Vacancy: Caring government needed

When it comes to paying for the costs of transportation, Malaysians have been suffering for a long time. And this suffering is not getting any better as the country moves closer to her vision 2020. As a matter of fact, it gets worse.

The recent big jump in the price of fuels is just one in a long list of examples.

First, let me bring up the issue of the road tax. Not only the tax is high as compared to most countries, but Malaysia has the ancient system that requires car owners to pay road tax based on the engine size - the bigger the engine size the more you pay.

It is a system which goes beyond logic. Do cars with bigger engines take more space on the road or erode the road faster? No! Thus, the system is so ridiculous and unfair.

I've traveled and lived in many countries, and in all those countries, perhaps with the exception of Singapore, drivers pay a lot lower annual road tax and the system does not discriminate in regards to engine size.

For example, here in Qatar the equivalent tax we pay for a car is 65QR or about RM65 per year, whether one owns a Daihatsu Sirion (like the Perodua Kelisa) or the ubiquitous Toyota Land Cruiser (with a 4.5 or 4.8 litre engine).

The road tax system is even more ridiculous for motor cycles where the owner of a small moped-type cycle pays no or very little tax whereas those with 500 cc engines pay at least RM400 per year (more than the road tax for the Kancil!).

Considering the fact that Malaysian roads are very congested and the petrol price so high (another issue which I will touch below), it makes a lot of sense to encourage more people to ride bikes than drive cars. Furthermore, bigger bikes are a lot safer than the mopeds!

Made-in-Malaysia Cars

Second, the price of cars in Malaysia is very high compared to most in other countries. Malaysians have sacrificed a lot just because some Malaysian politicians have big egos (read: to have made-in-Malaysia cars).

With the advent of Proton and Perodua, Malaysians have to pay more when they want to buy a car. Before Proton, a car of similar would cost about RM30,000-40,000 (at today's price). How much does one has to pay to buy a Wira now?

A few months back, Doha Motor (the distributor of the Proton cars in Qatar) launched the Proton Gen-2. I happened to notice the quoted prices in the local newspapers which started around RM40,000 for the lower end or basic model. But, how much does a similar model cost in Malaysia?

Granted, for anyone to start a car manufacturing, it requires a huge investment. But, this investment should not be recouped in such a short period at the expense of tax¬payers? The thing is, even after the initial investment is recouped (after producing the first million units) the price of Proton and Perodua kept going up and up.

A car is no longer a luxury but an essential item for today's consumers.

Now that they have recovered the initial costs, the prices should be lowered by taking lower profits so long as they still make money out of the sales. After all, it is the tax-payers and mostly the citizens who are buying the cars. Why can't the companies be more caring towards the tax-payers and the citizens? After all, they have been supportive, albeit involuntarily.

Also, why can't they sell the cars at a lesser rate than the export prices? Thus, it is possible that Malaysians again are paying the price in order to have local cars enter foreign markets.

Perhaps, the politicians are not aware of the suffering of the citizens, since when they want to buy a car, they are entitled to a tax free car (they each gets an Approved Permit or AP). Because of this, they naturally opt for the luxury and branded foreign cars at a fraction of the price.

In business, a company needs to be competitive to survive and grow. At the early stage of its development, it is reasonable for the company to receive a certain amount of protection from the government from other competitors while it develops its competencies and builds up strength. But, it cannot go on receiving the protection forever. With less protection, it will have to find ways to be more competitive, effective and efficient in its operations.

Thus, competition is not only good for the company but it is good for the consumers as well. It will result in the company making better cars and in the consumers getting better prices.

Further, the companies will be more ready to face the challenge of the Afta (Asean Free Trade Agreement), where more and more cars will enter the local market. Being competitive will also put them in a better position to enter the much bigger Asean market as well.

With the trends of the automotive industry moving towards consolidation and rationalization, it might be imperative that local companies will have to collaborate and build an alliance or a new business model with other foreign partners, bearing in mind that within the next decade or so, there will perhaps be only three of four car companies in the world.

