The Mahathir “Watershed”
By Dr. Collin Abraham
1 PREAMBLE
The Chancellor’s Speech at the Convocation of Petronas University, offered a splendid opportunity for Tun Dr Mahathir to re-affirm his balanced re-appraisal of the crucial need for knowledge and technology for Malaysians to confront and interpret the new scenarios for participating in the globalised world political economy.
In this connection, it is particularly important and significant, (as I understand it), both implicitly and explicitly, that Tun has endorsed the vital need for English to be the means towards achieving this end, in the medium of instruction for Science and Mathematics, and indeed, in due course, also at secondary and at higher levels as well.
This is a watershed (“a turning point in a state of affairs”) because there is now no question that the English language is generally acknowledged world-wide as the most effective way to increase and accelerate the number of choices and options that will also become open to all Malaysians, and especially the Malays, both in business and in the political world.
2 THEORETICAL FRAMES OF REFERENCE.
Dr Mahathir’s “Watershed” on the English language however needs to be projected and understood in a much broader context. One such dimension is that Tun is among the very few Malay/Malaysian nationalists, who clearly understands the utter devastation of the ‘indigenous consciousness’ of the political economy of the rakyat, in the face of British imperialism and colonialism and the consequent dire need for Malays to finally “break out” of the consciousness of inferiority, despair, and sense of hopelessness. English is a necessary condition to create this new mind-set.
It is therefore pivotal to realise that Tun’s advocacy of the English language is within the framework of his being both a “theorist” and a “strategist”. During his many years as Prime Minister Tun has advanced many theories (“ideas intended to explain something”) and implemented strategies (“plans designed to achieve a particular long term aim”) as no other PM has, can, or will ever do, for the Malays and for Malaysia.
3 SCOPE
Tun’s focus has essentially been in the relentless pursuit to ‘smash’ what Professor Alatas correctly labeled as the colonial “captive mind” so that Malaysians could continuously keep building new theories and implementing new strategies and practices. Central to this concern is the abolition of the fossilized feudal mindset of the Malay ruling class superimposed by the ‘icing’ of class-based colonial policies of indirect rule and divide and rule.
This basic structural framework had to be changed.
Indeed, in this connection it is a ‘revelation’ that a very recent work titled “The Origins and Evolution of Ethnocracy in Malaysia” ( Asia Research Institute WP Series No.112) has finally been definitive in endorsing (what we have known for sometime) that Whitehall “convoluted and planted” the blueprint for Malay ethnocracy in the 1948/57 Constitutions for the benefit of the Malay ruling class, to safeguard British political and economic interests against the possibility that the Malay/Malayan left might take power. Accordingly there was a 180 degree “volte-face” from the “Malayan Union policies where the (ruling class) Malays (now) became dominant, privileged, and power-brokers”
The entire edifice of the status-quo oriented colonial administrative apparatus therefore needed to be deconstructed to enable the social changes needed for Malaysian minds to become receptive to new thinking in a global context. An initial step in this direction was clearly reflected in the abolishing of legal immunity from prosecution for the Sultans initiated by UMNO when Dr Mahathir was President and also Prime Minister.
While it is obviously impossible to attempt a ‘blow by blow’ appraisal of the entire scenario of social change in this context, it is necessary at least to take up two policies and strategies of Tun Mahathir to explain why it is absolutely vital that the switch to English should be made in the context where “Technological obsolescence (can) occur in the blink of an eye”!
4 THE LOOK-EAST POLICY
In conceptualizing and implementing this policy Malaysia was in fact seeking a radical realigning in thinking based on a new framework, right at the ‘roots’ of the post-colonial political system. Dr Mahathir was absolutely correct in his analysis that Malaysia could learn a lot from the evolution of the deep and humiliating experiences of defeat of the Japanese people, who were also the only nation in the world to suffer the devastating consequences of nuclear warfare, and yet to emerge in the short span of about forty years as a world developed economy, second only to the USA.
Dr Mahathir was also conscious and convinced that the shared experiences with the Japanese people must be seen in the context of a fellow Asian nation and not as one of the “West”. For Malaysia therefore this was in the nature of a relationship between “us” vs the “rest” (West)
But above all, Tun was convinced that the policy would enable Malaysians to get access to training in advanced science and technology on a nation-to-nation basis that no other developed country was prepared to offer, at least on the same terms. Indeed, and here is where Tun’s ideology and the learning of English can be brought into sharper focus.The training programs necessitated that Malaysian trainees learn Japanese and this was perfectly in keeping with the proposed policy on English on the grounds that Japanese, like English, was a new language that needed to be mastered to be successful in the corporate and business world and therefore Malaysians should also “go for it” as they should for English.
5 THE MULTI-MEDIA SUPER- CORRIDOR PROGRAM
For a small nation Malaysia was literally the ’mouse that roared’ in propelling itself to the very apex of the world-wide ICT revolution. The strategy was to strike at the very heart of the latest technology in the shortest possible time so as to ‘leap-frog’ the need for time-consuming step-by-step development.
Malaysians attending the spectacular launch in the US by Dr Mahahir, were tremendously impressed that most of the very top CEOs of worldwide ICT corporations were present, and more importantly, participated fully with Malaysians in the proceedings, that were conducted entirely in English
What we were seeing is a strategy of bringing Malaysia “kicking and screaming” into the globalized world political economy where the English language was needed to make such a spectacular dramatic entry. Indeed Bill Gates, the founder of the ICT worldwide technical revolution, commented that based on his own worldwide experiences, the Malaysian demand to set up a similar network in the MSC was “awesome” (positive)
6 CONCLUSION
I sincerely believe that sufficient emphasis has been given for all concerned Malaysians to demand that English should now be made the medium of instruction for full participation in the corporate world, as well as to enhance efforts at nation-building and national unity. We need a new deal.
This is a matter of having the political will to do so. With the greatest of respect and in all humility therefore Malaysians may wish to graciously implore the Yang-Di-Pertuan Agong to consider the appointment of an internationally acclaimed Malaysian to make this happen.
If I might be allowed to humbly suggest such a person, I will have no hesitation in nominating Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammed. Should the latter be approached, it is my fervent hope and prayer that Tun will respond positively.
