Article Review English in Malaysia

Language Policy in Malaysia: Reversing Direction

Lulu Wong

1 1.1

Education Domain After Independence (From 1957 to 2002)

Prior to when Malaysia became independent from British ruling, a committee chaired by the then Minister of Education of Education, Abdul Razak bin Hussan, generated a report in 1955 which suggested the government to use Bahasa Melayu as an official language under Education Policy, so as to establish a national system of education to satisfy Malaysian residents needs to promote their cultural, social, economic and political development as a nation. A while after independence, the government of Malaysia adopted the Education Ordinance in 1957, which is based on the report in 1955, that Bahasa became the national and official language in domain of education and government administration. English was considered as the language of economic and social mobility as in many British colonial countries before independence. After establishing Bahasa melayu by law as the national and official language in education and administration, the Malays believed that this would lead to Bahasas development as a language of high status, which finally provide them with linguistic capital and economic opportunity which would lead to social and professional mobility as well. 1.2 Modern (From 2002 onwards)

Based on the economic consideration due to globalization and the knowledge economy on selection of English in the domain of Science and Technology, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, announced that science and mathematics subjects will be taught in English from first year of primary schooling to tertiary levels in 2002. In addition, teaching of science and mathematics in English was recommended to be restricted to the first primary

year one, the first secondary year and the lower six, and finally at all other levels by the Ministry of Education in 2003. Regarding the use of English in the domain of science and technology, there are over 100,000 scientific journals in the world and this number is increasing at the rate of 5000 articles per day adding to the 30 million existing (Bilan cited in Martel, 2001: 51) reflected the explosive rate of knowledge generation in English. On the other hand, only 374 books were translated and published by the Translation Section of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, the government body responsible for coordinating the use of Bahasa, in 1956 up to 1995. The aim to develop knowledge workers in the field of science and technology, which require access to knowledge and information in these fields, was one of the driving forces for this language policy change in education.

Business Domain

English has been the superior language of communication in the business domain both locally and internationally after independence. Moreover, its importance was further enhanced by recent concern for everyone on economic development. One key point which should be emphasized is that Bahasa Melayu was not enforced as an official language in business domain after independence. The exclusion of language policy in this domain originates from the objective to encourage foreign investment through a free system of market enterprises, which usually adopt English as a medium of communication. A restriction in the language of communication, which might affect the efficiency of communication among colleagues, employers and clients around global, might indeed discourage foreign investment. This depicted a situation which economic considerations override the nationalistic factors.

As a result of such an exclusion of language policy, private sector, which is the main employment choice for graduates, requires proficiency in English rather than Bahasa Melayu. This phenomenon drove the reversal of language policy in education domain in 2002 mentioned in previous section as well.

Comparison with Hong Kong

Since independence in 1957 and following later government policy decisions to promote the national language, Malaysia has seen a decrease in the functions of English in various domains, particularly in education, which has prompted ongoing concerns about declining standards. Present day, economic considerations and the knowledge economy and science and technology impact strongly on Malaysia, clearly overrode traditional considerations of politics and nationalism on language policy. Compared to the use of Malaysia, English in Hong Kong is notable for its restricted range of functions. Luke and Richards portray Hong Kong as an "example of societal bilingualism supported by two largely monolingual communities coexisting in relative social isolation" (1982:47). They conclude that English is neither a foreign languge nor a second language, preferring to classify it as an "auxiliary language" - "a non-native language which is reserved for certain restricted functions in society and for use by a restricted section of that society". In other words, they argue that there is no sociolinguistic basis for the development of local norms since English in Hong Kong is not commonly used for communication within the Chinese community. Although English in Hong Kong has clear overt status, it does not enjoy covert status (Newbrook 1988:10) and does not exhibit the same style shifting characteristics up and down the basilectal/acrolectal cline apparent in older speakers of Malaysian English.