The Importance of English

Folks,

Before i went off to bed tonight, allow me to pen down my thoughts about the importance of English in Malaysia.

Malaysia practices constitutional monarchy system whereby the King of Malaysia becomes the constitutional head in this country. The official language in Malaysia is Bahasa Malaysia, a language spoken by almost 99.99% of Malaysians living on this land.

Now, the Federal Constitution of Malaysia was originally drafted and written in English, and in the highest court of the land, most of the cases argued before a panel of judges were done in English. And in Law, if the Malay version of the rule contradicts that of the English version, then the English version of the law shall prevail, no matter what. Even if you were to take this case or issue to the Federal Court of Malaysia, you still won't succeed.

Malaysia does not have its own technology save the fact that the only two main ones are the national cars; Proton and Perodua. Other than that, is really out of question. Most of the technology were imported from foreign countries such as America, United Kingdom, Australia and several European countries.

Notwithstanding the ttechnology alone, Malaysia, whether you like it or not imported several technical manuals from other foreign countries. And these technical manuals are only available in at least five different languages: English, being the main one; Chinese, Japanese, German, French and Arabic. Sometimes, the only available language for the manual is English.

If young Malaysians were to look for a job nowadays in Malaysia, he or she will most certainly be interviewed in English. It is very rare to find leading and multi-national companies in Malaysia that conducts their job interviews in language other than English. Unless you were to be interviewed for any civil or public position, until then, the interview will remain in English.

If you were to search about technology or issues that are not occuring in Malaysia, one would need English in order for them to understand the material that they are reading. Very few international journals (and i dont think there ever is) written in Bahasa Malaysia.

If one is working in multinational companies, one would need to master and have a good command of English in order to climb up the ladder in one's career. Failure to speak English will only leaves one nowhere to go but to stuck there in your cocoon forever.

Is the above argument not enough for you to fathom the importance of English, ha?

Haiyya, Apo Kono Ni Eh Jang?