.. And this coming from someone who doesn’t swear. (Other than the occasional ‘bloody’, I swear I don’t swear!)
From Malaysiakini:
Deputy Education Minister Mohd Puad Zarkashi has said that speaking English in the workplace is “weird” and harmful to the nation’s culture and identity.
[...]
“We are polluting our own culture and identity as a nation,” he said.
This is the Deputy Education Minister speaking here. The freakin’ Deputy Education Minister. This is the person currently second-in-charge of our entire future. The future of our nation. Why do I say so? Because it is through education that we get our future leaders. For better of for worse, it is through the education system that we mold and shape the leaders we get in the next generation.
And here we have the Deputy telling us that speaking English in the workplace is ‘weird’?! Harmful to the nation’s culture and identity?
What exactly is our culture and identity?
If I may say, from a Malaysian who has been overseas for 3 years now, foreigners think of Malaysians as people who can speak at least 2 different languages. At least. English being one of them. To them, speaking English as part of daily life IS our culture.
Sure, we might not speak enough of Malay, which is actually kind of sad. I am all for speaking Malay. In fact, I endorse the idea that every single Malaysian should be able to speak Malay like it is our native tongue. But to go so far as to claim that speaking English is ‘polluting our own culture and identity as a nation’?
Don’t kid yourself. English is very much part of urban culture in Malaysia.
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Then there’s also this, from the Malaysian Insider:
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan today said those who questioned police action in shooting suspects should consider whether they wanted to support those who upheld the law or the criminals.
The value of life has suddenly been decreased to something insignificant.
I distinctly remember learning this nilai back when I studied Pendidikan Moral. Sayang kepada nyawa. The IGP might want to look that up.
Do I support criminals? Hell no. But can I not question the way the police dealt with this? As an individual, am I not allowed to think that the police have acted excessively? Am I not allowed to feel that a life is a life is a life, and that life should not be shrugged away so easily? Am I not allowed to sayang kepada nyawa?
Just because I sayang kepada nyawa, I support criminals?
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This is why there’s a whole river of swear words running through my head. A torrential downpour of swear words.

