THE falling standards of the English language in our country seems to have assumed the status of another “forever” problem. “Word, words, words” as Shakespeare would say in Hamlet.
Now, the government is saying that we will invite teachers from Singapore to help us raise our standard of fluency in this coveted language of science and technology.
We have had teachers from other foreign countries to do this before but, sad to say, we got nowhere. To paraphrase what Einstein said, it is folly doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
When we separated from Singapore, our dollar was stronger than theirs. We were both third world countries.
Now, Singapore is a bustling first world country and the value of its dollar is three and a half times our ringgit.
Singapore has sovereign funds (reserves) totalling S$2.2 trillion (RM7.5 trillion) whereas we have a national debt of RM1.5 trillion. One of the main reasons for this disparity is the given status of the English language in both the countries.
At first glance, the nexus between the use of the English language and the economy of a country seems remote but on closer microscopic scrutiny it becomes quite apparent that the nexus is real.
To quote Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg: “We can use English as a way to understand the world and the world understands us. When we are able to share our knowledge with others and have others share their knowledge with us, we can only keep going up”.
Under Article 161 of the Federal Constitution, Sarawak is allowed the use of Malay and English as its official languages.
He added: “Sarawak’s privilege of having English and Bahasa Malaysia as its official languages have enabled the state to stay ahead in view that the people can effectively communicate in both languages”.
In India, English is freely used in Parliament and in the courts, so much so that it is no surprise that the CEOs of the top multinationals in the US are of Indian origin.
Proficiency in the English language is to implement the adage “use it or lose it”. Put simply, it means that to enhance proficiency over a function, you must practise it on a regular basis. For example, a surgeon has to be active in his surgical operations to remain significantly relevant to his call.
It is for the above reasons that we should abandon the band-aid measures in trying to prop up the fledgling standards of the English language and take the bull by its horns, so to speak, and alter the Constitution to make English as the second official language in our education policy.
The execution of this game-changing move should pose no problem as our government has a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
