English in Singapore and Malaysia 25
The switch back to Malay raised fresh concerns, within the business
community as well as among parents, about Malaysia’s competitive
position in the global marketplace, given that an increasing number of
Malaysians would have limited proficiency in English (Gooch 2009) and
that reverting to Malay to teach science and mathematics would also prove
detrimental for the advancement of these subjects. Policies regarding
Malaysia’s medium of instruction, seen as closely related to the quality
of Malaysia’s education, has in recent years come under criticism. PISA
(Programme for International Student Assessment), an internationally
benchmarked test, ranked Malaysia’s fifteen-year-olds in the bottom third
of seventy-four participating countries in 2009, with almost 60 per cent of
the Malaysian student participants not proficient in mathematics, 44 per
cent not proficient in reading and 43 per cent not proficient in science
(Straits Times Asia Report 2013). While it may not be entirely just to put
the sole blame of these poor standings on Malaysia’s language in education
policies, many believe that this is the root of the problem. In particular,
the vacillation between Malay and English as mediums of instruction as
well as the suppression of English in order to promote Malay have, in the
opinion of many, ostensibly led to a lack of stability that has stunted the
progress of Malaysia’s education system.
SAME ROOTS, DIFFERENT FRUITS
In the accounts of the language policies of Singapore and Malaysia, it is
evident that the way English is perceived and valued (or not) is quite
different in these two countries. In Malaysia, the attitude towards English
is clearly ambivalent: in many respects, the Malaysian government saw
the need to acknowledge and exploit the linguistic capital of English,
and yet, as the language of the British colonizers, English had no place
in independent Malaysia and was even seen as a threat to the status of
Malay. The strong sense of nationalism felt by the bumiputras led to Malay
being accorded status as the first language of the nation — both as the sole
official language that gave Malay its administrative and educational roles,
and as the national language, which accorded Malay its role in nation-
building. The designation of a common language is an essential part of
nation-building especially in multiethnic contexts where the presence of
multiple languages can give rise to linguistic complexity, often seen to be a
challenge to the development of a unified national identity. The designation