Tolls here, there, everywhere

The third related issue is the toll, which is becoming increasingly more rampant and widespread in Malaysia. It seems that the government now has stopped constructing free roads for the people.

Any new road that emerges will include toll booths, again to the dismay of tax-payers. What has happened to the need for the government to be ethical and socially responsible?

Building roads and other infrastructures is an essential to the country's development but it should not be for the benefit of certain private companies.

In other countries, toll roads are built so that people can use it to avoid congestions, particularly during peak hours. In other words, if you don't want to pay extra and you can stand the slow traffic, then use the free roads. Such is not the case here.

For example, if you want to go to Kajang from Kuala Lumpur or to Kuantan from Kuala Lumpur, you no longer have the alternative to go on non-toll roads. Also, the choice of the non-toll roads, if available, is such a contrast when compared to the toll roads, in terms of condition, traveling time, and distance.

Besides, if we compare the Malaysian toll rates with the rates in other countries, chances are Malaysian drivers are paying a lot higher, particularly when we compare their disposable incomes.

Latest Burden

Last but not least, is the latest burden for tax-payers - the increase in fuel prices.

Since Malaysia is a net exporter of petroleum why should her people be burdened with such a high increase in petrol and diesel prices? Since we do have the resources, why not let the people enjoy the benefits? After all, they are already paying much in order to maintain and drive their cars.

Why can't the government be more caring? If the issue is to prevent smuggling by unscrupulous people, why can't there be other initiatives such by tightening border control?

The thing is, increasing fuel petrol prices will have consequences on the prices of other goods since petrol is an important input for other industries and not just for the transportation industry.

On the whole, we can easily come to the conclusion that Malaysia (or rather her political masters) are not a caring lot.

With the increase in accessibility to information and knowledge - something that the government has been encouraging and facilitating - Malaysians are now more matured. The people now expect nothing less than a caring government, a government that is sensitive to their needs and desires, in line with the country's aspiration to become a fully developed nation by 2020.

It is now time for the government to fulfill the people’s wishes before it too late. After. all, the next general election is not too far away!

______________________________________
Malaysiakini | Mohamed Zain, March 7, 2006.

On wanting to use the word "Allah" by Malaysian Christians

I don’t have any qualms if the Malaysian Christians want to use the word “allah” or any other words to refer to their god. But, I just don’t understand why they insist on wanting to use that Arabic word instead of any other words with the same meaning that are more relevant to Malaysia such as “god” or “tuhan”.

Now, it is not strange for the Coptic Christians, which are mostly if not all Arabs, to use that word since “allah” is an Arabic word which means “god”.

However, it is indeed very strange that Malaysian Christians want to use an Arabic word to refer to their god! How many Malaysian Christians are Arabs?

To Muslims, the word god “Allah” has 99 other names. So, do the Malaysian Christians want to use these 99 names to refer to their god as well?

Their insistence on using an Arabic word to refer to god instead of a Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban, Kadazan, Sakai, etc. word is very bewildering to me. Can somebody please explain.

Thank you.

English as the medium - what has gone wrong?

I refer to the letter "Teach all subjects in English before it's too late" (http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/94412).

I am very concerned with what the writer is proposing in that the medium of instructions of all national schools be changed to English. Ironically, s/he also proposed that the vernacularly schools be maintained. I know s/he has good intention in giving the proposal. But, that proposal is certainly suggesting a move in a backward direction rather than forward.

It’s unmistakable that the change to BM as the medium of instructions in schools has been and is a very good move. Now everyone who has gone through the national schools (at least those who have passed and finished secondary schools) can read and write in BM. No one can deny that having a common language is necessary for national unity and nation building.

The writer seems to forget that Malaysia is not English-land. So, why the heck should the national language be English (even though s/he was only hinting since s/he did not say it outright)?

Which now bring me to another important point. Yes, everyone in the country should be able to speak English. I would like to stress here that each person must be good in English. So, English should be continued to be taught in schools as a second language to one’s mother tongue language.

