Malaya had independence from the British in 1957. For a short while, English was used in schools, colleges and universities. Soon after that Bahasa was declared as our national language and many Malaysian Chinese, Indians and other non-Malays are unhappy.

That is why I am writing this article to cool them down.

Recently Tun Dr Mahathir said that although Bahasa Malaysia is to be used for official purposes, translations are permissible.

“Our constitution provides for all the needs on protecting of the national language but at times translations to other languages have to be made. 

Dr Mahathir said it is necessary at times to allow the use of other languages, particularly when dealing with foreigners who are not fluent in Bahasa Malaysia.

"That is why we have ministers using English or Tamil or Mandarin to explain," he said.

He noted that translation of Bahasa Malaysia into other languages for correspondence with foreigners’ governments was also permissible.

"It is important that they (recipient) of the correspondence understands what is translated.

Malaysia has implemented education policies to broaden access, to unify an ethnically diverse population through a common curriculum and language, to enable the disadvantaged to catch up through affirmative action, and to build human capital as the country seeks to become an advanced country in the face of globalization. The key words are affirmative action, national unity and ethnic stratification. Unfortunately, there are unintended consequences.

Many businessmen took advantage of this situation to start English language schools, colleges and universities to make money. As a result, there are a few hundreds of schools, colleges and universities in the country. Probably we have the highest number of schools, colleges and universities per capita in the world.

For public universities (run by the government), the language might be Bahasa, English or both. Typically for some courses (technical subjects) are taught in English while non-technical ones might be in Bahasa or English.

In any case, all these schools, colleges and universities are harmless. Eventually they can help improve our economy so that we can become a fully developed nation.

I trust everybody will be happy after reading my article.