Mahathir, in his twilight years seem to have lost memory of his tenure as the P.M for 22 years.In those 22 years he was in power he had the authoritative power to do almost anything. He even had the courage to face off the rulers and in one uncompromising stance made changes to the Federal constituition to curtail the powers of the rulers.No leader in the past or even the present would have the intestinal fortitude to challenge the authority of the rulers but credit should be given to him for having that bravado.
Before serving his 22 years as P.M , Mahathir also served a stint as the Education Minister. If he had the vision then he could have transformed our nation into one that is competitive and excelling in the mastery of the English language of commerce. and technology. But instead he chosed the path for the nation to degenerate to that of a third world country with the mastery of the Bahasa Malaysia language.
What is the point of choosing a language that is not globally recognised and which cannot provide employment to those who have mastered it.? But Mahathir changed the whole structure of our education system by placing emphasis on Bahasa Malaysia and downgrading the emphasis of the english language.In one stroke of his foolish wisdom he cast aside a generation of english speaking Malaysians to one babaling in a tongue that no foreigners understood.
Today, there is no demand for our young talent overseas. We have lost the cutting edge advantage that Tuanku Abdul Rahman gave us when English was the medium of instruction. In the Silicon Valley in the States, we see thousands of asians from India, Phillipines and Singapore occupying positions in multi-national companies but none from Malaysia. Our graduates proficient in the Bahasa Malaysia can only survive in the Malaysian landscape and even that seems to have lost its ardour because even local multi national would prefer to employ those who can master the english language.
Mahathir should reflect on what he has done to put our education system to such a state of despair. The foot prints of his structural change still remain deeply embedded in our education system . So how could he now claimed that he can do a proper job of recommending a blue print for our education system when he failed to do it during his tenure first as the Education minister and later as the P.M for 22 years.?
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