ENGLISH IS VITAL!

This international language can help unify Sri Lankans

BY Goolbai Gunasekara

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest,” said one of America’s greatest men Benjamin Franklin. He discovered electricity and made the world an easier place to live in. I wonder what he would think of the state of power in the deprived Sri Lanka of today!

The world is in turmoil and Sri Lanka is one of the worst hit. It’s time for change and this is a perfect moment (in our constantly down sliding history) to revise our language policy.

There is a feeling of unity among all of us in this lovely island. Let us forget the ‘Sinhala Only’ policies that have been so divisive in the past and switch the medium of instruction to English. Let’s forget chauvinistic and outworn nationalistic ideas, and begin to take steps into a new unified world.

A proper education is one of the most powerful weapons in the hands of any government. It’s absolutely criminal if it is used for political advantage.

No one suggests Sinhala or Tamil be ignored. Those languages must be taught compulsorily but English must be given top priority so that our youngsters can begin to compete and operate fully in an English-speaking, internet, cyber world. Foolish nationalism is not patriotism.

India is the best example. Indians are among the most patriotic people on Earth; and yet, English flourishes in the subcontinent – producing some of the best speakers and writers of it in the world! The Sinhalese people who love their language will keep it alive even if the medium of instruction is English.

In Africa, 24 countries list English as their official language. The Philippines, Solomon Islands, Kenya, Jamaica, Trinidad and many others use English as their official means of communication – internally and internationally.

Europeans speak it as a matter of course although they speak each other’s languages fluently almost from birth. But here we are – the only Sinhala speaking nation in the world comprising only 16.2 million Sinhalese people and struggling to keep pace with nations that were previously considered positively backward. Truly, we have been cursed with stupid governments from the start!

American futurist Alvin Toffler said: “The illiterates of the future will not be the people who cannot read. It will be the people who do not know how to learn.” Sri Lankans are those people. They keep perpetuating the same errors endlessly.

The same old methods of teaching continue and the traditional textbook material is churned out. The egregious quota system continues. The same old university system produces graduates who know less and less in a fast expanding world of knowledge.

I must ask: “Do our ministers of education know what they are about?”

While standards plummet, our government remains in denial. There’s no money in the country – so fortunately, the educationist pundits are silent about expanding the appalling system of education.

Do we realise that Sinhala is a language that’s spoken by less than 17 million people in the world? The Tamils are far better off. Tamil is widely spoken in India, and by Tamil speaking Indians and the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora. Let us awaken to sordid reality. Sinhala is not going to get us far if we continue to insist on it being the main medium of instruction.

The best jobs in international organisations go to those people who speak an international language; and at the moment, it is English. Indians dominate in high finance and business, in the UK and the US. In areas where Sri Lankans once led, they now lag behind.

Remember the likes of Shirley Amerasinghe, Deshamanya Dr. Gamani Corea, Deshamanya Neville Kanakaratna and other Sri Lankans who held high office because of their prowess in English, which they spoke so brilliantly?

The virtual empire of the internet makes English vital. Jobseekers are interviewed by entities on the other side of the world. Indeed, the link between globalisation and English is tangible. Sri Lanka can no longer afford to be foolishly sentimental and force its children to study in a language spoken by less than a half percent of the world’s population.

My views would normally not be tolerated by the vociferous chauvinists who unfortunately use Sinhala as a political weapon. But now, there is a new feeling of unity in the air. Tamils, Muslims and Burghers are all stating their feeling of oneness with the majority Sinhalese.

The Sinhalese for their part (forget the die-hard Sinhala Buddhists!) are feeling likewise. If English can help to unite Sri Lankans as one people, our future leaders should cement this unity instantly.

Sri Lanka was known as the ‘Resplendent Island’ by the Brahmins of yore. It can surely be possible for this country to become resplendent once again. How could such an intelligent population have made these tragic mistakes?