his credit. All he can seek is a job befitting his education, and that won’t be much of a job, nor does it offer much in pay.

I called for an all out effort to make “Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa” into a slogan which was printed on posters and pasted on walls all over the country. Surely this indicated my intention to give the incentive to all to learn Malay and prove their loyalty to this country.

At the same time I advocated that English should be made, for a long time to come, the language for higher studies. This was appreciated by many people, except by those with the- fox-and-sour-grapes or the-dog-in-the-manger attitude. They can’t see why others should obtain a good education when they themselves have not.

Malaysia is new, and she wants to go ahead and not take retrogressive steps. The rate of progress rapidly developing in this world demands that we keep pace with it.

Every day new ideas take shape, and new achievements are recorded. There is never an end to what is happening around the world.

Everything in the world has changed. It would be foolish for us to imagine that we can give the best service to our country and people purely on sentiment and emotion, and it will be no wiser to follow the ways of other countries that have not gone ahead with the times.

Our duty is to give the best way of life we possibly can to our people and to help make those who come after us happy and our country peaceful and prosperous. Can we say with justification that by slipping back on our education we can keep pace with progress, still less achieve it for our new nation?

Half an education is no education at all.

The people of this country are made up of three major races — Malays, Chinese and Indians. All have languages of their own; they have agreed that since we are Malaysians, Malay shall be the national language, the Jiwa Bangsa, the soul of the nation.

But there must still be English, the language that will give them the education they seek. In taking it up, Malays do not start from a position of disadvantage, for others have also to learn it, learn what is equally foreign to them.

English can be a point of understanding and goodwill between the races, giving them opportunities to make the best use of their brains.

Independence alone is not sufficient unless it has meaning. I want our people to walk the earth with their heads up. I want to see the poor having opportunities to climb up the ladder of success with the sons of the rich and of feudal chiefs, and not be left behind because of poverty and lack of opportunities.

I am not one to shirk my responsibility; what has to be said must be said if it is for the good of the people, and I will never be afraid to say what I think is right. My critics would not be where they are today if this country had not been freed.

* Written by Tunku Munawirah Putra is the Honorary Secretary of PAGE (Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia)