Dr M: Don’t snub English, it is language of success

Tuesday December 15, 2009
Dr M: Don’t snub English, it is language of success
By NURBAITI HAMDAN

SHAH ALAM: The Government has ignored the language of knowledge and success by snubbing English as a teaching medium for Mathematics and Science subjects in schools, says Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The former Prime Minister said to acquire knowledge, one must have a good command of English, which he described as a universal language.
“Without knowledge, we will be left behind or worse, colonised. Knowledge must be acquired even if it comes in English,” he said.
Dr Mahathir argued that it would not make one any less patriotic by speaking in a foreign language.
“It is not about the language of the English people. You do not become an Englishman just because you speak the language,” he told a press conference after presenting a keynote address at the 17th Islamic World Academy of Sciences Con¬ference at a hotel here yesterday.
The conference was opened by the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah.
Dr Mahathir said patriotism did not come in native languages but rather in wanting great things that can only be derived from the power of knowledge.
He also felt that the current leadership had failed to understand the importance of the language.
On July 8, Deputy Prime Minis¬¬ter Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the Government had decided to reverse the teaching of Mathema¬¬¬tics and Science in English policy (PPSMI) and revert to Bahasa Malaysia in national schools, Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools from 2012.
Muhyiddin said the Government made the decision after carefully studying the results of studies conducted about PPSMI which showed that the policy had not been implemented as planned.