[lg policy] Malaysia: Utusan praises Kuan Yew for strict language policy

[Harold Schiffman]

Utusan praises Kuan Yew for strict language policy
By Adib Zalkapli
February 07, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 — Utusan Malaysia praised Singapore’s Minister
Mentor Lee Kuan Yew today for clamping down on vernacular education
system while blaming the island republic’s founding father for the
race relation problems in Malaysia.The Umno-owned daily said Lee was
able to promote unity in Singapore by closing down Chinese, Tamil and
Malay schools but the newspaper accused the Malaysian leadership of
lacking the courage to take similar action.

“Singapore with its strict policy successfully ended racial animosity
but in Malaysia, the seeds of racism planted by PAP through Malaysian
Malaysia continue to be a thorn in our flesh, resulting in the bloody
May 13 incident and it has reared its ugly head again because of
Election 2008,” said the editorial written under a pseudonym Tan
Melaka. “This is because Malaysia does not have the courage like Kuan
Yew (picture) in killing its main cause especially in the use of a
single language to promote unity. Singapore has been strict in
promoting its national language, which is the English language, by
closing down Chinese, Malay and Tamil schools since 1960s,” he added.

According to the Singapore constitution, Malay is the national
language while Malay, English, Mandarin and Tamil are recognised as
official languages, and English has been the medium of instruction in
schools. The editorial also said Malaysia has failed to uphold the
Malay language as the national language unlike Singapore which has
been successful in promoting the English language. “In this case,
Singapore’s biggest success is to eradicate racism among the Chinese
and their Chinese characteristics by forming a Westernised Chinese
community,” said the daily.

The editorial also drew a parallel between Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and
Lee, who was Singapore prime minister from 1959 to 1990, as both have
rejected what it called the “Western” idea of democracy and freedom.
“Kuan Yew does not believe in freedom according to the Western view
and the demands of globalisation, but we got carried away by adopting
the Western interpretation of freedom and not our own,” it said.

“Malaysia would not have been a dignified country without Mahathir who
was seen by the Western world as undemocratic,” it added. The article,
however, appeared to blame the administration of Tun Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi and his son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin for allegedly dismantling
the nation’s foundation laid by previous prime ministers. “The
foundation built by Tunku, strengthen by Tun Razak and made dignified
by Mahathir was destroyed during a weak era for the sake of freedom
and the advice of ‘junior’ politicians,” it said.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/utusan-praises-kuan-yew-for-strict-language-policy/

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