DR M: MASTERING ENGLISH WILL NOT ERODE IMPORTANCE OF BAHASA MALAYSIA

Dr.M says Mastering English will not erode the imporatnce of Bahasa Melayu.....

But the stupid Umno and Utusan fellows keep saying by having multi-lingua sign boards will erode the importance of Bahasa Melayu....What is this logic?

Umno and Utusan.....Renungkanlah....

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- The fear among some quarters in the country that learning and using English would erode the importance of Bahasa Malaysia is unfounded, said former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Dr Mahathir said he was criticised by nationalists for wanting the government to continue teaching Science and Mathematics in English, but English was the only language where Malaysians could gain much knowledge in these two subjects.

"Before I stepped down as prime minister, I introduced this system because I felt it was necessary for us to gain knowledge. If we are going to translate all the works of Science and Mathematics into Bahasa Malaysia, then it would take a long time and we would lose out.

"But lately there has been a debate about this and that we need to revert to the old system of using Bahasa Malaysia to teach and learn Science and Maths.

"The Education Ministry is going to decide on this very soon. There are pros and cons to this and I do worry about it. Our people should know how to read, write and speak the national language but at the same time to gain knowledge, they should learn and use English."

-- MORE

MAHATHIR-ENGLISH 2 (LAST) KUALA LUMPUR

He said this in his keynote address at the English and Asia 2008 First International Conference on Language and Linguistics, organised by the International Islamic University Malaysia, here, today.

He said the amount of new knowledge was coming out "fast and furious" and Malaysians needed to grasp the knowledge, which were mostly in English.

"I hope I can stop the government from going back to using Bahasa Malaysia to teach Maths and Science but I am no more in power. We have to accept whatever the decision although it may not be that good for the country."

He said the reason that Malaysia lacked teachers to teach the two subjects in English should not be an excuse because teachers could be substituted by computer software, "which is better than teachers sometimes".

-- BERNAMA