I refer to the letter Embrace our own language, not foreign ones .
Firstly, I do not take Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s comment seriously. He was just saying something he does not really believe in. It costs him next to nothing to do so.
And why not? Perhaps he can gain some cheap votes from those Malaysians who are gullible enough to fall for fatuous utterance.
As for Dr Mahathir Mohamad who had the power, stature and position to make the meaningful change but waited until the end of his wasteful and debilitating reign before hastily trying to reintroduce the teaching of English in Mathematics and Science, his motivation is suspect.
This was a man who knew that the tapestry of his legacy was unraveling and fraying at the edges. He knew he had nothing to show for all those years in power, at least nothing enduring.
The hasty push to implement English in Mathematics and Science was a final and desperate contrarian stab to leave a lasting legacy. It was all about his ego and nothing else.
As for the writer’s musing as to why so few, except for Rais Yatim, are rooting for the national language, Bahasa Malaysia (or is it Bahasa Melayu?), may be there is a mundane and practical reason.
I am a Chinese Malaysian and I am also a father of two growing boys. If I were to say my boys are not academically inclined, it would an understatement. My boys will be hard-pressed to learn one language let alone two.
Despite some widely held notion, many Chinese children are like my boys. They are not doing well academically. Many will not go for tertiary education. They will be lucky if they finish secondary school. The best I can hope for my boys is that they can do some kind trade or petty business.
What language should they master if they are only capable of coping with one? If they go into the small-scale food business, their customers will be non-Muslims. It is a fact that most, if not all, Muslims in Malaysia will not consume food prepared by solely non-Muslims. What language do you think is best for a non-Muslim market?
If they go into petty trading or some kind of vocational trade, their market will be the non- Malays. The most profitable and biggest market for petty tradesmen is the government.
Unfortunately, my boys will be completely shut of from this market segment. It does not matter how well they speak or write Malay language. It does not count. It is all about having born into the ‘preferred race’.
To be sure, I am not fretting about the situation. It serves no purpose to do so. I do not believe things will change, at least not in my lifetime. I have to face the fact that in the future scheme of things, certain markets are no longer accessible to the non-Muslims and non-bumiputeras.
That being the case, for children like my boys, the language that will best ensure that they can ‘cari makan’ will eventually be their preferred language. It will be the one that provides the best economic incentive. You can guess what that is.