HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR 2011

Hi all,

Wishing you all a Happy Chinese New Year 2011. It is the year of the rabbit. It is a prosperous and good year.
All the best wishes and good health to you and all your family.
Take care

Allen Lai

Perils of an English Language Handicap

"MOHD Solihan Badri, Head, Corporate Communications Unit of the Education Ministry, in his replies to many of my letters published in the mainstream English newspapers last year, spoke passionately of our education policy and how amendments and improvements since the introduction of the KBSR/KBSM syllabus in the seventies had benefited our students and people. It has now been perfected even more with the introduction of the "Memartabatkan Bahasa Mal-aysia dan Memperkukuhkan Bahasa Inggeris" (Upholding the Malay Language, Strengthening Command of English – MBMMBI) syllabus which will be implemented in the 2012 school term.

According to him, the original Razak Report on education that formed the basis of our present education policy – which was followed by two amendments over a period of thirty years, culminating in the introduction of the MBMMBI syllabus – has resulted in a vast improvement in the use of our national language, and in an almost total loss of interest in other languages such as English, Mandarin, other local dialects and foreign languages, which meets the aim of the education policy squarely. The popular Teaching of Mathematics and Science in English (PPSMI) syllabus was also found to be unsuitable after being used successfully for almost eight years and has since been scrapped. The use of only one language by all, regardless of race or religion, is also designed to be the catalyst to make the 1Malaysia concept fully acceptable to all.

I agree with him on all counts.

However, considering the handicap of our people being proficient in only one language, our ability to communicate with people outside the country will be affected and perhaps even rendered impossible. If the situation is not checked, in future, many of us may not be as equipped as our hearing and speech impaired citizens. We will only be able to speak and write in Bahasa Malaysia, a language which only Malaysians will use; but the hearing and speech impaired would at least still be able communicate with their counterparts worldwide as many people use sign language. Therefore, it can be easily translated into various world languages for use by people who are not hearing or speech impaired.

Since the government is stubbornly adamant about putting aside English Language in order to make our national primary and secondary school students and our people proficient in only one language, and relegating all other languages to an abyss, I urge my fellow Malaysians to learn sign language to remain in communication with people outside the country. When the need arises, I bel-ieve we shall have more than enough people to teach us.

There are many interpreters who can comfortably translate sign lang-uage into various world languages, but few who can do the same for Bahasa Malaysia. In order to do business globally and to enable our diplomats, trade representatives and company representatives, communications remain extremely important.

Our country has vast economic potential, and with our abundant natural resources and having more and more talented people in future, we cannot allow our limitations (inability to communicate normally) to thwart the country’s development; and with sign language, albeit a little slower, will allow us to communicate in order to continue and increase the sales of our products and services overseas. It will also enable us to continue our diplomatic ties and do business as usual.

Our country can also be the world’s future hub and leader in the use of sign language."

STANDARD CHARTERED KL MARATHON 2011

Yes, I have been away for quite awhile. Really off the road to recuperate my injured knees. I had been a good boy and waited. But I could not wait any more. Standard Chartered KL had just opened for registration. Kiasu me. I'm an early bird I am.
Ready or not I'll take part in the half marathon.
Signing off now. Got to start my training this evening. 158 days left. Ayoh !

Join me. Don't be left out. Register TODAy.

Take care

Allen Lai

WAYS TO GET OUR HISTORY RIGHT

MALAYSIA has a relatively short history compared with the United States, Russia, China, India, Britain and Egypt. Many of our history makers or those who contributed to our history are still alive They were around before the formation of the Federation of Malaysia; before, during and immediately after the Second World War including the British occupation of Malaya; the Japanese occupation; the Malayan Emergency; the formation of the Federation of Malaysia and events such as the May 13 tragedy.

These may be ordinary people who served as civil servants, ministers, politicians, worked in the private sector, the military and the police, universities, teachers, writers, journalists, community leaders or members of royalty.They may also have been witnesses to events and incidents which were part of our history. We have people who are going to, or have already hit, the century mark who were either history-makers or who had contributed to our history.If there are doubts about the correctness and accuracy of our recorded history, consult them.I believe they can verify the facts about the events that took place.Perhaps some are direct descendants, relatives or close associates of history makers or people who contributed to our history.

Being privy to such events and incidents, these people definitely know our history.Some of these families, I believe, also have historical records which are now family heirlooms. It is quite unfortunate that the historical records of one of our better known families have been sent to Singapore for safekeeping because the descendants felt keeping them here was not the best option.

Members of the Historical Society of Malaysia and History teachers can also be roped in to help check and verify the accuracy of our recorded history.

So let’s get cracking and start calling up all these people and put our history right once and for all. Stop arguing and start working on other more important things.

HUSSAINI ABDUL KARIM,

A PATRIOTIC ISSUE

Below is a correspondence I received. You be the judge.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dear Rama.

Below is the link to my letter as published by The Star in their 'Letters' section today. However, I do not like the title. The following sentences were conveniently left out or amended.

