<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="" id="page-title">Letters - Bilingualism in Sarawak</h1>
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Posted on 1 December 2015 - 07:06pm<br><em>Last updated on 1 December 2015 - 10:56pm</em> </div>
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<p><strong>I APPLAUD</strong> the Sarawak chief minister, Tan
Sri Adenan Satem for announcing that English will be Sarawak's second
official language alongside Bahasa Malaysia. All official communication
in the state can now be written in English besides Malay.</p>
<p>He has cleverly started the ball rolling by telling the rakyat how
English can be pragmatically used to help them to communicate
effectively at the official level. It does not take much intelligence to
realise that this move will surely create the fluent bilinguals that
Sarawakians once were.</p>
<p>I see Adenan Satem's move as a precursor to his taking up the
challenge to introduce a bilingual education policy in the state, that
is to allow for the use of English alongside Bahasa Malaysia in the
educational development of the rakyat.</p>
<p>The bigger challenge for Adenan is to amend the language policy in
the Sarawak education system that will permit the use of English to
teach certain vital subjects in the school curriculum. I do not see this
as a problem as the precedence was set by Tun Mahathir Mohamad when he
introduced the PPSMI policy during his premiership. The policy was
subsequently reversed when Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin took over as
education minister. Efforts to reinstate the status quo of English in
the teaching of Science and Maths on a national scale have not met with
majority support for fear that this will threaten the growth and
development of the Malay language.</p>
<p>Sarawak must not allow politics and the Malay language nationalists
to dampen its bold initiative which, for all intents and purposes, has
the sole objective of raising the language and communication skills of
the people so that they can communicate well in both languages. I don't
see why and how this can impede their greater development or make
Sarawakians disloyal to the nation.</p>
<p>What the Sarawak government must do next is to announce that subjects
which require greater description, narration and reasoning such as
History and Moral Education are to be taught in English. Using English
in the teaching and learning of these subjects will expose teachers and
students to the greatest repertoire of English vocabulary, grammar,
idioms and expression besides developing their cognitive skills of
reasoning and logical argument. What better way to enhance their
proficiency in the language than through regular, structured immersion
in these subjects.</p>
<p>Those who oppose the reintroduction of English on a larger scale in
the school curriculum will forever be against it on the flimsy grounds
that the teachers and students are not ready. For God's sake, when will
they ever be ready if you keep telling them that they are not! For
heaven's sake, introduce the policy and then equip them and the system
with the relevant facilities to ensure they achieve the greatest
success.</p>
<p>Come on Adenan Satem – you can make Sarawak the model state for the other states to follow.</p>
<p><strong>Datin Halimah Mohd Said</strong><br>
<strong>President</strong><br>
<strong>Association of Voices of Peace, Conscience and Reason (PCORE)</strong></p><p><strong><a href="http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1626734">http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1626734</a><br></strong></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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