The Lost Generations of Malaysia

Bavani on BFM

K. Bavani is certainly a household word these days especially after her argument with a forum speaker went viral on You-tube.

I just had the privilege of watching her on BFM where she spoke about the reasons for her high-profile committed stance over the PTPN and the roots of her activism.

I guess for a Psychology graduate and a current law student, she has a fair grounding on political thoughts and   the derring-do to speak out amidst a background of students that have been taught the passive mode in thought and interactions  in the hallowed ivory towers of this country.

What concerned me when I saw the 9 minute or so video was despite her strong stand on issues, she could not express as well as she could to put her message through.

Say what you must, but Bavani is probably one of the members of Malaysia's post first lost generation. The first generation were those who had to undergo the changeover in the school system from English to BM and today the outcome of this has been the poor command of English and Malaysia losing its international competitiveness in terms of K-workers.

For Bavani, despite her possible escape from the dragnet of the current reversal of the school system back to status quo where English has again been relegated to an inferior position; and even though she can still throw her thoughts around in a staccato manner , we can only second guess her meanings. Her command of English is not good and because of that her thoughts did not come across so well in spite of the emotions she displayed  on the talk of  her ideals.

My contention is if Bavani is representative of most students at our local universities at this time, be prepared for much worse English command in the second lost generation.

This is indeed pitiful especially as world competitiveness becomes more acute, Malaysia will continue to lag behind because we lack the command of the world's number one language of communication in academia, the arts,the WWW and in entertainment.