1. Not all Malay Malaysians want to serve in the armed forces too so, is lack of patriotism also the reason for this?

2. I wish to suggest that the Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi clarifies his stand and issue a public apology as soon as possible and let the matter die down quickly so that we all can move on and fully embrace the 1Malaysia spirit.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2010%2F11%2F12%2Ffocus%2F7410700&sec=focus

So, I wrote them a reply this morning as follows:

"Dear Sir,

Thank you for publishing my letter. However, I think the headline is way off the essence of the letter. My letter addressed the alleged lack of patriotism as made by the defence minister and certainly not about the lack of patriotism of non-Malays who served or are serving in the armed forces and that was why I suggested, 'Ministers must not make sensitive statements' as the title, but understandably, as a mainstream newspaper, such a title may not look good on you.

Best regards

Hussaini Abdul Karim

Shah Alam"

Below is the full letter I sent to the newspapers:

Dear Sir,

I understand the surprise, fear, disappointments and even anger expressed by many non-Malay ministers in Parliament and the people on the street in response to the statement made by Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi when he was reported to have said in Parliament on Tuesday that lack of patriotism was a reason for the low number of non-Malay recruits in the Armed Forces when he announced that Chinese and Indians each made up less than one per cent of new recruits in the Armed Forces for the 2008/2009 session.

Not all Malay Malaysians want to serve in the armed forces too so, is lack of patriotism also the reason for this?

I served as an officer in one of the many multi-racial units of the Malaysian Army where the soldiers included many Chinese, Indians, Ibans, Kadazans, orang asli, etc. and some of them were officers like me too. Never once throughout my many years in military service the question of patriotism or loyalty to the country was raised especially when it concerns the non-Malays - Chinese, Indians and others. We all served with dignity, discipline, integrity, patriotism, loyalty and a high sense of duty and we shared all the benefits and bore all the sufferings together all the same, nothing more nothing less. We were all brothers and lived like a closely knit family and all of us demonstrated a very high sense of espirit-de-corp throughout our service.

I saw many applications sent in by young men who are non-Malay Malaysian citizens, in particular Chinese and Indians, both as officer cadets and recruits, over the years, turned down for various reasons. This showed that there is no such things as to suggest that there is a lack of patriotism in these people at all.

Yes, as a senior minister suggested in Parliament yesterday, the defence minister should be very, very careful before making such statements and earlier, he described the statement made by the latter as 'irresponsible'.

When Malaysians are now in the mood to be 'one' with the trend going towards embracing the spirit of 1Malaysia by all, the Defence Minister, or for that matter any minister, must avoid making statements that may hinder the momentum in Malaysia becoming a 'one nation and one people' country.

Best regards.

Hussaini

A GUNNER WRITES

How I see English is taught, learnt, used and applied in Malaysia

First and foremost, I personally would agree with most Malaysians that Bahasa Malaysia must be developed into a strong and viable language for the sciences, mathematics and arts too. I personally am in favour of teaching subjects in both Bahasa Malaysia and English in our national primary and secondary schools and encouraging students to think and write and do research in both languages (depending on the subjects and/or topics researched) when they enter universities and go for their first degrees or higher.

Secondly, and at the same time, English language needs to be taught to a high standard at all national primary and secondary schools as a second language in order for the country to progress faster to achieve 1st World status by 2020 and to achieve a high-income economy, and for our graduates to gain employment and have good and well-paid careers, not only in the country but also in countries outside Malaysia.

I notice that many people send letters to the press about English language and they mention examples of some practices in certain European countries, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, China, South Korea, Japan and Thailand to support their arguments and I am not too sure whether their comments are based on their own personal experiences, heresy or something they read about in some magazines, newspapers, book, research papers or reports. However, like many of them, I also have had my own personal experiences interacting with Europeans, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, Chinese (from China), Japanese, South Koreans and Thais here and in their respective countries during my work and social visits to the many European countries the last 25 years (Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal, Poland), Ukraine, Russia, Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand beside countries in the UK (United Kingdom of Gt. Britain and Northern Ireland), and I wish to share my first-hand knowledge and experiences in my letter here.

Germany is a good example of a country that has preserved its culture and excelled in science and the arts through its own language. At the same time, everyone there accepts the importance of English, and a great many people use it to a very high standard indeed. I do not think there are any German scientists who are unable to write an academic paper in perfect English.

Tertiary education in Germany uses mainly German but a lot of science and applied engineering disciplines are taught in English. Their primary and secondary schools use mainly German.

However, there is a strong non-German education system; most of all in English (from kindergarten to Year 12), but also in French, Portuguese, Polish, even Mandarin and Arabic, in a few places. Often these are bilingual programs and children study all subjects in two languages. This is happening there because of the presence of people of many nationalities residing and working in Germany itself.

An English language professor friend of mine who is a Welshman and who has been teaching at one of the top universities in Tokyo, Japan for many years now, once told to me, “When I was 17, I attended a school in Germany for a few weeks and their English lessons were almost the same as the ones we had in England and Wales – they didn't really discuss English, they just discussed things in English.”

