ISU BAHASA INGGERIS

Penggunaan  Bahasa Inggeris di negara ini telah lama diperkatakan dan baru-baru ini dibangkitkan lagi. Ada pembesar  negara telah menyuarakan dengan panjang lebar berhubung dengan kelemahan penggunaan Bahasa Inggeris  dalam negara ini. Seorang menteri persekutuan pula telah bersuara supaya ‘English Medium School’ dikembalikan semula. 

Para nasionalis pula mendesak supaya diadakan sekolah satu aliran sahaja dengan menggunakan Bahasa Melayu sebagai bahasa pengantar. Mereka ini mengambil contoh  negara- negara Asia dan Eropah dimana dasar pelajaran negara-negara ini  mantap dengan menggunakan bahasa ibunda masing-masing. Penggunaan Bahasa Melayu di sekolah-sekolah telah bermula sejak lebih dari 50 tahun, tetapi hingga  ke hari ini  tidak berjaya  untuk dilaksanakan  sepenuhnya hingga ke peringkat universiti. 

Ramai yang mempertikaikan kemampuan Bahasa Melayu untuk bersaing di persada global.  Saya ingin berkongsi pengalaman saya dimana saya pernah mengikuti kursus di negara China, Jepun, Korea dan Hungary. Kursus-kursus tersebut dijalankan dengan menggunakan bahasa ibunda mereka dengan menyediakan penterjemah. Bahan-bahan kursus pula diterjemahkan dari bahasa mereka ke Bahasa Inggeris. Saya juga dimaklumkam bahawa kebanyakan pengurus kanan  dalam pelbagai sektor di negara tersebut fasih berbahasa Inggeris. Untuk  melaksanakan  satu sistem persekolahan  hingga ke peringkat universiti  dengan  menggunakan bahasa Bahasa Melayu sahaja, segala sumber hendaklah lengkap, dan  kerajaan mesti lah bertegas dan tidak akan tunduk dengan sebarang ugutan daripada mana-mana pihak.

Jika  dilaksanakan satu sistem iaitu Bahasa Inggeris pula  kerajaan terpaksalah menghadapi masalah tenaga pengajar dan juga tekanan daripada ahli politik dan para nasionalis. Kebanyakan IPT di negara ini menggunakan Bahasa Inggeris tetapi malangnya ramai yang  sukar untuk menguasainya. Apabila keluar dari universiti, mereka menghadapi masalah untuk  mendapatkan  pekerjaan. Kerajaan telah mengambil langkah untuk memperkasakan Bahasa Inggeris bermula dari sekolah rendah dan mewajibkan pelajar- pelajar mengambil  peperiksaan  MUET  semasa di IPT tetapi  hasilnya masih kurang memuaskan. Bahasa Inggeris yang diajar antara salah satu matapelajaran di IPT juga kurang efektif kerana pelajar-pelajar lebih menumpukan kepada ‘core subjects’.

Asas yang kuat dalam Bahasa Inggeris sangatlah  penting bagi pelajar yang memasuki  IPT  kerana mereka inilah yang akan menjadi pemimpin dan juga ketua dalam pelbagai sektor kelak. Bahasa Inggeris adalah bahasa sains,teknologi dan perdagangan. Maka golongan inilah yang sepatutnya diberi lebih tumpuan untuk menguasai Bahasa Inggeris. Kita tidak boleh bandingkan dengan negara Singapura yang mempunyai bilangan penduduk yang kecil dan Bahasa Inggeris telah di laksanakan keseluruhannya dari awal lagi. Mereka bermula dengan langkah yang betul  dan berjaya melaksanakan Bahasa Inggeris  di semua peringkat. Dasar pelajaran negara kita mempunyai identiti sendiri dan hanya sesuai untuk negara kita yang mempunyai pelbagai kaum serta latar belakang  yang berbeza.

