Setec
The Malaysian Insider
May 18, 2011
MAY 18 — My primary reasons are different from that of most migrants from Malaysia:
1) English as the first language — I believe English is the language for all; I do not believe in multi-lingualism, e.g. learning Chinese, Tamil, etc.
I think this idea is not anti-nationalistic. For example, English is the first language in non Caucasian-majority countries like Singapore, Zimbabwe, etc.
2) One schooling system — a good majority of people in Malaysia are racists by supporting vernacular and religious schools. Chinese go to Chinese schools, Indians attend Tamil schools, Malays get education at religious schools, and the rest end up in government national schools.
I’m a product of government national schools; however, I’d only support government national schools if all lessons are in English (pre 1971).
3) Conservatism (cultures and Islamic) — the majority of people (and the government) are religious/conservative which inhibit freedom of expression and thus suppress a culture of openness/innovation.
4) Social injustices — a needs-based system is the way to go. The government must end racial quotas and policies once and for all.
5) Higher wages.
6) Better quality of life.
* We asked readers who have migrated to tell us in their own words why they left. This is one of the stories.
* Setec is a reader of The Malaysian Insider and lives in Adelaide, Australia now.
#1 by balance88 on Thursday, 19 May 2011 - 10:01 am
Writer is very ignorant of whats happening on the ground. Disagree with writer on point 2. Try sending your kid to national school and you will find that most teachers don’t do their job fully and responsibly and are always pregnant. Good teachers there are a rare breed. Some even asked students to direct their lesson related questions to their tuition teacher assuming that everyone takes tuition. Writer should check the facts first before making such sweeping assumption.
#2 by on cheng on Thursday, 19 May 2011 - 1:05 pm
Setec,
”I believe English is the language for all” ??
If your (all) is for specific country, or area or a group of people, maybe you are right, but…
if your (all) is for the whole world, then sorry to say you are too narrow minded, the whole world is much bigger than you think !
#3 by on cheng on Thursday, 19 May 2011 - 1:47 pm
Setec,
Because you find learning other languages difficult, you cannot say all other languages are useless.
FYI, Switzerland had 4 official languages, Canada had 2, South Africa also had 2 (or 3),
Singapore also had 4(though in real life only 1) and India had more than 12 (not sure how many). What’s wrong with been multilingual??
#4 by lee on Friday, 20 May 2011 - 8:39 pm
author is a truly a ‘banana’…in fact, Bahasa malaysia should be the sole language for communication, but our implementation since merdeka caused huge problems…the time when they changed to bahasa melayu is where it all falls apart.
FYI, the french-speaking community in swiss does not know german or italian well, not even English well…however the German speaking community (majority of them) are able to communicate in French, and even English. it’s really the mentality if you are willing to integrate or assimilate in a country..definitely, the French are well-known to be stubborn and they even keep their thick french accent when communicating in english :)
despite so many differences between the french, german and italian region, the people in switzerland has a common goal… true democracy, highly valuing human rights, freedom of speech and intolerance to even a small occurence of corruption…seriously, I do know some are getting extremely angry when they heard of a little corruption in the administration, and yet we in Malaysia with our well-known scandals, are still with TIDAK APA. be grateful, don’t complain…and no common goal…this is making Malaysians like dry sands, no unity.