DR MAHATHIR:

LET GOVT KNOW IFYOUR'RE UNHAPPY

2009/07/11

KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has called on those who are unhappy with the proposed plan to teach Science and Mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia in 2012 to make their unhappiness known to the government. He said this when asked to comment about the large number of people who had objected to the government's decision to revert the teaching of the two subjects from English to Bahasa Malaysia and vernacular languages in a poll on his blog.

Dr Mahathir started the poll to gauge public response to the decision soon after its announcement.

"So far, 80 per cent of some 26,000 disagreed that the subjects be taught in the national language, Chinese or Tamil," he said after speaking at a discourse here on Malay rulers and the Malays from the perspective of 1Malaysia.

Dr Mahathir hoped to publish the poll results soon.

"Once I have the final result, I will make it known to the government or publish it in my blog. This way, those in government reading my blog will know the result."

Dr Mahathir reiterated his stand on the policy, which was introduced in his final year in office.

"I have a definite reason for this. It was supported by the supreme council of Umno. It is not about trying to learn English. It is not about trying to learn Malay.

"It is simply an acknowledgement of the fact that today's knowledge comes to us in the English language."

Dr Mahathir noted that in the past, the Arabs studied Greek to acquire knowledge from the Greeks, and subsequently Europeans studied Arabic in order to acquire knowledge from the Arabs.

"Today, the knowledge is with the people who write in English and for that reason we want to learn English to acquire knowledge. Science has a special language, the English language itself."

Dr Mahathir said he was not criticising the government for the sake of it but because its decision would affect the children's future.

On the briefing given to him by Education Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Dr Mahathir said he did not expect anything from it.

"It was nice of him to come and brief me with his officers. Although I did give my opinion, it was not reflected in the announcement that was made."

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang called on the cabinet to be flexible so that pupils would not be made guinea pigs in the government's "experiment".

(Tihis news from Straits Times online, July 11 2009)