Abang Jo's restroom, 'four push two' jokes keep PBB delegates in stitches

He said when he was Sarawak Tourism Minister in the cabinet led by the fourth Chief Minister Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud, he heard of a tour guide who undeliberately caused an English-speaking tourist a hard time due to his poor command of the language.

According to him, the tourist was asking the guide to show him the restroom as he needed to ease himself but instead, the tour guide led him to a sofa and said, "You can rest here."

"It was only after the tourist demonstrated to the tour guide that he could not hold it anymore and needed to ease himself that the guide realised what the tourist meant by restroom, which was actually the toilet," said Abang Johari.

The crowd at the Borneo Convention Centre where the conference was held was again drawn into laughter when the Sarawak Premier told them of a Bahasa Malaysia-educated teacher who was forced to teach Mathematics in English.

ABANG JOHARI-PBB (ENGLISH) 2 (LAST) KUCHING

Abang Johari said he was also a state minister in charge of education during Taib's administration where he was told that the teacher was not trained in the subject but had to take up the task as the mathematics teacher was on sick leave.

"This teacher had asked the students the answer for 'four push two', instead of saying subtract or minus as he didn't know how to say it in English," he said.

Abang Johari shared this when winding-up the three-day conference where he reiterated the need to have a good command of English without compromising the position of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language.

"English is important but we must have (good command in) of both (Bahasa Malaysia and English)," he said.

When opening the conference yesterday, he said the state government's decision for English to remain an official language in Sarawak alongside the national language was in line with the Federal Constitution.