Gerakan Mansuhkan PPSMI (GMP) had appeal to the Government of Malaysia and its parliamentarians to abolish the policy of Teaching of Mathematics and Sciences in English (PPSMI). They claimed that it’s for the best for the hundreds of thousands of pupils in the national schools and also to avoid Bahasa Malaysia (The National Language) from claiming it’s place among the language for knowledge! In a blink of the eye, without any warning of giving sufficient time for the government to act on the memorandum, GMP took the issue to the streets. To most peace loving and law abiding Malaysians this approach is seen as wild, ill-mannered (“Kurang Ajar”). Their intension of sending the memorandum followed by the demonstration without giving ample time for the government to act puts a huge question mark in their intension! Are they truly putting the hundreds of thousands of pupils’ interests at heart? Even though the Minister of Education has through his press conference that very day mentioned that all their views will be taken into consideration and that the Cabinet Paper had been prepared pending the approval of the Cabinet, the GMP still took the issue to the streets causing tremendous inconvenience to another hundreds of thousands of Malaysians! By doing so they only convinced all Malaysians that they actually have a hidden agenda and is a puppet to some party or parties! If they are actually sincere in their cause, they should have gone through the proper channels instead of creating unrest and havoc in the streets like some uncivilised animals.
It’s a pity that Dato’ Dr Hassan Ahmad, having served many years in the Ministry of Education with so many acquaintances still working for the Ministry of Education cannot appreciate the government machinery and process in changing policies! How can he suddenly decide not to know that time is needed to formulate of get a new policy approved by the Cabinet! He must have known that a policy cannot be abolished in 2 weeks! Maybe he is already senile! He should have taken part in the round table discussions which was carried out by the Ministry of Education and not to organise riots that disturb public peace!
We sincerely hope that Dato’ Dr Hassan Ahmad will realise his mistake and be big enough of a man to take necessary corrective action for his unacceptable behaviour in the last few weeks. We hope that he will take the initiative to make amends and discuss HIS grievances with the top management of the Ministry of Education and NOT behave like the monkey he denied to be!
Tags: PPSMI, Translation
15/03/2009 at 4:25 pm
Going through your readers view it struck me that GMP truly has got something up their sleeves! I now strongly believe that they are not sincere in their actions! They ought to be a shame of themselves and apologise to the honorable Minister of Education himself for trying to cause him much trouble and embarrassment!
15/03/2009 at 5:41 pm
Those who opposed PPSMI are either selfish or ignorant. It is time to adopt a change in these so-called “pejuang bahasa Melayu=GMP” mindset to accept learning English certainly doesn’t make us less Malays.
15/03/2009 at 5:45 pm
Yes Bidin, you are right! I personally think these GMP guys are out of date and should be shipped back to the stone age for being unable to change with time. Now a days even the Chinese from PRC is trying to learn English to remain competitive yet they are asking us to go back to the literature! I am not being disrespectful to the National Language, we still had to adhere to the constitution. Whatever it is, I think the GMP guys should do some soul searching and relok at their approach in problem solving!