You Petty Fools

More than often do I consider myself to be relatively open minded and a catalyst for change in Malaysia’s obvious racial differences across the board, but today, as I was having my dinner in my usual fancy roadside Thai food stall, and was allegedly forced to watch the news, and the issue which was brought up here was to make subtle changes in the examination format which one has to undergo in order to obtain a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) license. The issue was that due to racial differences, certain applicants are shorthanded due to their lack of proficiency in the national language. These applicants, which was stated to be educationally impaired are not proficient in the national language. So, a review is currently be made towards the current curriculum in order to attend to these impaired applicants. In the few moments to come, an issue was highlighted that a certain political party are currently helping these educationally impaired applicants by giving them English lessons in order to increase their proficiency in what has been often mistaken as the most widely used language in the world – English. The reason to which was used to support this move was in order to save face when dealing with foreign visitors and that if these individuals are not to be proficient in the English language, they would bring shame to the nations name, an admirable move and I applaud the political party which has taken the initiative.

But what discomforts me is that how they are complaining that they are incapable of mastering the national language, hence further claiming that the curriculum should be reviewed because of such, yet they are having English classes in order to attend to the fact that they are incompetent in English. Would the logical reason to be to have similar classes in Malay instead of complaining and demanding that the curriculum ought to be revised, after all are PSV’s not meant to serve the public – for that is implied in the name does it not? “public service” – and does the public not consist of Malaysians who speak the national language? So would it not actually be beneficial for these impaired applicants to be able to comprehend, if not be completely fluent in the national language?

I may not be a patriot, I may not be one who would stand up and defend Bumiputera privileges till my last breath, but sometimes, the fight to be on an equal playing field for all Malaysians seem petty and just plain stupid…

Semper Fi