 Mereka yang  hanya belajar hingga ke peringkat  SPM sahaja  sudah cukuplah asas Bahasa Inggeris yang dipelajari di sekolah-sekolah. Terpulanglah kepada usaha dan kerajinan sendiri untuk menggunakannya. Mereka ini  terdiri daripada golongan pekerja dan  bukan pentadbir atau golongan pengurusan. Walau bagaimanapun adalah tidak adil jika kita memandang rendah terhadap tahap penguasaan Bahasa Inggeris mereka  ini. Sebagai contoh,  ahli sukan yang  bercakap ‘broken English’ apabila ditemuramah  oleh  media baru-baru ini. Kalau ahli sukan dari Jepun dan China boleh menggunakan jurubahasa, apa salahnya wakil  negara kita menggunakan jurubahasa  juga. Kita hendak menunjukkan yang kita telah mendapat pencapaian terbaik tetapi malangnya menjadi bahan ketawa pula! Sama juga dengan pemimpin-pemimpin kita yang  lemah berbahasa Inggeris yang memberi ucapan dalam persidangan antarabangsa, sepatutnya mereka menggunakan bahasa sendiri  dan menyediakan seorang penterjemah.

Pelaksanaan dasar pelajaran kita sentiasa berubah-ubah mengikut kehendak politik. Bekas Perdana Menteri kita Tun Mahathir telah menyedari akan kelemahan graduan-graduan kita berbahasa  Inggeris. Maka dilaksanakan Bahasa Inggeris untuk subjek sains dan matematik (PPSMI). Ramai yang menyokong tindakan ini dan banyak belanja  telah dikeluarkan. Malangnya  kuasa politik juga telah membantutkan usaha Tun Mahathir tersebut.

Mungkin telah ada kajian yang dibuat berhubung dengan kelemahan  berbahasa Inggeris dalam kalangan pelajar-pelajar. Memang tidak boleh dinafikan bahawa kelemahan berbahasa Inggeris  disebabkan faktor persekitaran dan penggunaan seharian. Apa yang saya tahu  pelajar-pelajar yang akan ke luar negara  dibawah tajaan kerajaan dihantar ke institusi swasta untuk menghadiri kursus intensif  Bahasa Inggeris selama beberapa bulan. Kalau cara ini kita boleh meningkatkan penguasaan  Bahasa Inggeris bolehlah dilaksanakan dengan mengadakan kelas persediaan untuk meningkatkan penguasaan Bahasa Inggeris  selama satu tahun atau setengah tahun sebelum memasuki IPT. Cara ini akan dapat mewujudkan satu  persekitaran di mana pelajar-pelajar  boleh berkomunikasi dalam Bahasa Inggeris tiap-tiap hari.

Pernah berlaku pada zaman 60 an dahulu dimana pelajar-pelajar  tingkatan satu dari aliran melayu di letakkan di kelas peralihan (remove class) selama satu tahun untuk belajar  Bahasa Inggeris sebelum memasuki  tingkatan satu di sekolah Inggeris. Pernah juga 'remove class’ semacam  ini diadakan untuk aliran melayu sekolah vokasional selama satu tahun sebelum memasuki  tingkatan empat di sekolah teknikal aliran inggeris.

Sistem pelajaran yang bertukar-tukar  disebabkan  campur tangan  politik dan juga tekanan daripada  pelbagai pihak akan mencacatkan Dasar Pelajaran Kebangsaan. Isu  bahasa  sangatlah  sensitif dan tidak akan berakhir jika tidak ada semangat  toleransi dalam kalangan masyarakat pelbagai kaum di negara ini. Apa yang perlu ialah generasi  masa depan akan terus mendapat pelajaran terbaik yang boleh memenuhi keperluan negara serta boleh bersaing di persada  global. Di samping itu Bahasa Melayu sebagai bahasa ibunda penduduk-penduduk di Tanah Melayu  hendaklah dipertahankan supaya tidak dipinggirkan.

My Elusive Dreams

Ir. Ghazali Ibrahim

I AM BACK!

It has been 3 years since my last posting in 2013. After the last election I look forward to a peaceful and prosper country to be  led by the new government.  Sad to say, things had not been  right and obviously our beloved country had been steered out of track by irresponsible group of people. We did not expect our country to be in this situation after the impressive growth then. So something is wrong?