That has already happened in the country, but the success has not been satisfactory since most of the citizens who have graduated from national schools, particularly those from rural areas, cannot communicate effectively in English.

So, what has gone wrong? Could it be that the teachers who taught them were not qualified? Or that most of the schools were not properly equipped with the necessary language labs? The ministry of education needs to investigate the root cause of the problem and find solutions once and for all.

I would now touch on the issue of the vernacular schools. No one can deny that the presence of these schools is against the spirit of national unity. Basically, it is a practice of legal segregation of our school children based on ethnicity since huge majority of the pupils in these schools is of the same ethnicity. How can we expect the children to understand those of other ethnic groups in the country if they are kept separate from these groups at such an early age?

But I am not suggesting that the vernacular schools should be abolished entirely. Instead, I am suggesting that they should be integrated with the rest of the national schools. As a consequence of this move I would suggest the following win-win actions on the part of the government:

1. All schools should maintain the medium of instruction of BM (the national language for national unity)

2. All schools should teach English as a second language (the universal international language)

3. All schools should teach a third language of Mandarin (a language of more than one billion people)

4. If a school has a large number of students of another ethnicity such as Tamil or Iban, then Mandarin can be substituted with either Tamil, Iban, etc.

I would like to stress here that all Malaysians should be well conversed in at least three languages. This is certainly fairer than the current state of affairs where most Malays can only converse in, at most, two languages (BM and English) where as most non-Malays can converse in at least three languages (BM, English, and mother tongue language).

Thus, if the third language is available in the national schools, then the need for separate vernacular schools should not be there.

Of course, the implications to the ministry of education and the country are far-reaching, particularly in the short run. But, in the long run, it should help our country attain a better social integration of its citizens. A number of steps need to be undertaken by the government.

First, language teaching must be taken very seriously. Adequate funding must be made available to ensure that teachers receive good training in all the required languages, particularly English and Mandarin.

Second, all schools, whether rural or urban must be adequately equipped with language labs so that the teaching of the languages can be done more effectively.

Third, we must make sure that upon graduation from high schools, our students have pretty good command of BM, English, and a third language.

Fourth, once we have achieved our objective of having our school graduates who are conversant in at least three languages, I would now go far out as to suggest that the main medium of instructions of the universities in the country be changed to English.

The current situation where private universities are allowed to use English as the medium of instruction
whereas public universities are made to use BM as the medium of instruction is down right unfair to the students. It will make the graduates of government universities less employable as compared to those of the private universities.

We need to do change the medium of instructions of universities to English in order to make our country more competitive and be able to face the challenges of the 21st century and beyond. Many countries, eg those of the Middle East, have already switched the medium of instructions for many of their programs in universities, particularly those in business and economics, engineering, and science and technology, to English.

Fifth, the choice for our students to learn their mother tongue language at an advanced level in the university should be now be widened and expanded. The output of these programmes can help the country to be self- sufficient in third language teachers for our national schools. This will help the country lower the training costs of the third language teachers (instead of sending them overseas for language training).

Last but certainly not the least, the country should also seriously work towards creating a truly “Bangsa Malaysia” for all the citizens of the country.

Thus, it is essential that the government remove the need to state one’s race and religion in the national identity card (IC) or in any other identity cards. In fact, the need to state one’s race and religion in such forms as job application, etc., should be banned altogether. Every citizen should think of himself/herself as Malaysian first, before anything else.

Malaysiakini
English as the medium - what has gone wrong? Mohamed Zain | Dec 22, 08 4:33pm

Search committee vital for VC appointments

The job of a chief executive officer of a university whether it is called vice-chancellor (VC) or president is full of responsibility, accountability, and challenge. Just like in a corporation, where a CEO determines the success of a corporation and sets the path for its survival and growth, the same can be said of a university.

In a corporation, a CEO is appointed by its board of directors – which is made up of many individuals who are well-versed in the business and have proven themselves to be successful in their endeavours.

Thus, the appointment of a VC needs to be made by a search committee – a committee that is made up of representatives from various parties including the members of the board of trustees, faculty members (professors), alumni, a student representatives, etc.

