English language in Kelantan, pre- and post-Merdeka
We celebrate Merdeka with great splendour every year without fail, and so we did for the 69th time last week.
It is the time of the year when photographs of the Merdeka era — preceding, during and following its declaration — flood our mainstream newspapers, and now mostly smartphones and laptops, iPads and whatever-gadget-you-have, their screens filling with nostalgic images especially for the boomers such as me.
While still in school, I had had the opportunity to meet in person luminaries such as Tun Sambanthan, Tun Sardon Jubir and Tun Ghazali Shafie, among those I can remember. They were forces to be reckoned with, men instrumental in gaining independence and upholding the spirit of unity and togetherness as the people proudly forged ahead to a new life in a free nation.
At the stadium on Aug 31, 1957, the sultans marched in, one by one, whom I remember by sight all dressed to the hilt in their state regalia befitting kings, taking their seats as Tunku Abdul Rahman proclaimed independence from British rule. Tunku cried out “Merdeka” seven times. Why? He said, so that everyone could hear it loud and clear.
Modifed by artificial intelligence (AI), black and white photographs are now in colour, stills are now images in motion and the late Yasmin Ahmad’s timeless videos hauntingly return with a vengeance.
But what struck me most this time was a brief and grainy black and white reel, unseen before, of Jawahir Haji Ali, taken in 1955. She was then a 16-year-old from Zainab Girls School, Kelantan. She had mastered the English language despite living in the backwaters of the state, perhaps by listening to the BBC radio shows, while surrounded by many who did not speak it.
My aunt, retired professor Rahimah Ahmad of Universiti Malaya, remembers, “She was my senior in Zainab School (ZS). She was known as the first girl from ZS to go and stay with a family in the US.”
A lengthy essay Jawahir had written entitled “The World We Want” won her the place of sole representative of Malaya at the 10th annual New York Herald Tribune World Youth High Schools Forum. She shared her hopes and dreams of an independent Malaya on the world platform ahead of its proclamation two years later. Other participating countries were the UK, Australia, Ethiopia, Japan, Guatemala and many others.
She spoke impeccable English complete with perfect intonations during the interview describing her first experience of winter in the US and being in New York, the busiest city in the world, which wasn’t as noisy as she had imagined it to be. While there she lived in the homes of high school students, attending classes with them and joining in family, school and community activities. She even questioned racial discrimination in the US then and why the Black Americans were treated the way they were while back home, the Malays, Chinese and Indians could sit and enjoy their meals together.
Upon her return to Malaya, she decided that she would become an English teacher in Kelantan. She knew its importance in education, especially for the Malays, and hoped that being English proficient would provide opportunities for the students and perhaps even unite our people. She valued the harmony enjoyed by Malaya’s multicultural communities and which she believed should be nurtured and not risk being gambled away. She was a visionary.
Jawahir died in 2005 at the rather young age of 66, but has Malaysia lived up to her hopes?
Having roots in Kelantan, I personally know that English language education was taken very seriously there especially in ZS, where my late mother was an English teacher herself, and in Sultan Ismail College (SIC), its equivalent for male students. The government would offer a scholarship of RM40 a month, a tidy sum indeed, if students would enrol in the English class.
The Kelantanese who learnt to be conversant in the English language benefited from the US Peace Corps programme, which was deeply embedded in Kelantan, lasting 21 years from 1962 until 1983.
Peace Corps volunteers were sent to local schools to teach English, advanced mathematics and sciences. Students who excelled in the language moved on to obtain scholarships such as the prestigious Colombo Plan to further their higher education.
Among them, now in their 90s, are true persons of influence, proud to be from Kelantan and benefiting tremendously from mastering the English language in pursuit of excellence: Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who does not need an introduction; Tan Sri Omar Abdul Rahman, science adviser to the prime minister, who to this day promotes unity and harmony among Malaysians; and Datuk Dr Mahmood Merican, orthopaedic surgeon turned philanthropist who continues to fund medical research including English language activities at SIC, being an alumnus. The late Tengku Ahmad Rithauddeen Ismail, barrister and politician, was instrumental in the establishment of Nottingham University Malaysia Campus. Tengku Tun Maimun Tuan Mat, recently retired Chief Justice of Malaysia, would perhaps be the latest addition to the Kelantan echelons of power and its epitome of success.
Sadly, they are few and far between and English language proficiency continues to decline in Kelantan as it struggles with social ills, unemployment and urban migration.
Comments