Now the authority wanted to register the bloggers and you know what this  means!  So I revive this blog just to join the fun of expressing my views and to share with anyone. So I am back…..

After a long break , I think the above title is suitable as a start. To get many viewers to share your blog it is important to have a good headline or subject title. The headlines most of the times will decide whether one to proceed reading or not. Sometime the writers used bombastic words or title that has impact  to catch readers attention. An example way back in the 70’s the UK punk rock  group Sex Pistol released the album ‘God Save The Queen’. The lyrics in the album were not pleasant to hear and (maybe) intended to humiliate the Queen. Anyway the album top the chart and the group was not even approached by the authorities or police  like what poor Namewee experienced. The Queen made a remark  ‘Obnoxious!’ and this single word appeared in the front page of almost all the UK dailies. Many were trying to interpret the meaning and many were flipping in the Oxford Dictionary to look out for the meaning of this word!

Similarly in this beloved country the word  ‘Sodomy’ was never a word to be used in public. Now you can read it almost everyday either in dailies or blogs. The word ‘Liwat ‘ once appeared as a big headline  in a Malay daily. Schoolteachers had a hard time to explain to schoolkids the meaning of this word. At that time politicians gave freely to schools the so- called dailies but now the election was over, they have stopped these  practices. Now whatever words they are using as headlines nobody  cares. Presumably a part of sex education!

Quite recently another word hit the road, Kleptocracy! Now Malaysia is famous  for the wrong reasons. Since this is not a small issue, our country will be watched from all over the world. Hence imposing  restriction on  mainsream media and  cyber blogs. The bloggers will have a hard time to express what is right and what is wrong. They may find themselves behind bars for no logical reasons. Those days we did not frequently heard of libellous,seditious or sued for defamation. What freedom do the  bloggers have in a so-called ‘Democratic’ country?

WHAT'S NEXT ?

Now GE-13 is over and what’s next? It’s time to close rank and to move forward.

How do our economy  fare  this year especially after  the general election? In the first quarter of this year we have seen a decline on GDP growth from  6.4% in the previous quarter to 4.1%.  The  reasons  are weakness in the external demands however this  was supported by a robust domestic demand. Slowdown in  manufacturing  sectors  and imports of capital goods due to strong investment activity had brought down the overall growth.

 The inflation rate remains at 1.6%,  the same as last quarter but has increased recently to 1.7% in April.  It is anticipated that the inflation rate will increase between 2% to 2.5% this year. One can see that the  food  and non- alcoholic beverages items have currently increased. The food and non-alcoholic beverages has risen to 3.8% year on year in April and has been at 3.3% for the last two months. The OPR or interest rate has not moved from 3% since the last two years. The unemployment  rate  remains  at  3.3% . However when 3.3% translated into numbers it may come up to more  than  400,000  whereby almost a quarter of these are graduates!

The bold move by the government is in the  implementation of the  Economic Transformation Programme (ETP)   which will be on-going until the year 2020. This will boost the  domestic  demand  and will  be the main anchor for the GDP growth.  It should be noted that the  construction  for the  MRT or manufacturing plants required importation of high technology capital goods. This  may have significant impact on the trade balance. The socio - economic benefits including the spin off  such as  the PRIMA housing in the vicinity of the MRT augur well for the property market.

The ETP projects are capital intensive, long gestation period and are funded by the government. Previous history had shown that both STAR and PUTRA LRT are economically no go. The government need to bail both after a few years of operation. The MRT project line 1 is on-going   but the Line2 has yet to be awarded and pending cabinet approval. Analysts are concerned on the viability of the project since the cost is astronomical.  Although the project EIRR submitted by the consultant is quite impressive but one should know how economists work to make a project viable! The current country’s debt  is in the region of Rm 479 billion or 53.9% of GDP. With the interest rate of Rm 16 billion per year and the need to fulfil election commitments will the 55% limit be breached?

