Letters - Bilingualism in Sarawak

I APPLAUD the Sarawak chief minister, Tan Sri Adenan Satem for announcing that English will be Sarawak's second official language alongside Bahasa Malaysia. All official communication in the state can now be written in English besides Malay.
He has cleverly started the ball rolling by telling the rakyat how English can be pragmatically used to help them to communicate effectively at the official level. It does not take much intelligence to realise that this move will surely create the fluent bilinguals that Sarawakians once were.
I see Adenan Satem's move as a precursor to his taking up the challenge to introduce a bilingual education policy in the state, that is to allow for the use of English alongside Bahasa Malaysia in the educational development of the rakyat.
The bigger challenge for Adenan is to amend the language policy in the Sarawak education system that will permit the use of English to teach certain vital subjects in the school curriculum. I do not see this as a problem as the precedence was set by Tun Mahathir Mohamad when he introduced the PPSMI policy during his premiership. The policy was subsequently reversed when Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin took over as education minister. Efforts to reinstate the status quo of English in the teaching of Science and Maths on a national scale have not met with majority support for fear that this will threaten the growth and development of the Malay language.
Sarawak must not allow politics and the Malay language nationalists to dampen its bold initiative which, for all intents and purposes, has the sole objective of raising the language and communication skills of the people so that they can communicate well in both languages. I don't see why and how this can impede their greater development or make Sarawakians disloyal to the nation.
What the Sarawak government must do next is to announce that subjects which require greater description, narration and reasoning such as History and Moral Education are to be taught in English. Using English in the teaching and learning of these subjects will expose teachers and students to the greatest repertoire of English vocabulary, grammar, idioms and expression besides developing their cognitive skills of reasoning and logical argument. What better way to enhance their proficiency in the language than through regular, structured immersion in these subjects.
Those who oppose the reintroduction of English on a larger scale in the school curriculum will forever be against it on the flimsy grounds that the teachers and students are not ready. For God's sake, when will they ever be ready if you keep telling them that they are not! For heaven's sake, introduce the policy and then equip them and the system with the relevant facilities to ensure they achieve the greatest success.
Come on Adenan Satem – you can make Sarawak the model state for the other states to follow.
Datin Halimah Mohd Said
President
Association of Voices of Peace, Conscience and Reason (PCORE)