May 13: Use English to bridge divided races, says educationist

It is about time that Malaysians just focused on being Malaysians, and one way to forge closer ties and understanding is through a common language.

Such is the view of educationist Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim, who argued that using a "neutral language" such as English is better than an emphasis on Bahasa Melayu.

"In the past, English medium schools brought the races together. There was no question of being separated, everybody went to the same school. Since its abolition, each race attend their own type of school," lamented Noor Azimah.

That was why her organisation, the Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE), she said, had long supported having more subjects being taught in English in national schools.

For the past few years, PAGE has been most vocal on having the government reintroduce the teaching and learning of science and maths in English (PPSMI), the policy which was abandoned in 2011.

"That (Using English) is the solution, I believe, aside from improving our quality of education. If we can conquer these two, it would be much better for the country," she said.

'Post 1969 social engineering'

Noor Azimah was responding to a question by Astro AWANI, asking her how the country's young should remember the May 13, 1969 incident.

Following the bloody racial riots, the government had introduced several policies including affirmative action for the Malays such as the New Economic Policy (NEP).

The government's 'social engineering programme' also included an increased emphasis on learning of Malay in schools.

For Noor Azimah, the bloody tragedy can be either "good or bad" depending on how it is being used and remembered.

"The lesson to be learnt is that we are a multifaceted society and the only way we are going to prosper and progress is to capitalise on that, is that itself," said Azimah.

'Our children can think for themselves'

She said that while parents can try to teach and reason with their children, they are today able to think for themselves as they learn history. There was no need to put more emphasis on the May 13 incident in history textbooks, as some are demanding, she said.

"I think they (our children) are very accepting of how we want to ensure we don’t go through that again. We have to move on by accepting other races. And there is no question about that anymore if we all believe that we are Malaysians and the country belongs to all Malaysians and not one particular ethnic group.

"I think it is a small minority who are very loud, the majority of Malaysians want to move on.

"We have gone through so much… we should be moving to building the nation, the economy. Let's focus on just being Malaysians," she said.