Few Germans claim to speak the Queen's English (even the Queen doesn't speak that anymore!) or breathe the 'same air as native speakers', but in their own way they use it very proficiently. On the whole it does not prevent them using and developing their own language, but some people do complain about the enormous amount of English words that have been absorbed, such as 'sorry' - which young people think is not as formal and cold-sounding as ‘verzeihen Sie mir bitte’ (meaning: ‘please forgive me’ in English).

In Sweden and Switzerland, at tertiary level, lessons for many subjects are conducted in English. The Swedes and the Swiss are mostly, if not all, bilingual, at least, which work to their great advantage. Bilingualism is good for a country like Malaysia too.

Many other European countries are similar to Germany, Sweden and Switzerland in their attitude toward English.

I think the Chinese, Koreans and the Thais are getting close to it too. No Chinese, Koreans or Thais would ever think that their own language or culture is disappearing just because they speak English, and more and more of them are speaking it very well. Personally, I find the English spoken by people in and from China, South Korea and Thailand very easy to understand - less so the English spoken by many Malaysian Malays, Chinese and Indians, especially those who graduated from local public and private universities and even some of those who graduated from overseas universities, including universities in the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, the last thirty years or less. However, their written and spoken Bahasa Malaysia is excellent.

France used to be well known for resisting English, and personally I respect them for continuing to make a major contribution to world culture in their own language. But there is no doubt that many young people there now speak it very well. Even their politicians use it in international settings - something that would have been unthinkable as recent as ten years ago. Whatever language they use, I think there is very little chance of the French becoming less French.

Russia is a huge country and I think it is still the case that most people don't need English. Under the Soviet Union, Russian was a major language in science and technology. Now many Russians study and work abroad and gain high proficiency in English, but I think they are still a minority. The situation in Ukraine and Poland and in many East European countries is quite similar to this.

As for Japan, on the one hand they have made great achievements in economics and science entirely in their own language. On the other hand, despite putting a lot of time and into English language learning, they are still pretty lousy at it. The reality is that they just do not need English, so only a minority are motivated to use it. The other day I saw an advertisement for a mobile phone: you simply speak Japanese into it and it speaks the same thing in English (or Chinese or whatever) back at you. Of course it is not a perfect translation, but it is much better than translation devices used to be. So in the case of the Japanese I do not think much will change as far as English is concerned.

I think Middle European countries may emphasise native languages (at least at lower levels), lacking the finances to foster English-only. But I also gather there is a strong will to use English.

As for Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia is already a very important regional language, even if there is not much science or globally-read literature being produced in it yet.

As I said above, ‘English language needs to be taught to a high standard at all national primary and secondary schools as a second language,’ and the best people to teach English here are not the foreigners but locals especially our retired well-trained and very experienced specialist English language teachers who can still be recalled to serve the people. They may be assisted or complemented by the many graduate teachers who have gone through the TESL programme, for example, at various local and foreign universities. Native English speaking English language teachers from the UK and worse still, teachers from Australia (who do not speak proper English), do not know and do not understand our culture and customs and the situation pertaining to the history, the preferred methods and the standard of teaching English, among others, in the country very well. It will be a waste of time and money if the government still insists on this move.

There will be no progress on this language issue in Malaysia as long as the people, in particular our politicians from both divides, think of it as a zero-sum game. Malaysians have no choice but to be bilingual (Bahasa Malaysia and English language), and we should try for the highest proficiency in both languages.

The common factor of most of the 1st World countries, as we can see from the above is English, and many of the countries we know that used to ignore English before are now embracing it, with passion, like China, for example. Therefore, it would be good for Malaysia, where the majority of the people used to be excellent English speakers and writers during the pre-seventy years, emulating the 1st World countries’ use of English would hasten our quest to become one of the new members of the 1st World Club.

Let us all work together and fully support our Rt. Hon. Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak, in his noble aim for this country to achieve 1st World status and to achieve a high-income economy by 2020, by being good at both Bahasa Malaysia and English language.
Links to this post in Star
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/27/focus/7300332&sec=focus
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/25/focus/7290333&sec=focus
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/23/focus/7282430&sec=focus

HUSSAINI ABDUL KARIM, Shah Alam

GUNNERS CLUB INAUGURAL AGM

Let us all keep a date with the Gunners Club Protem Committee that has put together the first AGM of the Club.

DATE : SATURDAY 9TH OCTOBER 2010

TIME: 0900 HRS TO 1445 HRS

VENUE: DEWAN HIKMAT, MAKTAB TURUS ANGKATAN TENTERA JALAN TEKPI OFF JALAN PADANG TEMBAK (THE STAFF COLLEGE AT HAIGATE)

In short, it will be a gathering of ex service gunners to elect the Committee and also provide ideas and suggestions. Flyer's were dished out during the last Corps Day celebrations.Very recently, E Mails and SMSs were also sent out to invite one and all for this grand occasion. This is indeed a milestone event and, surely as a gunner, not to be missed. Make it a point to be there and lend support to this organisation which has noble aims. We have registered the Club with the ROS and now it is up to us to start the ball rolling.Light refreshments shall be served on arrival and lunch before the AGM proper. See you all there!