I am pretty sure it is not
a real anecdote. It might have been created by someone who is not quite
tolerant with the Singlish or Chinglish that we are now hearing in Singapore and
Malaysia today.
I am a product of Remove
Class that was common in Malaysia's education system many years ago. After completing
my primary six in Chinese in 1960, my second brother, who was my de-facto
guardian, decided that I should continue my education in an English secondary school,
lest I would suffer the same fate that had befallen him. (There weren’t many employment opportunities
for those who graduated from Chinese schools those days. Becoming a teacher was already a
big deal then. But even though he was a trained teacher, he received only about
a fraction of what his English school counterparts, a blatant
injustice which took many years before his status was corrected - notwithstanding the fact that he had to do six years in secondary school, compared to five years for those in English schools.
The English that we
learned in Chinese primary school was so rudimentary that I could hardly string
a sentence when I entered High School Muar. The Remove Class was an extra year
that was supposed to help us phase smoothly into Form One proper. But High
School Muar was most discriminatory those days; Remove A boys were streamed
into Form IE and Remove B into Form 1F, the two last classes in Form I. When
another school merged into ours the following, we became Form IIG and Form IIH
respectively. Hokkien was the lingua
franca of the day. Despite the English handicap, many of us did pretty well in
Form III’s Lower Certificate of Education examinations, that was when places
were fought for and streaming determined for Form IV intakes. But my inferiority
complex in the language continued well into my university and the earlier part
of my working life. A better command in English would have been more helpful –
in university and in career.
For those
who continued their education in Chinese schools, few actually went to
university or tertiary college. But it didn’t mean that they did not do well in
life. Some went to Nanyang University – the only Chinese university
in Singapore – or universities in Taiwan. For others, I am sure many have
become successful businessmen in their own right. But my point is simply this:
they might not have the benefit of good English to advance under a more conventional
or traditional environment. Chinese as a language, which is basically pictorial
or character-based, is particularly inhibitive for one to speak alphabet-based
languages. Hence my empathy with the writer of this satire!
Therefore when it was time
to send my children to school, I decided English should be their anchor. I nevertheless engaged a tutor to teach them Chinese. Both excelled in school and university.
However, I suspect they did not pick up much from their Chinese language tutor.
As time progresses, I
became more and more convinced of the superiority of English as a language in
learning, especially in this ICT era. When I was younger, I was never an
admirer of Lee Kuan Yew – after having read quite a bit about his earlier political
life. Even today, I still think he has treated his comrades very unfairly and
ruthlessly. Friends might want to read “Singapore’s ‘Battle for Merger’ Revisited” by Dr
Poh Soo Kai who was assistant secretary-general of Barisan Sosialis in the
1960s. He was imprisoned twice under Singapore’s Internal Security Act (ISA)
for a total of 17 years by Singapore’s PAP government. (http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/singapores-battle-for-merger-revisited-part-2-poh-soo-kai#sthash.MiHzqFff.dpuf; there is also a part 1
which readers can google themselves.)
However, wisdom came to
Lee as he grew in his shoes. I am particularly impressed by the two volumes of
autobiography which he penned after his retirement. He is certainly a sage-like
figure now.
Someone forwarded the following to me. I urge readers to read the
following to learn his thoughts about English.
Insights from a Global Citizen
Last night the Hon Former PM of Singapore was given the
rare award of "Global Citizen" by an International Board in New York
for recognition for services to the World.
They lauded him for Honesty and Impartiality as
a person who was consulted by World leaders especially both by Washington
and Beijing, recognised as the pivotal centres that will greatly influence
events of the world in the future.
As the Hon LKY is now not well, his Foreign
Minister received the award on his behalf.
This honour gives recognition to the rarest of
persons for their Brilliance, Honesty AND Courage in bringing about change for
a better world.
Personally it will be a very sad day indeed when
he leaves this world and the world will be less bright without him. But the
inspiration that he has shown will be such powerful source of light for many in
the years ahead.
But it is indeed righteous to honour such a Son
of the World when this world has so many other sons who use their sacred
positions instead to enrich themselves through corruption, deceit, racism,
puffed up ego, destruction, playing to the voters, race or religion, lies,
distortion of history, suppressing and denying others of human dignity etc.,
thereby causing untold hardships and sufferings, both mental and physical, to
millions due to their Dishonesty and Lack of Courage to bring about change for
their fellow humans.
Insights from a Chinese grand master
China is remembering the 110th anniversary of the
birth of Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese political leader who has largely been
credited with setting the country on its path of economic reform and
modernisation after decades of Maoist madness.
