Sarawak CM: Emphasising BM over English ‘stupid’
(MMO) – The prioritisation of Bahasa Malaysia over English in education policies dating back three decades is “stupid” and the cause of graduate unemployment now, said Tan Sri Adenan Satem.
The Sarawak chief minister said the country should have placed equal emphasis on both languages.
“Back then, it was decided that correspondence with the government, if not in Bahasa Malaysia, would not be entertained. How could you have a policy like that?
“That is why so many graduates these days could not get a job because they cannot speak proper English,” he was quoted saying yesterday by local daily The Borneo Post.
Noting the sheer volume of books on science and mathematics published in English, Adenan also expressed his doubts on whether the country’s authority on Bahasa Malaysia — Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka — could cope with the volume of new material daily.
“Are we going to translate all of them? Why do we have to do it twice when you can do it once?” he asked.
Adenan highlighted that Singapore used English as its main language while giving equal attention to Mandarin and the Malay language there, before going on to say that Sarawak should push both English and Bahasa Malaysia.
