Speaking to Universiti Sains Malaysia students during a question-and answer session, Education Minister Dr. Maszlee Malik said that quota system for the matriculation programme is necessary because job opportunities are denied to Bumiputra just because they don’t know mandarin.
It is surprising to hear there are, if any, unfair job requirements discriminating a certain race in this country. Maszlee can show evidence of the actual jobs unfairly demanding the applicants to be well versed in Mandarin. Newspapers are likely to ban sensitive job advertisements.
Every job has its requirements ranging from females only for baby sitters, valid driving licence for lorry drivers and advanced swimming skills for lifeguards. Jobs that will need competency and good command of Mandarin will be Mandarin teachers and Chinese newspaper reporters. Similarly jobs that require long posting to countries like China and Taiwan will make knowledge of Mandarin a daily survival skill. UK and US demand a high proficiency pass in English tests as legal requirements for many jobs.
China is now the second biggest economy in the world and our number 1 top trading partner. It accounted for as much as USD34.4 billion, and 13.9% of total Malaysian exports in 2018. Many Chinese companies, workers and customers are able to communicate only in Mandarin but not in other languages like English or Bahasa Malaysia. There will be difficulties dealing with them if Malaysian companies have no workers able to converse in Mandarin.
The founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg famously delivered his speech in Mandarin in Beijing in 2014. Nobody would have faulted him for speaking in English. Conversely, founder and CEO of Alibaba, Jack Ma, worked as a tour guide without pay for foreign tourists to earn free lessons in English. Good knowledge and command of English opened the eyes of Jack Ma to the exciting new world of e-commerce when he was in America and Alibaba was born, making him one of the richest men in the world. The richest man of Malaysia, Robert Kuok, also benefited tremendously from able to speak Japanese working in Mitsubishi conglomerate during Japanese occupation between 1942 and 1945. He made his first fortune and the rest followed.
The knowledge of other languages is highly prized and desired everywhere in the world. It opens a world of opportunities to those who can speak multiple languages to be more successful in their lives. Many countries made it compulsory to have a pass in a second language for university enrollment.
Malaysians who can speak multiple languages are highly sought after. Hotels and casinos in Macau are known to favour Malaysians as many are able to speak English, Mandarin, Tamil and Bahasa Malaysia. The United States’ Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) is currently advertising for Malay-speaking agents. The agency Facebook page one’s linguistic skills can make America safer.
The requirement for English or Mandarin in any jobs is usually a necessity and an excellent opportunity, not discrimination. If there are any jobs that are unfair in demanding certain skills or attributes, the employers can be reported to the Ministry of Human Resources. Abolishing discrimination in jobs will help make new Malaysia a fairer and better place.