This will ensure that the search committee will have diverse perspectives when evaluating candidates. It will also ensure that the selected candidate will be respected by faculty members.

It is the responsibility of the committee to come up with a document which outlines the desired qualities and characteristics of a VC.

This document will have to be made public in an effort to gain feedback from the public. This can be done by posting the criteria over the Internet. The search committee must also seek to balance this openness and transparency with an appropriate level of confidentiality for all the participants of the search process, including that of the eventual candidates.

The final decision by the higher education minister to appoint a VC must thus be based on the recommendation of the search committee. Failing to do this means political meddling on the part of politicians which can have a detrimental impact on the running of the university.

It is desirable but not essential that a VC candidate should have academic experience. However, just because s/he was an academic once – especially if s/he was just a lecturer – does not necessarily qualify him/her to lead a university.

A VC or a president needs to lead by example. Thus, if the candidate happens to be an academic, at the very least s/he must have a PhD and be a full professor, which means that s/he has demonstrated competency in teaching, research, and community services.

The teaching part is normally achieved through years of teaching experience, the research part is through publication of research work in quality refereed international journals in his/her field of expertise while the community service is through involvement and participation in administrative work, committee works, student advising, etc.

In other words, if the candidate for a VC happens to be an academic, in order to lead a university, s/he needs to be a full professor first before anything else. Otherwise, how is s/he going to gain the respect from his/her fellow academics?
Of course, when one is up at the top, one can easily promote oneself to a full professor, since one is now in the position of power. This has already happened in certain universities in the country. But, when s/he does that, s/he will become a laughing stock of not only to his/her faculty members but also to any academic who knows of his/her background.

Now, in the past several years, we have seen the drastic decline in the rankings (such as that of the Thes) of our premier universities to the point that none have appeared in the list of world’s top 200 universities.
So, if the government is really serious in wanting to arrest this decline, the first step they should do is to put in place a really capable leader to head all those universities.

In trying to do that, any new appointment or replacement of a VC must be done by a well- represented and qualified search committee as outlined above.

Malaysiakini
Search committee vital for VC appointments Mohamed Zain | Nov 24, 08 2:57pm

Our education system: Time for radical change

It is quite obvious now that Malaysia is heading towards a two-party system. This is certainly good for the country. There will more checks and balances. The winning and ruling party cannot do things according to their whims and fancies without worrying about the possibility of losing the next election.

Thus, as the country is heading towards a political maturity some drastic changes in our education systems are called for and perhaps are becoming inevitable. It does not matter which of the two eventual political parties rules the country. But the changes that I would like to suggest here are for the benefit of the country.

It is imperative that in this era of globalization and the fact that we want to make Malaysia more competitive as well as to make it a regional educational hub for attracting foreign students, we need to improve the quality of our education so that it is comparable if not better than the best in Southeast Asia.

Let me start first with our school systems. The outputs of the schools are the inputs of the universities. Thus, if we want to produce good products the raw materials must be of good quality as well. Every citizen of the country must have access to education. Hence, it must be made mandatory that every child attends school at least up to the lower secondary level. Thus, the school education in this country must be free for all. And it must be fee all the way up to the high school level.

Next, we need to have good and qualified teachers for our schools. Thus, most if not all the teachers, must have a bachelor’s degree in education. Those without a degree majoring in education need to also have a teaching credential such as the one-year diploma in education offered by some of the local universities.

Lately, we have heard a lot about the need for the country to have a meritocracy system. This can only happen if we have a level playing field for all our school children. Thus, if we are really serious about implementing such a system facilities of the rural schools must be comparable to those of the urban ones. All schools – whether urban or rural-based -- need to have, among others, good internet access, instructional aides, library, sport, and other facilities.

