Why didn’t peninsular politicians speak up on Hadi’s skewed take on English?

 

From Clement Stanley

When Warisan’s Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis asked the Dewan Rakyat Speaker if he did not care about Sabah when her motion to debate the Sulu arbitration issue was rejected, it was more than just a knee-jerk retort.

East Malaysians, for the longest time, have felt like a step-child to the federation, a term Sabah and Sarawak politicians and NGOs sometimes use to describe how the two states have been treated, especially when it comes to allocations in the federal budget or the pace of development.

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But there was another incident where the question of what the two states meant to the federation came to mind – the deafening silence of peninsular politicians when Abdul Hadi Awang criticised those who encouraged the use of English.

The PAS president said these people have “weak souls” and were stuck with former “colonisers” who enslaved them.

This is especially condescending to the Sarawak government, which said that English would be the second language in the state and could be used even when communicating with the various government departments and agencies.

Under the Malaysia Agreement 1963, Sabah and Sarawak are entitled to do this.

So, what happened to the politicians across the South China Sea when Hadi made this statement? The opposition included? It has been more than a week.

Were they afraid of offending their voter base? Have they chosen to play it safe since GE15 is imminent by pretending that the statement is unimportant?

Never mind that most of our politicians, especially from the older generation and some who are in a government of which Hadi’s party is part of, benefited from being educated by “colonists”.

If Sabahans and Sarawakians really matter to politicians in the west, why did they not speak up for them and admonish Hadi’s logic?

Or do they really matter only when the polls come around, when a kingmaker is needed?

Politicians in the west should really ask themselves if Sabah and Sarawak are actual partners or states that are merely a footnote in a speech or a part of a political platitude.

On a side note, Hadi’s view on English is nonsensical.

As former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad previously pointed out, medical books and journals that have saved millions of lives through the ages are written in English.

And travellers can be grateful that the colonists introduced a language that in some way made it easy to travel the world as it is a universal language.

One only have to visit some of our neighbouring countries to know that despite being “colonised” by the Dutch, the Spanish, the French and even the Portuguese, the people in those countries still speak and write in the language brought in by the colonists. But they also speak in their own language of choice, in the way Malaysians speak Bahasa Melayu in addition to the English language.

Does this also make our immediate neighbours slaves to the “colonists”? And are you certain that they are nothing more than “weak souls”?

Would you have the courage to say this to the governments of Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Timor Leste?

I guess not. - FMT

Clement Stanley is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.