The English language policy in Malaysia is interesting.
In the early years of independence, the English language was spoken by British expatriates and Malay aristocrats.
With the establishment of English schools — such as Penang Free School, Victoria Institution and King Edward’s College — the English language was considered one step higher than Malay, Tamil, Cantonese.
Those who had an English education background could further their studies overseas and secure a government position.
But, the socio-cultural condition in the early years of independence changed due to the May 13, 1969, race riots. This forced the government to declare a state of emergency
To ease the racial tension that caused the incident, the government adopted policies to make sure a similar incident would not recur.
In the case of the language policy, the government implemented the National Language Act to uphold Bahasa Malaysia as the national language to nurture unity among the races.
Bahasa Malaysia is taught in every school and this has an effect on the English language, which has lost its importance to Bahasa Malaysia.
In 1991, the government realised the importance of the English language policy, when the prime minister launched Vision 2020.
In other words, by 2020, Malaysia will become a developed nation.
Every sector was boosted to meet the developed-nation standard.
At this time, the empowerment of the English language was seen as important for the government, since most developed countries used English as the medium for communication, business and in trade negotiations.
To boost the English language, the government, through the Education Ministry, drafted several policies, including the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in English.
After years of negotiation, the English-medium education policy was introduced in 2003.
This policy had a mixed reaction from students and parents.
There were students who did well under the policy, but there were also others who had difficulty coping with English and they were mostly from rural areas.
In 2012, the Education Ministry phased out this policy and the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics were reverted to Bahasa Malaysia.
The same situation happened to another policy, when the ministry postponed English language as a compulsory-pass policy.
This caused a stir among the public, language activists, non-governmental organisations and English-educated parents.
The ministry must apply concrete action to every policy.
Discussions and negotiations must play an important role, and every stakeholder must be included in
every policy that will be implemented.
The English language policy is considered a public policy and the implementation will leave an impact on stakeholders.
Such a policy requires a lot of money.
If the policy doesn’t cater to the need of stakeholders and does not benefit people, it will be a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Nasrul Rahman Ghazali
Kajang, Selngor