LETTER | Other than the need to rationalise subsidies and raise wages in our quest towards becoming a developed nation, if there is one more thing that I agree with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, it is that the Malaysian elite and wannabe elites have an inordinate fetish for the English language.

This near obsession like worship of the English language is more likely rooted in low self-esteem and a superiority complex, rather than any practical reason, like the acquisition of success and knowledge is dependent upon mastery of the English language.

Now you might be wondering, but you are contradicting yourself, Nehru - how can you say that our elites and wannabe elites both have low self-esteem and possess a superiority complex? I beg to differ.

In my view, it is the inferiority complex that comes from low self-esteem that causes a person to be afflicted with a superiority complex. If you suffer from an inferiority complex for long enough, your psyche will likely develop a superiority complex just to cope with the pain of having an inferiority complex.

Refugees often manifest this phenomenon. When you are forced out of your home or abandoned by your own people, your self-esteem will plunge to such an extent that refugees often display a superiority complex in their new homes.

They will act as if they are very proud of their old way of life, and practise it even more rigorously than they did in their old home, and they will often look down in contempt towards the people of their new home, although the people of their new home were the ones to provide them with safety and shelter when they were in need.

The reason for the contradiction between their reality and their reaction towards it is the result of the inferiority complex - superiority complex duality they are experiencing.

As they inwardly feel humiliated on account of the trauma of their past, outwardly and in the present time, they will exude a sense of superiority complex, to cope with the inferiority complex that their trauma has inflicted upon their psyche.

Superiority complex

Similarly, the people whose self-esteem plunged due to a prolonged experience of being oppressed under the yoke of colonialism, also tend to recuperate from their low self-esteem by adopting an Uncle Tom-like attitude towards their colonisers while projecting a superiority complex against their own kind.

They will attempt to mimic those who colonised and humiliated them, to boost their flagging self-esteem, to the point that they will even develop an irrational and aggressive hatred towards their own people, culture, language or tradition.

This “Stockholm syndrome”, where a captured person under duress will brainwash themselves to identify with their captures even to the point of cultivating hatred towards those who are trying to rescue them from captivity, is quite likely a reason why Malaysian elites and elite wannabes are stubbornly and irrationally clinging to the idea that English is a prerequisite to success in life and mastery of knowledge.

It is a stubborn and irrational belief because it really should be as clear as daylight by now that the English-speaking world is in a state of decline. Two main English-speaking countries in the world, the UK and the US are in a state of deterioration.

The rising powers of the world, like China, India or Russia, are either not a part of the English-speaking world or are attempting to discard their fetish for the English language as a means of exorcising the trauma of their colonial past.

In the world of artificial intelligence today, where near-perfect translation can already be done in real-time with the aid of technology, the argument that English is required to acquire knowledge also no longer holds water.

Clinging to preference

Despite the reality of the times, those who have adopted English to prop up their self-esteem will still cling to their preference towards the English language, simply because they have become dependent on it to boost their low self-esteem.

People who are dependent on the English language to boost their self-esteem are not even that proficient in English, mind you. They just have a psychological need to disown their own people, culture and tradition to identify with a foreign people, culture and tradition, to stop feeling ashamed of themselves.

Other than to psychologically boost their low self-esteem, the people who irrationally cling to the use of the English language today are also likely doing so for exploitative reasons.

When you want to exploit someone, you have to separate yourself from the people you exploit.

That is why the British never assimilated with the people in lands that they colonised. They kept themselves distinct, in order to facilitate their desire to exploit the people in the lands that they colonised.

Although the British have left, the elites who were “captured” by the British are still haunted by the ghost of colonialism.

In the absence of the British colonialists, these “captured and possessed” elites have taken over the place that the British once occupied, with the desire and ambition to exploit the local population just as how the British did, and to do so, they are clinging to the use of the English language, as a means to distinguish themselves from the locals.

In their mind, they have a right to “exploit” the locals although they too are locals, because they belong to the “master class” just as how the colonial British were a part of the “master race”, and the identity demarcation that distinguishes them from the “servile class” is that, unlike the locals, they can speak English just as the English lords who had the right to exploit the locals could.

A class above

I am not in support of Bahasa Melayu being the national language, as I think there should be a distinction between Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Melayu, with Bahasa Malaysia being the language that should be recognised as the national language.

Even then, I still agree with Anwar that the fetish for the English language that some Malaysians have is likely arising from an erroneous belief that using English will make one a “class above” rather than because the use of English grants one any practical benefit.

Now some of you might at this point be saying but wait a minute Nehru, you say this about the English language, but you also write in the English language. Don’t you find your position to be hypocritical?

To this, I will retort that I see myself in the same way that a gladiator sees himself. When the Romans gave the gladiator a sword before he threw the gladiator into the coliseum to fight for his life, the gladiator is not going to throw the sword that the Romans gave him away, simply because he resents the Romans who captured him.

The gladiator might learn to use the sword in an even more adept manner than the Romans themselves to fend for himself. But just because the gladiator is adept at using the sword, the Romans shouldn’t believe that the gladiator is one of them or that the gladiator will be grateful to receive the sword that the Romans gave them.

When the occasion arises, like Spartacus, the gladiator will not think twice before rebelling against the Romans with the sword that the Romans themselves gave him.

As it is with the gladiator and his sword, so it is with me and the English language.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.