Adopt English as country’s second official language
December 12, 2009
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Posted by Zulhaidah
YB Dominique Ng, the ADUN for Padungan, has supported a call on the government by Karpal Singh, the DAP national Chairman, to carefully consider amending the Federal Constitution to include English as the second official language of the country.
“In the case of Sarawak especially, the English language should be restored as an official language to complement Bahasa Malaysia. This is completely consistent with the Spirit and letter of the Malaysia Agreement, whereby Sarawak is accorded autonomy to decide upon the use of official language.”
“In addition, the Chinese language and the Iban language should also be made complementary official languages in Sarawak.”
“I need not elaborate too much on the overwhelming importance of English as an international language of electronic age communication, learning, science and technology. Every other international language also opens a wide window into the rich cultural wealth of the civilizations of tens and hundreds of millions of people.”
“ A veteran UMNO leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, said in a speech recently to the UK alumni, that we must treasure and connect better to the institutions that the British left us, and restore them to the benefit of the community and nation. I would like to add that the prerequisite to fully benefit from those institutions derived from the British, and their principles of justice and governance, is a reasonable command of the English language by leaders and people in the wider community.”
I said in the Dewan Undangan Negeri, Sarawak, in 2008, “There is an urgent need for a policy and strategic shift in Malaysian Federal and State government attitude towards international languages such as English, Chinese and other international languages. Our policy position should be guided more and more by our national interest. Interest seen in terms of our global competitiveness, if we are to get anywhere near to developed nation status like the G10 countries.
“The Chinese language is gaining importance as an international language; some institutions in the West are starting to make it a compulsory language subject. This is driven by a pragmatic realization that China has become one of the largest economies of the world. Demand from the Malaysian communities, both Chinese and non-Chinese, for Chinese language primary school education is also expected to increase in tandem.
“Sarawakians well versed in the Chinese language will provide the state with a major competitive advantage in the globalised world of today. This fact is recognized not only by the ethnic Chinese, but by many other Sarawakians as well. The importance of the Chinese language to non-Chinese(speaking) Malaysians is now beginning to be recognized.”
“If we are to diversify the economy, and increasingly develop the services sector , such as tourism and education, foreign languages, beginning with English and Chinese are critically important. According English and Chinese the status of complementary official languages would send the right signal to Malaysians and foreign nations of the seriousness of our Government in promoting their use for our connectivity to the Global Village.”
“Last, but not least, the dignity, identity and pride of Sarawak people should be recognised by adopting a Sarawak language as an official language in the State. That language has to be Iban, the language of the largest community.” Ng concluded with added emphasis.[ad#nuffnang]
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Categories: PKR Sarawak
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Tags: YB Dominique Ng
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Without a review of our State and National language policy, we are certain to continue in our slide in global competitiveness.
A good example of pragmatic language policy is Brunei Darulsalaam, which teaches about half of its school subjects in English. Any foreigner coming to visit Brunei can communicate with people in the Kampungs in English, as I found out myself.
In doing so, Brunei has not in any way lost its proud Malay Muslim identity. They who govern Sultanate seem to have more wisdom than the people in power at PetraJaya and PutraJaya.
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The English language maybe very important to us
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Don’t be kidding, English should be the first official language in Sabah and Sarawak. BM comes second, Malaya manipulate the fact. It is clearly state in 20 agreement (Sabah) and 18 agreement (Sarawak) as : “Malay should be the national language of the Federation. English should be an official language of North Borneo for all purposes, State or Federal, without limitation of time.”
BM is not an interesting language at all and does not benefit us anywhere except Msia. Sabah and Sarawak must have their own education system and implement english as a main subject.
Don’t you see we are being manipulated and cheated by Malaya? We believed and taught in school that Malaysia consist of 13 states. It’s not true. It’s a big liar. Malaysia only have 3 states in it. Malaya (or Tanah Melayu), Sabah and Sarawak. But what the heck, they converted all the major towns in west malaysia to become state. So, we too must claim all major town in Sabah & Sarawak become state and each state must have their own chief minister.
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