Ignoring its importance not practical as it is the lingua franca of the world — Chief Minister
Adenan prepares to beat the gong to launch the ‘Books for Asia’
programme in Sarawak. Also seen (from left, front row) are Awang Bulgiba
and Morshidi Ghani. — Photo by Chimon Upon
KUCHING: The
whole nation, particularly lingual-nationalists, must be practical in
matters relating to adopting English as the country’s second national
language to ensure a more efficient and competitive human capital
development on par with global advancement.
In pointing this out,
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem said the people
should not be narrow-minded on the usage of English considering that it
has become the language of the world.
He also said English has
become the global language of commerce, science, technology, literature
as well as interaction between countries and to ignore English would be
impractical.
Adenan reminded that past Education policies, putting
emphasis on Bahasa Malaysia while ignoring the importance of English
was a failure when it came to human capital development.
Besides
that, he said the country was facing a dilemma because it constantly
churned out thousands of unemployed graduates who couldn’t even put
words into a sentence in English.
He attributed the high number of
unemployable graduates to their non-proficiency in the English language
and this has set the country back by 10 years.
“It is high time
we come to our realisation that English ought to be the second language
in Malaysia. The first language is of course Bahasa
Malaysia, being the
national language that we are proud of. But why can’t we be bilingual at
the same time?
“I know there are some lingual-nationalists
amongst us. They disagreed with the official adaptation of the English
language, saying it is the language of our colonial masters. This is
true but English is no longer the language of the Anglo-Saxons. It is
the language of the world and if you don’t want to be left behind, you
must join the bandwagon.
“Otherwise, you will be left behind and
look stupid,” he said when officiating at the launching of ‘Books for
Asia’ programme in Sarawak at the State Legislative Assembly complex
here yesterday.
Under the initiative dubbed ‘The Usage of English
as Second Official Language in Sarawak’, the programme will see The Asia
Foundation donating thousands of brand-new books and digital contents
in English to be distributed to students, educators including libraries
and educational institutions throughout the state in a bid to inculcate
reading, empowering knowledge and increase English proficiency.
Present
to witness the launch were Herizal Hazri, the country’s representative
of The Asia Foundation – Malaysia, Universiti Malaya deputy
vice-chancellor (Academic and International) Prof Dr Awang Bulgiba Awang
Mahmud, State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Morshidi Ghani and
Yayasan Sarawak director Datu Mohamad Abu Bakar Marzuki.
When
stressing the need to learn English besides Bahasa Malaysia, the chief
minister pointed out that many countries adopted a certain language as
their national language without forgetting English.
He cited
Singapore as being practical, where English is widely spoken by its
citizens despite Mandarin and Malay being the native language.
“There
was a time, I remember, when some federal minister said that we (the
government) will not entertain any correspondence if it is not (written)
in Bahasa Malaysia. That is not the right move.
“That is why we
have downturned the policy in Sarawak. I don’t care what Putrajaya says,
English ought to be the second language in the state. Now you are
welcome to write in English or Bahasa Malaysia to correspond with the
state government,” he continued.
The launching also saw the
signing of a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between
Yayasan Sarawak, The Asia Foundation and the International Institute of
Public Policy and Management (Inpuma) – the custodian for Books of Asia
which collaborated with the University of Malaya.
The programme
will see the first shipment of about 19,000 books arriving in the state
on March 23. Distribution will be administered by the Sarawak
Foundation.
Meanwhile, when expressing his gratitude for the
contribution of the books, Adenan hoped the books would be distributed
properly, read and fully utilised so that it would not end up gathering
dust in the book shelf.
He added that in the old days, the only
source of knowledge was books and that reading would always remain an
important aspect of gathering knowledge.
“I can tell you there is
nothing worst in life than being stupid. Stupidity comes because you are
ignorant and ignorance comes because you never read any books in your
life. We have three enemies – disease, poverty and ignorance – which we
must overcome. No matter what you think about the electronic media,
books will be in existence in years to come,” Adenan continued.
