US keen to revive English Teaching Assistants programme in Malaysia, says envoy

KOTA KINABALU, Jan 22 — The United States has expressed interest in reviving its English Teaching Assistants (ETA) programme in Malaysia, describing it as a key initiative that strengthened people-to-people ties and produced long-term “champions” of Malaysia in the US.

US Ambassador to Malaysia H.E. Edward Kagan said the programme, which ran from 2011 until it was halted by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, had been highly successful and could be restarted if the Malaysian government was keen.

“If the Malaysian government is interested in restarting it, I think there is interest on the part of the US in restarting,” Kagan said when speaking to reporters during a meet and greet session here.

The programme placed about 1,000 young American graduates in schools across the country, often in rural areas, where they taught English and lived with local communities.

“Like, how do you recruit people? Who comes?” he said.

But Kagan said that beyond education, the initiative played an important role in deepening bilateral relations by building lasting personal connections.

“One of the things we really need in the relationship is people in both countries who are champions for the relationship,” he said.

“I think in the same way Peace Corps volunteers in the 60s and early 70s became champions for the US-Malaysia relationship for decades afterwards, the English teaching assistants did the same thing.”

He said most participants, typically aged 22 or 23, left Malaysia with a deep appreciation for the country and its people.

“Probably 950 out of about 1,000 who came through the programme left as champions for Malaysia,” he said, adding jokingly that many returned to the US “complaining about why they can’t get nasi lemak in the United States”.

Kagan said the presence of young Americans living in kampungs and attending school daily had a powerful impact on local communities, often challenging stereotypes and misconceptions.

“What I heard over and over was people saying, ‘We were so surprised – Americans are not what we expected,’” he said, adding that many Malaysians’ understanding of the US was through television and movies.

He said the challenge with such programmes came down to the mechanism and nitty-gritty.

Kagan acknowledged that not every participant had a smooth experience, but said the overwhelming majority benefitted from the programme and became long-term advocates for Malaysia.

Meanwhile, on the existing US travel advisory to Sabah’s east coast, Kagan said that they were moving closer to revising it after “tremendous progress” in security since the 2013 Lahad Datu intrusion.

Kagan, who personally visited the east coast last year said he was encouraged by improvements on the ground, particularly the role played by the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Escom) in strengthening coordination among security agencies.

“I’ve seen firsthand, and my colleagues at the embassy have also seen, the tremendous progress that’s been made since the Lahad Datu incident in 2013 and I think that Escom is a true success story. It has really made a difference in integrating all the different tools of security and government in a way that has had a real impact.”

Kagan said the security situation on the east coast of Sabah had improved significantly and that this assessment would likely be communicated to the American public, although the final decision on lowering the advisory rests with authorities in Washington.

“The final decision has to be made in Washington, but I believe the security situation has improved and I think we will be moving in the direction of telling that to the American public,” he said.

He noted that several factors were taken into account before travel advisories could be revised, chief among them the underlying security conditions.

“Objectively, that has improved significantly, so I think we can check that box,” he said.

“The fear, very candidly, is that you lower the advisory and then the next day or the next week something terrible happens,” he said, adding that no authority could ever guarantee that incidents would never recur.

“But we’ve seen tremendous progress and I expect that this will be reflected at some point in the coming weeks or months.”

The US has maintained travel advisories for parts of eastern Sabah for more than a decade following a series of security incidents, including the 2013 Lahad Datu intrusion by militants from southern Philippines.

It is currently at a Level 2, which is to exercise increased caution. The rest of Malaysia is at Level 1 – which is normal precautions to be taken.