46 Tan Yao Sua and R. Santhiram
groups of students, namely Primary Year One, Secondary Year One and
first year pre-university (Lower Six) students (Jiao Zong Tiaocha Yanjiu
ji Zixunzu 2007). Clearly, the selection of science and mathematics as the
subjects to improve the proficiency of English among Malaysian students
is driven by the fact that English is the de facto international language
of science and technology (Baker 1995) — it is the universal medium of
scientific communication (Wright 2004), displacing major world languages
such as French and German as the language of science and academia (May
2008). It is perhaps for this reason that Tony Pua notes that “the attempt
to use English to teach the 2 subjects were certainly noble as the vast
majority of science and mathematics literature is written in the language
and the frequent use of the English language will also indirectly improve
the declining competence of Malaysian students in the language” (2010,
p. 256).
Despite the dire need to improve the proficiency of English among
Malaysian students, the policy of teaching science and mathematics in
English invoked strong reactions in many quarters for various reasons.
For instance, Lim Kit Siang of the Democratic Action Party, the main
Chinese-based opposition political party in the country, urged the
government to resort to other means to strengthen the proficiency of
English among Malaysian students. Lim called on the government to
make English a compulsory pass subject in the public examinations as a
means to improve the proficiency of English among Malaysian students
(Lim 2009). The strongest challenge to the policy of teaching science
and mathematics in English came from the Malay nationalists and the
Chinese educationists but for different reasons. The Malay nationalists
were worried that this policy would pose a threat to the supremacy of
the Malay language as the national language and the official language
of the country, while the Chinese educationists feared that this policy
would erode the character of Chinese primary schools, which is associated
with the use of Chinese as the language of classroom instruction, school
administration and wider communication. But the government was
determined to see through the policy.
The opposition to the policy of teaching science and mathematics in
English continued unabated despite its implementation and intensified
upon the completion of a full cycle of implementation in 2008. It was the
opposition from the Malay nationalists that had been most instrumental
in influencing the decision by the government to terminate the policy in