just a note to ponder upon.

Parent in Kepala Batas
08/03/2009 by ppsmi

As a parent who was not given an opportunity to study in English, I found myself struggling to cope with work demands due to my lack of english comprehension. Over the years and through many months of intensive English language courses, I have managed to bring my level of English to a standard that I can be proud of. But all this was done through my own effort. Now we have the government providing that effort for us and instead of grabbing that opportunity, some of those who claim to represent the Malay community are saying, “No thanks, we would really rather live under our coconut shell.” This has nothing to do with upholding the status national language of defending the snactity of the Malay language. It is pure ignorance and insecurity coupled with the usual political opportunism. PPSMI was never meant to make literature masters of us. It was merely meant to give us a good grounding in the areas of technical education. At the same time, PPSMI was never meant to replace Bahasa Malaysia as the main lingua franca or the main medium of education. It was never meant to do the above and indeed, it has not done the above. What it has done is given our students, from a very young age, a new sense of confidence when using the international language of communication and it given them a good basic grounding from which they can and they should , continue to improve their mastery of a major second language, apart from Bahasa Malaysia. For all the good that PPSMI has done for our students, we now have this group of exceedingly narrow minded so-called defenders of the Malay language telling us the PPSMI is about to destroy the very nature of our race and language. If that is how weak these people are, and more so, if that is how weak they think the Malays are, then I say to them, “You do not speak for me nor my children.” For I know I am way stronger than you give me credit for. English has never made me less Malay. It has made me a better Malay, a Malay who can walk tall in and outside Malaysia.

Quoting Dato Mukriz,

Bahasa Memang Jiwa Bangsa, tapi apa guna bahasa bila tiada bangsa untuk dijiwainya!