English in Singapore and Malaysia 19
change in the way English was spoken and used among the population.
Increasingly, with the “democratization of English”, a vernacular known
as Singlish became the lingua franca of the nation, with even Lee Kuan
Yew, chief architect of Singapore’s language policies, speaking at that point
of time as Minister Mentor, conceding this:
Up to the 1970s in our markets and hawker centres, Bazaar Malay was
the lingua franca. Everybody could understand and speak some Malay.
Because of our bilingual policy, today the lingua franca is English, or
Singlish. (Lee 2005)Concerns that this form of English would undermine Singapore’s position
in the global economy arose as early as the late 1990s. In his National
Day Rally speech in 1999, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong pointed to the
detriment that the unchecked use of Singlish could have on the economic
success of Singapore. In the following year, Goh launched the Speak Good
English Movement — his message to Singaporeans at the launch of the
Speak Good English was clearly economically driven, consistent with the
government’s characterization of English in instrumental terms:
The ability to speak good English is a distinct advantage in terms of
doing business and communicating with the world. This is especially
important for a hub city and an open economy like ours. If we speak a
corrupted form of English that is not understood by others, we will lose
a key competitive advantage. My concern is that if we continue to speak
Singlish, it will over time become Singapore’s common language.
Poor English reflects badly on us and makes us seem less intelligent
or competent ... all this will affect our aim to be a First World economy.
(Goh 2000)Notably, Goh warns against valorizing the local English vernacular,
Singlish, urging Singapore’s citizens to speak an “internationally intelligible
English” to ensure continued economic survival and growth. In keeping
with the status and economic value of English as a working language
and consequently sans culture, the government was not sympathetic to
the idea that Singlish was part of the cultural identity of Singaporeans:
They [younger Singaporeans] should not take the attitude that Singlish
is cool or that speaking Singlish makes them more “Singaporean”. ... If
they speak Singlish when they can speak good English, they are doing a
disservice to Singapore. (Goh 2000)