Mastering technology involves learning its language

WE must applaud and commend Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for his call for Malaysians to master technology, “PM: Malaysia must master technology” (The Star, Aug 20).

Technology is key to the development of all countries, particularly developing nations.

Technology has progressed so rapidly in the past few decades that our current generation might be left behind if they don’t up keep with the latest developments and innovations. We were ahead of South Korea, Taiwan and many other countries up to the early 1960s but fell back drastically because of our lack of foresight and planning. Our zealousness for nationalism also caused us to go astray.

Technology is a shared process that should be easily available to jointly progress the well-being of the world. A good example is the joint endeavour to find a vaccine for Covid-19.

Malaysians must bear in mind that our natural resources are depleting and becoming threatened by competition, substitutes and lack of manpower to work our resources.

As a developing nation, we have to bear in mind that we cannot afford to “reinvent the wheel”, thus we have to learn technology from others besides being innovative ourselves.

We must be able to learn from advanced nations in science and technology. Different nations may be in the forefront in different areas and we must be able to able to communicate with them in literature and language.

This is where African, Asian and Latin American nations have acknowledged the importance of English as a language of progress.

These countries sent their students, primarily to Britain and the United States, to study science and technology in English.

Malaysians are proud of Bahasa Malaysia as our national language, but we must acknowledge the fact that if we want to progress in technology and science, we need to be proficient in English. Hence, our education policies should be designed to progress our nation and not for political expediency.