The  Eurozone  and US  economics  have not improved much and with such uncertainty Malaysia GDP growth of 5.6% was achieved for the year 2012 compared to Thailand 6.4 %, Indonesia 6.2 %, Philippines 6.6 %, Singapore 1.3 %, S. Korea 2.0 %  . This year we do not expect to see much changes and analysts targeted the GDP  growth  is in the range of 5% -5.5%.

What is seen above has been quite a rosy picture.  However  there  are few areas of concerned which one should take note.  Are  these   growth  sustainable?  Will  there  be cost overruns  on the mega projects?  The   household debt has been increasing  from  76.6% in 2011 to 80.5% of GDP  in  2012 and  will there be a  credit bubble?  What about  possibilities  of being  swallowed up by economic  bubble  arising from ‘hot money’ from developed nations?  The   stock  market   has  been  bullish  and has reached   all  time  high recently.  What goes up may come down and that is the law of nature!

The GST or goods and  service  tax  which will take the  place of SST has been mooted a few years ago. Whether it is going to be implemented this year or  next  year  only the government can tell. The public must be well educated and  explained  the  impact caused before its  implementation.  The  GST  is not new as most of the countries have implemented including our  Asean  neighbours. We are one of the last few countries to implement. The government expected to gain an additional of  Rm 27 billion once implemented.

It was recently announced that Malaysia will follow Singapore model on its implementation. Singapore GST rate is currently at 7% and if Malaysia is going to follow it will be quite a burden for Malaysians. The GST is a broad- based value added tax levied on supplies of goods and services and import goods.  Inflation  is  inevitable if it were to start at 7% hence the low income earners will be affected. However, this    depends  on the type of goods to be exempted. Singapore started the GST with 3%  in 1994 and increased to 4% in 2003 and 5% in 2004. Currently the rate is 7% since 2007. Australia implemented the GST at a rate of 10% in  2000  and  with inflationary effect.  The  published rate  as shown in the government website is  4%.  A  change to 7% will  not be well  received by many.

The sweetener is that on implementation of GST the government will reduce the corporate tax and individual tax. However the number of  taxpayers  involved are relatively small , in the region of 12%. This will  benefit  only salaried workers earning  more than  Rm 3000.

 Amidst all  the  focus is  on  the   government  steering  for a  high income nation, one should not forget the rural folks. There is a need to close disparity between the urban and rural areas. If this is not done there will be discontent among the low income earners and happenings like in Stockholm recently, Paris and London a few years back were good lessons to learn. The announcement made recently  by the Selangor MB to emphasise more on  the  rurals    is laudable.

Finally education will be a major topic from now on. Many has voiced their concerned on declining standards of our universities and the need to bring back English as the medium of language.  Datuk  Seri Idris  Jala, the Pemandu  CEO did mention that structural reforms include education. Our country has decline in the world competitiveness ranking from 10 in 2010 to 15 this year.   To  overcome  global  weakness Malaysia need to be competitive  and need to have a  strong workforce in term of skill and high calibre  professionals . We  cannot  become  world beaters if our workforce lack communication skills and proficiency in English. We will be lagging behind our nearest  neighbour  who has a very highly intelligent cabinet members. Now if we want to move forward, education reforms should be a priority.

Ir. GHAZALI IBRAHIM

RACISM AND NATIONAL UNITY

The weather is hot today and in the  last  few  weeks  and so is the media. Nobody seems to control their big mouth or are local dailies  without ethics?  I quote an example of racism in the UK. For instance, John Terry, a Chelsea and  England football captain was brought to court and a lip reader  was called to certify that he did utter the racist words at his opponent. He was fined £220,000 (Rm 1.1mil) and banned for four games. Luis Suarez a  Liverpool  striker was fined  £40,000 for racist remarks. Here in our country, leaders   or prominent persons simply  have a field day.

