Leaders Fear an Erosion of Their Cultures : Awash in English, Asians Fret 
International Herald Tribune
January 12, 1994
Michael Richardson    

The rapid rise of English in Southeast Asia, where use of that language is widely seen as a key to success in business and commerce, is arousing the concern of officials and intellectuals who fear that Asian values and national identity are being eroded.

Countries in the region face a dilemma. They acknowledge that English provides access to vital Western science and technology as well as valuable markets in the West. Yet they worry that the price may be a dilution of the cultural strength and cohesion that have helped Southeast Asia emerge in the past few years as one of the fastest-growing economic areas in the world.

A looming explosion of mainly American, English-language television programs beamed to viewers in Asia via satellite is adding to regional concerns.

George Yeo, Singapore's minister for information and the arts, warned recently that the ability of governments to control the flow of information was being weakened.

"The flow is becoming a flood," he said at a meeting in Manila of information ministers from ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

This development, Mr. Yeo said, was "a threat because, as entire communities, we may lose the means to preserve and promote values important to us."

"There is a danger that our traditional cultures may be drowned by the deluge of films, TV programs, videos, books and magazines from the West."

While Southeast Asian countries need the widest access to information to "educate our people, bring in the latest technologies and compete in a very competitive world," he said, "free access to information does not mean letting the market decide what values we should have."

Salleh Ben Joned, a Malaysian writer, asserted that as a result of Western programs that were being increasingly aired by local TV stations, "whatever Malaysian culture we had is being heavily diluted, especially among the young."

Despite opposition from ethnic Malay nationalists, a spokesman for the Malaysian government said, Malaysia would allow technical subjects, such as science and technology, to be taught in English.

However, Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister, emphasized that there would be no basic change in the government's education and language policy, which makes Malay the main medium of instruction through university level.

Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian deputy prime minister, said that to survive in the economic and corporate arena, Malaysians had to improve proficiency in English. "We cannot be a truly progressive nation if we do not master a language which is internationally used," he added.

Malaysia, a former British colony, began phasing out instruction in English in 1971 to eradicate vestiges of colonialism and build a national language and identity among a multiethnic population of Malays, Chinese, Indians and tribal groups.

In Indonesia, where the government had earlier promoted a Malay-based dialect as the national language, there is concern that the spread of English is undermining the preeminence of Indonesian.

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