Linguapax
Utusan praises Kuan Yew for strict language policy
Utusan Malaysia praised Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew today for clamping down on vernacular education system while blaming the island republic's founding father for the race relation problems in Malaysia.
By Adib Zalkapli
February 07, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 - Utusan Malaysia praised Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew today for clamping down on vernacular education system while blaming the island republic's founding father for the race relation problems in Malaysia.The Umno-owned daily said Lee was able to promote unity in Singapore by closing down Chinese, Tamil and Malay schools but the newspaper accused the Malaysian leadership of lacking the courage to take similar action.
"Singapore with its strict policy successfully ended racial animosity but in Malaysia, the seeds of racism planted by PAP through Malaysian Malaysia continue to be a thorn in our flesh, resulting in the bloody May 13 incident and it has reared its ugly head again because of Election 2008," said the editorial written under a pseudonym Tan Melaka. "This is because Malaysia does not have the courage like Kuan Yew (picture) in killing its main cause especially in the use of a single language to promote unity. Singapore has been strict in promoting its national language, which is the English language, by closing down Chinese, Malay and Tamil schools since 1960s," he added.
According to the Singapore constitution, Malay is the national language while Malay, English, Mandarin and Tamil are recognised as official languages, and English has been the medium of instruction in schools. The editorial also said Malaysia has failed to uphold the Malay language as the national language unlike Singapore which has
been successful in promoting the English language. "In this case, Singapore's biggest success is to eradicate racism among the Chinese and their Chinese characteristics by forming a Westernised Chinese community," said the daily.
The editorial also drew a parallel between Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Lee, who was Singapore prime minister from 1959 to 1990, as both have rejected what it called the "Western" idea of democracy and freedom. "Kuan Yew does not believe in freedom according to the Western view and the demands of globalisation, but we got carried away by adopting the Western interpretation of freedom and not our own," it said.
"Malaysia would not have been a dignified country without Mahathir who was seen by the Western world as undemocratic," it added. The article, however, appeared to blame the administration of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin for allegedly dismantling the nation's foundation laid by previous prime ministers. "The foundation built by Tunku, strengthen by Tun Razak and made dignified by Mahathir was destroyed during a weak era for the sake of freedom and the advice of ‘junior' politicians," it said.