I must say that I have learnt a great deal from your recent debates on the use of mother-tongues in the teaching of Mathematics and Science. This has a two-fold agenda, to ensure that there is proficiency in both the language and a mastery of both difficult subjects.

Where I am, Malay is not taught as a mother-tongue, it is a second language to English. The lessons are quite unhelpful in maintaining any kind of importance to the language itself. Thus, in Singapore no one actually converses fluently in Malay, not even among Malays themselves, except perhaps among Malay language teachers.

I found Kabilan's commentary Tamils schools at crossroads: end in sight? insightful. He wrote about the diminishing importance of Tamil if Tamil is not retained for teaching the said two subjects. This would lead to the closure of Tamil language schools.

I think this is exactly what happened to Malay language schools in Singapore. I was too young to understand the issues involved in the closure of schools like Sang Nila Utama and Tun Sri Lanang in Singapore.

I do not even know if we had such wonderfully refreshing debates that you have right now or whether the PAP government even allowed such discussions to prevail.

I sincerely hope the will of the people of Malaysia will prevail.