English in Singapore and Malaysia 29
Gill (2005) writes, the unplanned aspects of Malaysia’s language policy
mean that English still continues to dominate in the key and unlegislated
area of business, which relies centrally on English to maintain a foothold
in the global economy. Even while Malay interests are protected through
according special privileges to bumiputra citizens, the reliance on English
is clear.
These and other issues provide insight into the far more nuanced and
complex path that language planning has taken in Malaysia, often buffeted
by the winds of ethnic chauvinism and strong nationalistic fervour. In
contrast, while seeming to acknowledge the relation between language and
identity in its recognition of the three mother tongue languages, Singapore’s
neat packaging of languages shows a more formulaic and instrumentally
driven ideology. After all, Mandarin was clearly not the native language
of most of Singapore’s Chinese population, and Tamil was clearly not the
only Indian language spoken by the Indian community. More telling was
the labelling of Malay as the national language of Singapore, but which
did little but to serve as the language of the national anthem and to give
marching commands to the armed forces. Malaysia’s use of Malay as its
national language, on the other hand, signalled a real recognition of the
role of the language in nation-building. Additionally, while bilingualism
has often said to be the cornerstone of Singapore’s education system, the
Singapore education system does not in fact practise bilingualism in the
sense of the use of two languages as mediums of instruction “to teach subject
matter content rather than just the language itself” (Cummins 2003, p. 3).
Rather, mother tongue languages are simply subjects in Singapore schools.
In contrast, Malaysia has an education system that can be considered
bilingual — students who attend national-type schools, for example, study
in Mandarin or Tamil at the primary school level, and then in Malay at
the secondary school level. When PPSMI was introduced into classrooms
in 2003, students were taught science and mathematics in English, and
other subjects in Malay. During the transition period in the 1970s, when
English was being phased out, Tan (2005) notes that a mixed English and
Malay medium bilingual education was in fact enacted.
The lack of engagement with the idea that language and identity are
inextricably linked has come to be a problem for Singapore because of
the rise of its local vernacular, Singlish. Unlike countries like Australia
and the Philippines which have embraced the development of a national
variety of English, the Singapore government has continued to maintain