Deng had a foreign mentor. His name is Lee Kuan
Yew, the founding father of Singapore and one of the few surviving elder
statesmen from the cold war era. Lee has also provided counsel to every US
president from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama.
One of the biggest questions that confront
Australia and the rest of the world is the rise of China. Will
China replace the US as the dominant power in the world? Is it
possible for the country to continue to grow at such a fast pace?
Will China ever become democratic?
Thanks to Harvard scholars Graham Allison and
Robert Blackwill, who interviewed Lee Kuan Yew extensively last year about the
future of China, we can tap into the experience and insight of the grand
master. The interviews were captured in Allison and Blackwill’s book, The Grand
master’s Insights on China, the United States and the World and give a
fascinating insight into China’s future.
Lee is confident that it is only a matter of time
before China displaces the US as the most powerful country in the world. “They
have the manpower to do things cheaper in any part of the world economically.
Their influence can only grow and grow beyond the capabilities of America,” he
says.
The former Singaporean Prime Minister says the
chances of something going wrong in China are about one in five. Lee believes
China’s strategy of becoming the number one country in the world is largely an
economic one.
“The Chinese have concluded that their best
strategy is to build a strong and prosperous future, and use their huge and
increasingly highly skilled and educated workers to outsell and outbuild
others,” he says.
Beijing does not want to repeat the mistakes of
Japan, Germany, and the Soviet Union, and understands that it cannot match the
military power of the US.
“I believe the Chinese leadership has learnt if
you compete with America in armaments, you will lose. You will bankrupt
yourself. So, avoid it, keep your head down, and smile, for 40 or 50 years,” he
told the Harvard professors.
Though Lee is generally upbeat about China’s
economic prospects, he has a unique take on the hurdles in front of the
country.
Lee, a Cambridge-educated barrister, believes the
country’s notoriously difficult language will be the biggest hurdle to attract
and integrate talent from other countries.
Lee’s belief in China’s inability to attract
international talent due to its language barrier has been shaped by his
experience in running Singapore. When he was the prime minister, he implemented
and enforced vigorously an English-first policy in Singapore, including
shutting the only Chinese language university in South East Asia.
He deliberately turned his back on the Chinese
language to make Singapore an internationally competitive place so it could
attract and assimilate talent from other societies in the world. Lee believes
it is next to impossible to engineer a similar cultural change in China, a
country with 5,000 years of history.
“We could do that in a small city-state with
strong leadership. While I once advised a Chinese leader to make English the
first language of China, clearly that is not realistic for such a great,
confident country and culture. But it is a serious handicap,” he says.
China’s governance system, which has been
marked by tight control, is under increasing pressure from the onslaught of
technology. The proliferation of smartphones, social media, the internet, and
satellite TV will result in Chinese citizens being more informed.
Lee says it won’t be possible to govern them the
way they are governed now, because their numbers will be so large.
One of the biggest questions for foreign
policymakers is whether China’s rise will be peaceful? On this point, Lee has
no clear answer and says Singapore is not sure. Many Southeast Asian countries
are suspicious of a rising China, which has been taking a hard line approach in
territorial disputes in the region.
“They [ASEAN countries] are uneasy that China may
want to resume the imperial status it had in earlier centuries and have
misgivings about being treated as vassal states having to send tribute to China
as they used to in past centuries,” he says.
Conventional political theory suggests that a
rising middle class will bring about democratisation. And will China follow the
same path? Lee feels strongly that China is not going to become a liberal
democracy. “If it did, it would collapse,” he said, “where are the students of
Tiananmen now? They are irrelevant. The Chinese people want a revived China.”
Lee, a well-known defender of so-called Asian
values, does not believe it is possible to impose on foreign standards that are
alien to China’s own history and past. “So to ask China to become a democracy,
when in its 5,000 years of recorded history it never counted heads,” he said,
“all rulers ruled by right of being the emperor, and if you disagree, you chop
off heads, not count heads.”
In essence, Lee thinks China will continue to
grow and surpass the US in absolute size, but cannot match it in creativity and
innovation. Beijing will become more assertive but it is unlikely to challenge
America’s military supremacy, at least for another 50 years.
China will not compete with America in armaments
to risk bankrupting itself, however, letting American worry about their
development of military technologies and capabilities and compete towards bankruptcy
is now the strategy.
While making English the official language in
Singapore is easy because of its geographic and population size, this will be
next to impossible in China. Therefore, the next best option is to engineer the
Chinese language to become one of the major languages worldwide, or better
still as one of the major second languages within this century.
* * *
Feel free to disagree!