While there is a need for us to have a common national language so that all our citizens can communicate with each other in our multi-ethnic country, it makes a lot of sense that our children are multi-lingual as well. The current situation is that most Malays can speak Bahasa Malaysia and perhaps English, but most non-Malays can speak at least two and perhaps three or more languages. Hence, this imbalance needs to be addressed. Malay students should be encouraged to learn Chinese or another local language as well. Once our students have the choice to choose their additional language (especially their mother tongue) in addition to the national language in the national schools, then the need to have the separate Chinese and Tamil schools (vernacular schools) in the country will disappear. The presence of these vernacular schools in the country goes against the spirit of national integration. Of course, the offering of other languages to our students must be based on demand and it must be cost effective. More third language teachers must also be trained.

Later, I will talk about the need to reintroduce English as the medium of instructions in universities. Thus, to prepare for this, the teaching of the English Language in schools need to be upgraded so that when the students enter universities, they will not be handicapped. Hence, more English language teachers need to be trained in the country.

Last, but certainly not the least, we need to introduce a semester system in all our schools. This system needs to be standardized and synchronized with those of the developed world. In other words, our schools should have Fall, Spring and Summer semesters where most students will go to school during the Fall and Spring semesters and they will take a vacation during the summer semester. During the summer the older children, particularly those in cities and towns can start learning to earn money by taking up part-time or short-term employments in such places as fast-food restaurants or shops in the shopping malls. Of course, the system needs to be synchronized with the university system as well, so that upon graduation, they will not be idle too long while waiting to enter universities.

I will now talk about the required reforms for our universities.

Universities are excellent places for our country to train its citizens and future leaders in its efforts to fulfill the needs for skilled and knowledgeable human resources. University students are excellent change agents for the country. Thus, first and foremost we need to amend the Universities and Colleges Act of 1971 (UCA). The clauses that prohibit or restrict the independence of academics and students must be removed.

There is also an urgent need for us to abolish the mandatory requirement for the employees to sign the ridiculous and silly “Akujanji.” University employees, particularly the academics, should not be made to obey the instructions of the government or political masters’ blindly. Instead, intellectual discourse should be encouraged because it can be a good source of creativity and innovation for the country.

Top and senior management are crucial to the success of any organizations. In the past, the appointments of university vice-chancellor and his/her deputies are made or at least required the approval of the minister. This practice has got to stop because most appointments were based on the candidates’ political affiliations or inclinations rather on merits. Appointments of someone to these posts should be made based on the suitability and the capabilities of the candidates for the jobs. They should be made by a search committee instead. Of course, some of the members of the committee can be appointed by the minister. Similarly, the appointment of Deans can also be made via a search committee. Vacant positions for deans or even departmental chairs could also be advertised in relevant media such as newspapers or websites like the Chronicle of Higher Education to invite more capable candidates.

The salaries of academics should be revised. The current salaries for academics, particularly the starting salary for an assistant professor (someone with a PhD) is pathetically low and very unattractive and need to be increased to a level that is comparable to those in Singapore.

The salary scales of academics should also be different from those of other government servants. After all, the nature of their jobs and the required academic qualifications are different. The current practice where the salaries for academics are decided by the Public Service Department officers always favour the civil servants, particularly the so called PTD (administrative and diplomatic services) officers and not the academics.

Attractive salaries will not only attract the best candidates but it will also attract more top graduates to be interested in becoming academics by opting to become tutors after their first degree and to pursue their graduate degree leading to a PhD in their field. Otherwise, as the saying goes, “if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.”

Government should also set aside funds to enable our best graduates from universities who are interested in becoming tutors to get enough stipends and scholarships to carry out their graduate research at the research universities in the country. This will help the country save money by not having to send them to foreign universities. Nevertheless, top graduates should also be sent to study abroad but they should only be limited to those who manage to secure places in the top universities of the world or in those areas of expertise that are lacking in the country.

If we look at the list of academics in all our universities, we cannot help but notice that a substantial percentage if not the majority of them are holders of only a master’s degree instead of a PhD. This deficiency needs to be urgently addressed. Once the salary scheme is revised appropriately, this problem can be overcome gradually as more top students will be interested in pursuing research which culminates in a PhD degree.

