Wow, this is really something — even something as grievous as the Team A and Team B power tussle within MCA, both sides forced themselves to obediently honour Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's peace plan but they stuck to their guns on the mother tongue issue.

The common stand by MCA and two other Chinese-based Barisan Nasional component parties — Gerakan and SUPP — to oppose the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English in Chinese primary schools as advocated by Mahathir and his deputy is lauded.

Since Mahathir had branded Chinese educationists who opposed the move as "extremists", will he do so to the Chinese component parties in BN without offence?

It should be noted that Umno's supreme council had earlier opposed Mahathir's proposal to revert to English as the medium of instruction, hence compromising on its use only for the teaching of Science and Mathematics.

The compromise was to appease Malay nationalists and educationists upholding the primacy of the other "mother tongue" (in this case, also the national language) over English. Indeed, one of the Umno branches in Johoe in an unprecedented move even passed a motion of no confidence against the education minister over this.

Dong Jiao Zong's objections that "the majority of students would find it difficult to cope with the change of teaching medium for the two subjects and as such face problems in their studies — not only will their English remain poor, but their performance in Mathematics and Science may become poorer compared to before" would apply with equal force to both Chinese as well as national schools, regardless whether Mandarin or Bahasa is the main medium of instruction.

This is the trouble when "political and not educational interests" as suggested by Bock Tai Hee, chief executive officer of the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia or Dong Zong are accorded greater importance.

In a political intercourse between politicians from both sides — Umno nationalists and Chinese politicians and educationist — English is an orphan, and side-lined by the importance of "mother tongue", the mother of all problems.

To cite two examples, I have come across a Form Three student who spelled elephant as "Alifan" because it was phonetically similar in Bahasa. Another Chinese educated student said that Miss so and so was "rapped" when he meant raped.

Imagine our students having to cope with sentences such as these:

  • A farm can produce produce.

  • The present is a good time to present the present.

  • The dove dove into the bushes.

  • I did not object to the object.

  • How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

  • She shed a tear when she saw the tear in her clothes.

    • They would certainly be thoroughly nonplused at this strange language.

    The point here is we will get nowhere if there is no sincere political will for our peoples to master English. Being proficient in a language can only be done through exposure and constant usage at home and in school, and not just learning grammatical rules.

    One notes that even if the Chinese-based political parties and education movements were right in saying that such a half-hearted switch will result in English proficiency remaining bad and to the detriment of Mathematics and Science, they have not offer any suggestion how to improve English proficiency at Chinese primary schools or what subjects other than Science and Mathematics should also be taught in English.

    In spite of the public stand taken by Chinese-based political parties and education movements that they "fully supported the government's effort to promote the use of English among students", this is but a token concession not unlike the supreme council's that want to limit English to Science and Mathematics subjects.

    As long as Chinese educationists and politicians hold on, as a political platform, to primacy of Mandarin as a cultural marker — as Umno and Malay educationists do likewise with the National Language — more important than practical considerations of English being an indispensable tool with the onslaught of globalisation in this information age, all talk of improving the proficiency of the language will remain dithering double-talk, and English will remain a neglected orphan to the detriment of our children's educational interest, whether they enroll in government or Chinese primary schools.