Master your mother tongue first before English, Rais tells Malays

The Malays should prioritise their mother tongue before learning other languages, as enshrined in the Constitution of Malaysia.

Former Information, Communications, Arts and Culture Minister, Tan Sri Dr Rais Yatim said if this is not complied with, it would demean the strengths of the Malays who should have the upper hand in conquering their own language.

"Malays must always be fluent in their mother tongue first before striving to master the English language or other languages.

"If this criteria is not fulfilled, then Malays will be 'constitutionally impaired'. Malays must showcase their fluency in Bahasa, if not our 'Malay-ness' will be lost," Rais told Astro AWANI when asked to respond to a recent comment made by former prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Last week, Dr Mahathir had lamented that he felt embarrassed to see more Chinese being fluent in the English language as compare to Malays.

Dr Mahathir had also said Malays are content with learning only two languages, while the Chinese are learning three.

On this, Rais countered by saying that Malays have actually proven themselves to be good in English, just that priority has to be given to both languages.

“The induction of the English and Malay languages has to come together simultaneously," he said.

"Dr Mahathir's opinion can be accepted, but at the same time, Malays have to prove that they are good in the Malay language first," Rais added.

Sharing his view was Prof Emeritus Datuk Nik Safiah A. Karim, a figure of culture and language, who opined that it is of utmost important for someone to excellent in his mother tongue before mastering other languages.

“We can compliment the Chinese for being good in English, but too much compliment does not bring any good impacts.

“If the mastery of our own language is disappointing, there is no point in trying to master other languages,” she added.

However if given the opportunity, she said, every individual needs to master more than two languages, as well as having the desire to master a third language.

Meanwhile, a Research Fellow of the Institute of Malay World and Civilization of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Professor Datuk Dr. Teo Kok Seong believed that the level of the English language proficiency amongst the Chinese ethnic is not excellent too.

“The Chinese in general is not that good in English as well, however maybe slightly better as compared to the Malays; and this is because the behaviour of the Malays themselves.”

“We have to conduct thorough researches and study the accurate level of proficiency of the English language amongst the Malays,” he added.