I give you  examples  on my experience on unity in this country. My daughter did her foundation at a private college a few years ago. There were two Malay students in the class and her close friends were local Indian students in a Chinese dominated class. When she did her undergraduate,  again her  close friends were Chinese but from Indonesia. My uncle  got married  to a Chinese lady during the height of May ’69 while he was studying in the UK. He came back and was doing well in a mining company  under  a British management. Things did not go well when the company had  to  undergo   Malaysianisation  exercise. He could not bear the biasness and racist attitude of the society taking the toll on him and his family. He left the country  to  Australia for good. Last month my nephew wed a Chinese lady in a two culture ceremonies in a premise  of a mosque organised by PERKIM. I wonder how she will cope with life in a so called multi- cultural society, God’s willing.

There are many examples and happenings which you and I came across but where do we go wrong? Is it due to circumstances or shortcoming of our  education system or racist attitude of some of the Malaysian? The topic of unity is  not  new and our country will never see a national unity if Malaysian of different  origins, races and religions  do not have mutual trust and sincerity.  It won’t be an  easy task  as human are special species  and possess  what we call ‘ego’.

I put a question to a few young people on how to achieve unity. Their answers are shallow and lack maturity. Areas like intermarriages, sports and open house are common answers. Those  are secondary elements which have been going on until today and with little impact .

 There are  three  key  areas where  the government can implement in order to achieve national unity .  Once  enforced,  there is  no choice but everybody has to toe the line. One  is  education, next is abolition of race-based politics and lastly tackling racism effectively. Malaysian need to be sincere in accepting the above  if  they want to achieve the so called national unity.

The subject of education has been hot topics year in and year out. Each major race is clamouring for more vernacular schools  and  colleges to please their voters. To touch this subject is  like  ‘walking on thin ice’. Now there are proposition of doing away with vernacular schools. A one school system will nurture the kids in forging racial harmony in their early stage of primary  schools  and continuing to foster  good relationship in high schools. Hopefully  the bond of friendship and mutual trust will be cemented  at the tertiary level. This had been happening in the early fifties and sixties where English was the major language used in schools. Currently the medium of instruction will be a big issue, shall  it be  in  Bahasa  Malaysia or English? There could be hue and cry but if the government is serious in national unity and willing to review the constitution ( not  to please voters), half of the battle is won. Here is  where Malaysians need to show their  sincerity and willingness to sacrifice. There are many pro and cons which you and I know but nobody dare to sacrifice.  For  a  start  why not  bring  back the  English medium school ?

As it is now, most of the Chinese kids go to the Chinese schools, the  Indian  go to the Tamil schools  and the Malays go to the national schools. The Chinese then enter the private universities and secure good foreign degrees through twinning or collaboration   with  well   known   foreign universities. The Malays  enter  the government  universities whose  ranking in the world are not even in the top 200 in the world. Now do you expect this young generation to appreciate national unity as their path is parallel since they were kids?

Our country is multi-racial and politics are race- based.  Malaysian politics were  shaped  on ethnics right from the pre- independence days and has hindered  national unity.  If  the  government  take  a stand   to do away with race-based politics, I think we will see some light on national unity. However  are  Malaysians sincere enough and willing to accommodate their counterpart from  various races in a single party? This issue is not as tough as  above and not impossible if we still think ‘Malaysia Boleh’.

Lastly,  there is a need to take  tough measures on racism effectively. The government need to uphold the laws and to take stern action whoever stir up racial sentiments. The John Terry case above is an example of how  serious  is  the  UK  government  in tackling issues on racism. Some were  hauled  up  just  on  a  racist statement made in twitter. I  just  wonder  how the  newly wed nephew of mine felt when reading newspaper headlines in the last few weeks. I hope he would  not resort to another country to start a new life.  

Again as I said the media is currently hot on sensitive issues and  if  not  wisely  handled ,there is little hope for national  unity. One may continue shouting the slogan ‘ Satu  Malaysia’ or Hidup!!! time and again as  it  will  be a waste of time and we feel  sorry for the next generation in this beloved nation.

Ir.GHAZALI  IBRAHIM

The above article is  the  writer’s opinion, without malicious intent or prejudice.