We should be aware that before anyone, especially a prospective foreign student, begins to apply for a place in a university, s/he will first visit the university’s website and among the first information they will seek is the list of academic staff of the prospective department where s/he plans to study. Thus, well qualified teaching staff will attract more students. Hence, this should bode well towards making Malaysia an education hub for the region by attracting more foreign students from all over to enroll in our universities, particularly the private ones.

The academic ranking of positions in universities should also be standardized across all the universities in the country. It should be based on academic qualifications and experiences in teaching, research, and community work. A person with a master’s degree should only be given a position of a lecturer. Those with a PhD should start as an Assistant Professor. As s/he gains more experience and produces more outputs in those three areas of work s/he can gradually climb the academic ladder to associate professor and eventually to the rank of a full professor.

The English Language is now regarded as the international language. Just look at the availability of television networks across the world which broadcast free programs in English via the satellites in their efforts to reach international audiences. The major and common ones from among the countries whose native language is not English includes Al-Jazeera International (Qatar), DW TV (Germany), Euronews (European Union), France 24, Russia Today, CCTV9 (China), and Arirang TV (Korea). Thus, there is no doubt that our citizens now need to be proficient in English. And the best way to do just that is to revert the teaching of our students in our universities, especially in important fields of specializations such as business, economics, sciences, and engineering to English. After all, most of the text books in these fields are in English.

Here, I am assuming that our school children who graduated from high schools are already proficient in our national language, in addition to one or two more of other languages. We cannot compromise on this for the sake on peace and harmony in our country.

Malaysia needs to improve its competitiveness level in order to face the challenge of globalization and to remain relevant in this world. In this globalize world our citizens need to participate meaningfully in whatever international activities, be it business, economic, social, political, legal, or governmental. Thus, they must be proficient in English. Period.

Many universities in the Middle East and the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain) countries have already switched their medium of instructions, especially for programs in business, economics, sciences, and engineering, from Arabic to English. It is not too late for us to do the same.

The current practice in the country of allowing private universities to offer academic programs in English while not allowing the government ones to do so is not only discriminatory but it is also disadvantageous to those who graduate from the government universities since they will be less conversant in English and thus making them more difficult to find jobs in the industry where English is very much in use. These graduates will depend more on the government for jobs. The current situation where there are many unemployed undergraduates is probably the result of this practice.

Last, but again certainly not the least, there is a need to for the country to introduce the semester system into our universities. Just as I proposed for our school system above, our universities need to adopt a semester system as practiced by the universities in other countries. Most universities in other, particularly developed countries have a tri-semester system comprising Fall (September-January), Spring (February-June), and Summer (June- August).

By having a standardized and synchronized system with other countries it will facilitate exchange of academics between our universities with their foreign counterparts. It will also enable foreign students to enter our universities without having to wait too long after they graduated from their high schools. This will again help promote making Malaysia as the education hub.

During the summer holiday, summer classes can be offered to those students who want to graduate faster and the academics who are willing to teach classes during that time can earn extra income. Those students who do not take summer classes can take part-time or short-term employments in the town and cities, just like the case for older school students mentioned above, giving them an opportunity to earn and save some money before returning to their school.

Those are some suggestions which I would like to propose to the government in order make Malaysia a better and a more competitive country.

Thank you.


Doha
March 22, 2008
(Published by Malaysiakini (Opinions), April 3, 08, 1:31pm)

On the issue of the medium of instructions at schools and universities

Many people have thought that the earlier political leaders were wrong in changing the medium of instructions in schools and universities from English to Malay.

I for one think that it is not right to say that they were wrong in coming up with the national language policy that resulted in such a change. It was one of the means to unite the nation. On the contrary, I applaud what the earlier leadership has done. Nowadays, the people of our nation, especially the younger generations are fluent in the national language.

However, among the older generations of non-Malay Malaysians, even among the current politicians, you can still find some who are not able to converse in the national language fluently and I for one found this to be something that he/she ought to be ashamed of.

Now, while it is good for us to know as many languages as possible one should not be ashamed if one is not able to converse in those languages as fluently as the national language. Why should she or he be ashamed of, after all the language is not her or his mother tongue or national language? It is a bonus if one can speak other languages.

