Is Mindef blunder symptomatic of a decline in Malaysian education?

The Ministry of Defence which has been embroiled in a series of allegedly corrupt scandals involving Scorpene submarines, offshore patrol boats, and security and defence deals, was hit by another bombshell in early January.

The English version of Mindef's official website came under attack for its series of embarrassing gaffes, and soon became a Twitter and Facebook sensation thus forcing the ministry to close down the site.

The inaccurate translations, coming soon after the fiercely fought demands by pro-English lobby groups like Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) to champion the use of English in the teaching of Mathematics and science in schools, have further tarnished the image of the Ministry of Education.

Days after the translation debacle, Defence Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, admitted that his ministry had used and relied on the free online services of Google Translate.

"We have corrected the mistakes and translations are no longer done that way. It is now done manually. We did not intend for the English translations to turn out that way."

The Mindef website had listed the appropriate dress attire for visits to its premises and had cited a literal translation for the Malay "pakaian yang menjolok mata", as "clothes that poke eye", when it should have been translated into "revealing clothes".

More alarming was the ministry's summarised history which read: "After the withdrawal of British army, the Malaysian Government take drastic measures to increase the level of any national security threat".

The backlash from the public on social networking sites was immediate and unrelenting. The responses from official groups like PAGE, the Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (Melta) and the National Translation Institute, have been severe.

Although the use of English in the private sector is well documented, its use in the public sector is comparatively rare. Many opined that the government only pays lip service to English usage in the public sector.

Civil servants who were contacted agreed on the importance of English but felt that they were not compelled to improve their English as it was not used in their day-to-day work.

A lady who would only be identified as Sook Yee, with over three decades' service in Jabatan Tanah agreed that in the seventies and eighties, most civil servants had a better command of English than younger government employees.

"I think this is because of the education we received then. Moreover, if you speak English, today, people think you either want to show off, or that you look down on your national language."

A lecturer at a local university, concerned about the fluency in English of her students, said that it was frustrating to teach students whose English was barely passable.

"The new batch of students cannot even write let alone speak English. I cover the hospitality industry course and students are required to present certain assignments in English. Their work is difficult to mark. What is happening to the students has its roots in their early schooling."

Her views were echoed by her fellow lecturer, whose students aspired to get a job in government, where they believed English was unnecessary.

"The decline in English was noticeable in the nineties. There were so many mistakes in grammar that if we marked the examination answers on style and language use, only a few would have passed. In the end, we had little choice but to asses only on the facts."

The declining standard of English among Malaysian graduates and its working population has often been highlighted. According to a Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) study in 2010, poor English was one of five factors which prevent graduates from gaining employment.

Higher Education Ministry student development and affairs director Prof Dr Mohd Fauzi Ramlan also cited reasons such as poor communication skills, low problem-solving skills, job-hopping and low self-confidence.

One retired civil servant said that when he conducted job interviews, some people had attained good grades for English in the SPM results but struggled when asked to speak English.

He recalled the time when government servants sent on overseas conferences would keep silent or not contribute to the discussion, because they were embarrassed by their poor English.

His advice to graduates and government employees with poor English was to improve their command of the language by reading English newspapers and by speaking English to their peers.

Mindful of the Malaysian nationalists, he offered a word of caution: "There will be many who are envious of those who speak English well, and there are those who resent the use of languages other than Malay. Ignore them. They lack the global vision to succeed."

Another civil servant who requested anonymity, said that the decline in fluency in English had to be addressed and said that most of the Malay youth, were not worried about improving their English because they were eyeing a government position rather than one in the private sector, where communication in languages other than Malay was important.

"Their future is dim and they only have themselves to blame if they fail to get a government job."

He then mentioned a CEO Forum organised by the Perdana Leadership Foundation, where Cabinet minister Idris Jala, the Performance Management & Delivery Unit (Pemandu) CEO and the AmBank Group chairman, Azman Hashim gave conflicting views on the use of English.

"Jala said that mastery of the English language was unnecessary to achieve the Vision 2020 goal of becoming a high-income nation whilst Azman stressed the importance of English proficiency to achieve the same goal.

"Their views lie at opposite ends of the spectrum. Is it any wonder Malaysians are confused?

When asked if there was any quality control of the standard of English used on government websites, he said: "People are afraid of being seen as anti-nationalist. In the end, the standard of English drops.

"The other day, one of our staff, who has a Ph.D. was asked if she was looking for a 'Man Friday'. She looked puzzled and said she needed someone to work everyday, not just on Fridays!"

"Quality control? What do you expect when the blind is leading the blind?"