Interesting, but not at all surprising coming from the good professor. It is a sentiment I share, and have felt this way for a very long time. (Caveat: it has nothing to do with the 'look East' policy, which was really political and, seriously, quite lame).
Do we have an English fixation? Yes, I think we do. Not only that; some of us even have an England fixation. Ever seen Malaysians supporting the England football team? They can be so vociferous that one cannot help but cringe and feel embarrassed for them. Many English expatriates and tourists (in Malaysia) have expressed the exact same sentiments.
Can the colonised mind ever truly be free?
But that aside, let's examine the question: can the colonised mind ever truly become free? Decades ago during my first trip to London, I was astonished at how Roman everything looked. And a trip to the US confirmed my worst suspicions: why are they trying so hard to look British? Indians love everything English, so much so that South Indian restaurants will try to sell you tomato soup as a side order (or starter) to thosai with chutney meal.
One understands influence, but one also immediately smells worship. Maybe it's the seduction of power, nostalgia, romance, an inferiority complex, a memory of more equal times, or all of that. Whatever the reasons, a large number of Malaysians have a fixation about everything English.
From the technological point of view, it makes no sense at all. England has almost nothing to contribute to the world any more. Their car industry is either German, Japanese or Korean. Sure, the London Olympic's opening ceremony was (surprisingly) well done, but it was all about the past. When Tim Berners-Lee was presented as the inventor of the internet, I cringed and felt more than a little embarrassed for them.) The closest they got to today was in pop culture, even then the best bits were from the past, from about 50 years ago. The Americans? Ditto. They make great iPhones and iPads, but who else in the USA is making great stuff apart from Apple? Okay, it is too early to write off the Americans, but they are surely not the force they once were. Tech wise, our English fixation is a shackle that prevents us from moving forward; from learning from the Germans, Koreans, Japanese, or even the French, Italians, Russians, Chinese, Indians and Brazilians.
In terms of economics, knowledge of English could (theoretically) be useful for the penetration of Anglophone market, but no mastery is required; ask the Germans, Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodians, or anyone else.
Culture wise, there's pop, and there's literature. Regarding the former, there's no a great language requirement (though the Japanese did use The Beatles to teach English in the sixties). As for literature, my opinion is that, this fixation we have with English is a shackle not a boon.
Reading Kafka
The last English novel I read was On Chesil Beach by Booker Prize winning author, Ian McEvan five years ago. (I also read Salman Rushdie's The Enchanteress of Florence the following year, but I'm not counting that because I tend to get this irrational attacks of rushdie-itis whenever his books come out.) And, having had enough of the New Orientalism coming out of the sub-continent, I avoid Indian writers in English. So, all English authors have been off my menu for a while. In the last decade, my authors have largely come from Latin America, Europe, China, and Japan. (I still have customers who declare quite loudly that they do not like to read translations because 'the meaning is lost'. My response? I cannot imagine my life without having read Kafka, and I don't read German.)
Bernama continues, "Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also education minister, had said the government planned to re-introduce English Literature as a subject in secondary schools." Interesting. My question: what's 'English Literature' the minister is refering to? Would that be the literature of the English people? (No doubt, many parents and academics would think that.) Perhaps, he was thinking of the literature of countries that have adopted English as their native language. Or could it be, simply, any literature written in English? Colonial? Post-colonial? Or could the minister simply mean that English will be taught using literature?
It gets quite complicated only when 'literature' is removed from 'people', particularly, when the latter is replaced with 'market'. A literature without a 'people', or country, regardless of what language it's written in, makes no sense (unless, it's a consumer product -- in which case its study belongs in marketing). It is a record of thoughts and ideas of a people who share a common history and culture. With that in mind, one can only hope that the minister was referring to Malaysian literature written in English, because it makes no sense to have secondary school students slog through the literature of a foreign tribe in a foreign land, unless they are working on a doctoral thesis.
Why do 'English language' departments at universities teach literature?
I am in total agreement with Ungku Aziz when he says, “As a Malaysian, we must understand literature not only in English but also other languages such as Russian, Italian and Japanese to understand their cultures.” Let's start with the universities, where the current situation is quite bizarre. Why do 'English language' departments at universities teach literature? Literature is a by-product of a language (just as an automobile is a by-product of engineering, which is a by-product of physics, maths, chemistry and ingenuity). Literature can be used to teach English, but not the converse. It's a subject that's far more about the culture and history of a people, than language. Perhaps, what the universities really mean is: theirs is a Cultural Department specialising in the literature of the people of England and other Anglophone countries. There's nothing wrong if that's what some people want to major in. But, let's not call it a language department.
Hence, the argument for a Literature Department at our universities, teaching literature from all continents and all countries, and all languages. It can be taught in any language, and those who want go further could opt to read the material in the original form. Considering the number of translated works there are in English, that would be a good place to start.
As the professor said, let's not fixate on English literature.