Conversely, I am really pleased and proud to see most, especially among the younger generation of non-Malay politicians, are able to deliver their speech in the national language fluently. They can now deliver their message in the language that the whole population can understand regardless of whether their audience is located in an urban or a rural area. Obviously, this is one of the proofs that the previous leadership has done something right.

Now, with so much changes that have occurred in the world since our independence and now that our country is more matured, let us examine the issue of the national education policy in perspective so that we can understand its evolution better. Here, I would like to share my own experience with respect to this topic of the English language usage in schools.

I was among the last batch of students who went through the school system with English as the medium of instructions right from Standard one to Form five. My classes through out the period were multi-racial, even though the majority of the students were Malays. In my schools, everyone in my classes spoke fluent Malay, particularly the Kelantanese dialect. So, the problem of our inability to talk to one another in a common language was not there.

However, the same is not true throughout the nation at that time. When I went for further my studies in Kuala Lumpur for the first time in 1970 things were different. When you went shopping or talked to non-Malay Malaysians on the streets it was difficult to find one who could converse in the national language fluently. Most could only speak the so-called “bazaar Malay”. Obviously, it was not good for a young and growing nation of ours to not have a common language then.

So, the gradual switch to the national language as the medium of instructions in school that had just been introduced by the political leadership then was the right move. I left Kuala Lumpur to further my studies overseas in late 1974 and came back to Malaysia in late 1979. The complete shift in the medium of instructions to the national language in schools that had started in 1970 has produced the expected result. Most of the younger population could speak the national language fluently.

Nowadays, everyone can now understand whatever message delivered by the nation in the various media. Of course, the shifts to the use of the national language in schools and later in the universities have resulted in declining standard of English among the population.

As a college professor in one of the local universities in Malaysia for 22 years before I decided to take an early retirement in 2002, I could really notice the deterioration of the standard of English among the students. On many occasions, I thought the students were better off writing their project papers in Malay rather than in English even among the non-Malay students. We made them write papers in English because we wanted them to improve their level of English.

Over the years, I have also read many business letters written by executives and managers from the industry which were written in English. Those letters were so poorly written in English so much so that they would have been better off written in Malay instead, since I thought most of the writers had better command of Malay than English anyway. I thought they should write in English only when they were trying to communicate with foreigners but not with their fellow Malaysians.

Incidentally, this practice of writing in their national language is very common in other countries such as Thailand, Japan, Germany, and Finland. Somehow, even to this day I do not understand why business correspondence among Malaysians have to be written in English when practically everybody, especially among the younger executives and managers can write and understand better in Malay than in English.

Admittedly, the deterioration in the standard of English among Malaysian students is one of the side effects of the national language policy. With the coming of the era of globalization in the late nineties, there was a new realization among the political leadership, that there is a renewed need for the nation to reemphasize the use of English, since our nation depends so much on international trade to obtain revenues.

Thus, the nation needs to be competitive. With the coming of the information age, there is a vast amount of knowledge that is available to the nation, and most of this is available in English in various print media including scientific and scholarly journals as well as those that are available at the touch of a button, i.e. via the Internet.

Hence, it is only natural and logical that the current political leadership began to see the increase in importance of English that led them to wanting to bring back the use of the language as the second medium of instructions in schools. But, this does not mean that the past political leaders have been wrong in their decision. There is no doubt that our nation still needs a common national language that is understood by all its citizens. Every nation does.

Therefore, the bringing back of the English language instructions to schools and universities through out the country has got to be done not at the expense of the national language. It has to be done is such a way that the national language can still be understood well by all the population while the standard of English is upgraded.

Thus, the modus operandi of how this can be achieved must be right. This is one aspect the current leadership needs to be careful in their attempt to revive the standard of English among Malaysian students.

