KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 — The DAP cast doubt today on a deputy minister’s claim that the standard of English in Malaysia is better than that of Singapore’s, citing grammatically-incorrect posts and documents by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Barisan Nasional politicians.

Serdang MP Dr Ong Kian Ming said Deputy Education Minister P. Kamalanathan should focus on increasing the standard of English teachers instead of making “inaccurate comparisons” based on the English Proficiency Index by Sweden-based EF Education First.

“I was shocked when I read the news two days ago where our Deputy Minister of Education, P Kamalanathan was reported to have said that the standard of English in Malaysia is higher than Singapore by referring to a report compiled by a Swedish based company, EF Education First,” the DAP lawmaker said in a statement today.

Ong cited as examples two recent statements issued by the PMO after the passing of Singapore’s first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, both of which he said clearly contained grammatical errors.

“Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor present to pay their last respects to the late first Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, who had died in Parliament today.

“Also seen the Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong (right).

“Funeral service will be held at 2pm, Sunday, at the University Cultural Center, National University of Singapore, followed by cremation a Mandal Crematorium closed,” the first statement read.

“Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak signed a book of condolences for the death of the Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, at the Singapore Embassy, today.

“Also seen is the Singapore High Commissioner to Malaysia, Vanu Gopala Menon.

“Kuan Yew died at 3:18am yesterday at the Singapore General Hospital after being detained in hospital since February 5 for pneumonia severe. He was 91 years old,” the second statement read.

Ong also cited a recent statement issued by the MCA, which read “For our secular democratic constitution, we strong defends.”

“Again, I leave it up to the Deputy Education Minister to identify the grammatical error,” he said.

Another error Ong cited today was a doctor’s medical certificate that diagnosed a patient with “chicken chop”.

“I do not believe that the examples above are isolated incidents.

“If we cannot expect to have a decent standard of English displayed by these three groups of people, what more the larger population in Malaysia?” he questioned, referring to the Prime Minister’s office, MCA and doctors.

“I would advise the Deputy Education Minister to focus on the task at hand which is to improve the standard of English among our English teachers, to slowly increase the level of difficulty of our English exams and to stop making inaccurate comparisons in order to give a false impression of the problem at hand,” he added.

Today, local daily The Star also reported the Malaysian English Language Teaching Association as saying that Malaysia’s English proficiency is far from reaching international standards.

The group’s president Assoc Prof Dr Ganakumaran Subramaniam added that the English Proficiency Index by EF Education First can be inaccurate as such a survey often prioritizes monetary agendas.

“These type of surveys often have business and marketing agendas. If the ministry wants to know the truth, it should commission an independent and professional organisation to undertake a full-scale study on the quality of English among Malaysians of all levels and age groups,” he said.

This comes after local news portal MalaysiaKini reported Kamalanathan telling a students’ conference in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday that Malaysia’s command of English was better than Singapore and that Malaysia ranked number one in Asia.

The EF Education FIrst survey, Kamalanathan added, is a research website which polled 65 countries in which English was not a native language and focused on the usage of English in the business community.