Unlike their ancestors, young generations from Johor Bahru and Singapore do not emphasis on family ties. Even though they are still maintaining certain blood relations, the sense of alienation becomes greater and greater as time goes by.

Sometimes, these young people will look down on each other but inevitably, they also reveal their sense of inferiority in front of each other.

When young people from Johor Bahru go to Singapore, naturally, they will find that their English is terrible and thus, they dare not to speak English.

Similarly, when Singaporean young people come to Johor Bahru, they always say shyly: “I'm sorry, my Chinese is not good.”

Young people in Johor Bahru (more appropriately, Malaysia) speak broken English while Singaporean young people's Chinese is terrible. It is the inevitable result of different education policies in the two countries, as well as a fact that must be accepted by the two governments.

After neglecting English for over 30 years, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad realised the reality that English is, after all, an international language. Therefore, he made a sharp turn before his resignation and implemented the policy of teaching Science and Mathematics in English. When Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak took the office, he decided to gradually stop the policy that was hastily implemented in the past. However, it is still a major educational goal for the Malaysian government.

Interestingly, after a few decades of bilingual education policy, Singapore found that the English standard of its young generation is fine but the Chinese standard is poor. It may even affect their competitiveness in the future. Its Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew admitted that Singapore was in the wrong direction and he vowed to take the rest of his life correcting the mistake.

Malaysia and Singapore with interrelated historical and cultural backgrounds have to bear the consequences of educational deviations.

As Malaysia had neglected English, its young generation is not able to make good use of English in learning and communications. As a result, the country can only cultivate “kampung champions” that are unable to walk out from their local communities.

As Singapore had neglected Chinese, English has become the “mother tongue” of its younger generation (primary school first year students from English-speaking families have increased to the current 60% from the 10% in 1982). It does not conform to its national interests as Singapore has targeted at China's vast economic market.

In fact, we are committed to enhance our English standard while Singapore is committed to enhance its Chinese standard based on a common objective: a better integration with the world and compete in the international market.

It is going to become a bilingual world. It will be a greater advantage if we can master more languages. But when will our young people no longer afraid to communicate in English and Singaporean young people no longer afraid to speak Chinese? 10 years? 20 years? Or 30 years? (By LIM MUN FAH/ Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/ Sin Chew Daily)