The fact of the matter is, knowing as many languages as possible is a good thing for anyone. When I was visiting China, I had wished that I could speak Mandarin. I wish someday the government can make Mandarin a compulsory third language, or at least make it accessible to students in most if not all the schools and universities in the country. After all, Malaysian Chinese is the second largest ethnic group in the country and the Chinese people represents a substantial proportion of people on this planet. Also, China is now thought to be the next superpower of this 21st century.

My daughter who is now studying in a university in California is learning Spanish since a large proportion of the people in the state speak Spanish. Most non-Malay Malaysians now are bilingual, many are trilingual; whereas most Malay Malaysians are monolingual. Now that I am living in UAE, I also wished that I could speak Arabic.

I therefore think, most of the local universities in the country should follow the step taken by UPM in setting up the Faculty of Modern Languages a few years ago. This has given its students some options at learning other languages, if they so wish.

Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
11 February ‏2003

Academics’ pay, mobility: Changes long overdue

I have been following with much interest the recent
much-talked about issue of Edmund Terence Gomez who has
decided to quit Universiti Malaya following his failure to get
leave to take up a research position with one of the UN
agencies.

As an academic who has served the country for over 22 years
and who has now decided to explore other parts of the world,
this kind of issue touches my very heart and soul.

What I don't understand is that since Malaysian public
universities are now under their very own ministry, instead of
the Education Ministry, why is it that the Higher Education
Ministry - who is headed by an ex-academic - has failed to be
more responsive to the needs of academics? Much changes are
overdue if our universities want to retain their best
academics let alone attract new ones.

For now, I only have two issues to talk about which affect not
only Gomez but other Malaysian academics as well. Gomez has
been offered a very attractive research position with a UN
body. Thus, rightly UM should have been very pleased with the
offer received by Gomez since his involvement with the
research will only bring a good name to UM specifically and to
Malaysia generally.

After all, the position is only for two years after which he
would return to UM with an additional experience having done
research with a prestigious UN body (which would definitely be
beneficial to the university).

Granted UM has certain rules to follow, but rules can be
changed, can they not, particularly when they can make things
better? The fact of the matter is not many Malaysians are now
employed with the various UN bodies unlike Indians or even
Filipinos.

Thus, instead of stopping Gomez or any other Malaysian from
working (either temporarily or permanently) with any of the UN
bodies, UM or any other governmental agency should instead
encourage their staff to do that. After all, Malaysia is a
member of the UN and has always paid it annual dues.

Secondly, a position with the UN is usually very lucrative
which makes it very hard for anyone to reject an offer from
it. One can easily verify this by visiting the websites of any
of the various UN agencies which advertise ‘employment
opportunities’. The experience one can gain from such a
posting will be very good for one's CV as well.

We all know Malaysian public universities do not pay their
academics very well, particularly at the beginning of their
salary scale. Since I am quite familiar with the situation in
the Middle East, particularly the Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) countries, let me just make a quick comparison between
the salaries offered by of Malaysian and Middle Eastern
universities such as those in United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

In these two countries, a fresh PhD graduate can easily get a
tax-free salary of RM10,000 a month (if not more with free,
fully-furnished accommodation thrown in as well) which is much
more than what a full professor in Malaysia earns (and that
only after years of experience and after meeting rigorous
criteria).

The starting salary offered by Malaysian public universities
to those with a PhD is pathetic to say the least. It is no
wonder that Malaysian universities find it hard to attract
their best graduates to opt for academic career even with a
scholarship to further their education up to a PhD level.

The current salaries are particularly unattractive following
the 1997 currency crisis which resulted in 25 percent
devaluation of the ringgit. It was as if Malaysians suffered a
25 percent pay cut as a result of the crisis.

The time is long overdue for the Malaysian authorities
(particularly the newly created Higher Education Ministry) to
revise the salary structure for academic staff at Malaysian
public universities.

After all, Malaysia aspires to be a developed country in the
not too distant future. Just look down south, across the
causeway, to the country which is now considered a first world
country and one can easily see why the universities there are
attracting the best PhD graduates - many of whom are
Malaysians.

Malaysiakini
Academics’ pay, mobility: Changes long overdue
May 24, 05 1:50pm