Journal Two

SUMMARY

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak stated that there is no point on building libraries or even giving more tax relief for books if Malaysians don’t care to read. This problem occurs as many prefer Malay books while the bookshelves at mostly every bookstore are conquered by English books. Another factor is that the medium of instruction in schools had been switched to Malay and therefore a lot of students, especially Malay students, whose ability to read in English are limited, think that reading English books is a challenging task for them to accomplish. What exacerbating the problem is the incompetence of teachers in teaching English literature. According to Datuk Seri Najib, we all have to wait for the next generation teachers who are well trained and who are proficient in English to teach before the Malaysians are introduced to literature.

REFLECTION

I agree with Datuk Seri Najib’s points on the factors that lead to the occurrence of only a small number of Malaysians who read books. The factors such as the switching medium of instruction in schools, the limited ability to read in English, the incompetence of teachers in teaching and the majority books filling bookstores consist of English books make sense to me. However, I don’t really agree with his opinion to stop building libraries just because of majority of the Malaysians don’t read books. What about the minority’s rights? They too should be given the facility to do research or even to do some light reading. In my opinion, the present libraries aren’t that interesting to be visited. To be specific, the condition and the atmosphere of the libraries aren’t welcoming at all, and the books in the libraries are mostly outdated. I once went to the national library and I couldn’t find that much of interesting materials there. The magazines were a few years’ back, and the atmosphere was sullen. My former English teacher, who was just transferred from England, went to the national library and commented that there was nothing much to be read there. He said that our national library lacks new stuff. So, what I’m trying to say here is that we shouldn’t be blamed for not practising the reading culture. Hence, to overcome this problem, perhaps, a thorough research should be done regarding this topic. Possibly, the government need not build new libraries; instead, what the government has to do is only upgrade the existed libraries. (Well, it is also good if the number of libraries is being increased.) On another matter, where students’ abilities to read and understand English are limited, the present teachers are to be blamed. Of course, the best resolution to this problem is to wait for the well trained next generation teachers to teach English. What about those who are poor in English at this particular time? They too, don’t want to be left out in this modern world where English is one of the most important language on Earth. Therefore, my suggestion is, while waiting for the well trained next generation teachers to graduate, the government should import well trained teachers from overseas, for example England, for the time being so there won’t be any gap between the present and the future students. Who knows, the present students could speak good English with British accent? :)



The summary and reflection are based on the article "Najib: No point building libraries if people don't care to read" from Sunday Star, 18 March 2007.