VIENNA: Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has expressed concern over parents not spending much time with their young children because of work commitments.
He said one of the things that have been neglected was the building of a good culture, a good system of values in children that would help shape their character.
The prime minister said this during a question and answer session at a meeting with Malaysians living and working in Austria and Slovakia.
“Most parents have no time for their children. Both father and mother would be working and time spent with the children is very limited.
“They cannot teach their children what is good and what is bad, what is criminal and what is not, so we need to do that teaching in the school beginning at the kindergarten stage,” he said to about 70 Malaysians at a diaspora meeting held at the Grand Hotel Wien.
“These are the things we are thinking about because we do not only want to impart cultural knowledge to the children of today but also help in shaping their character so that they will not use their knowledge to do the wrong things,” he said.
Welcoming Malaysian professionals home, he said, “Come back to Malaysia because Malaysia offers a good living standard that is almost as good as European countries.”
However, he said, unfortunately for some who went back with high qualifications but did not have Malay language as part of their qualification, there had been some problems.
“If you want to come back, learn Malay, it could be of some help. We would like to see many highly qualified Malaysians living abroad and of course earning good money, to come back and give their service to the growth and development of the country.
“They are welcome, that is the official government policy but sometimes there will be hitches and so we like to know about them so we can take corrective action,” he added.
A common question that surfaced during meetings with the Malaysian diaspora abroad is that of dual citizenship for children born of mixed parentage.
He said, apologising, “Either you are Malaysian or…somebody else. I am sorry about that. I know some countries do give dual citizenship but in Malaysia, from the very beginning, from the time of independence, we decided we should have only one citizenship.”
Answering a question related to the Malaysian education system, the prime minister talked about the importance of science and mathematics, which he said would cater to the needs of the future.
“Lots of people are criticising the education system in Malaysia, maybe rightly so because it was an old system, which did not cater for the needs of the future.
“The learning of Science and Mathematics is extremely important. It is good to know the history and geography and all that but today science and technology has changed the world almost totally, he said citing the way the broadcasting industry has totally changed due to technology.
“Today, in your pocket, you carry a broadcasting station and a receiving station. The whole broadcasting house reduced to one small phone,” he said.
“Our people must be well trained in Sciences and Mathematics because a lot of things depend on Mathematics in order to understand how things work. We are focusing on that. We want people to teach Science and Maths in English. Why English? Because English is the universal language.
“Wherever you go, English can be used. The sciences are advancing rapidly and you have to keep up with that. That is part of the preparation. We are going to look at the different systems of education, put in more practical work than just theoretical and a lot of other changes will be made,” he explained.
Continuing on with the issue of English, he said people complain because of the shortage of English teachers. “We don’t have enough English teachers, all the teachers were not trained in English.
“It is so difficult to teach English, yet English is so important. What we want to do is to have a standard English in thumbdrive, so you can learn the same thing by the same teacher. Find a very good teacher. These are things that we are focusing on.”
Answering a question about what seemed to be squabbles among the coalition partners in Pakatan Harapan, he said all parties were working well together.
"We have four big and equally strong parties in Pakatan Harapan. Sometimes we have our differences but we manage to reach a consensus on issues," the prime minister said.
He also said the government was serious about tackling corruption with the setting up of a committee that met monthly to evaluate whether the steps taken were effective.
