The Malaysian politician and the current president of the People's Justice Party, Anwar Ibrahim, asked the Malay children to master the Chinese language as he believes it is an important regional economic language.
During a seminar organised in conjunction with the 47th general assembly, the politician stated that the mastery in other languages must be supported but, he clarified that he is not defending Chinese and English language.
He also added that "The Chinese language is a strategic regional economic language at present provided it is accepted without questioning the position of the Malay language as the national language."
The former Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia chief, Anwar also stated the process of developing the country needs the emphasis on humanitarian aspects to strengthen the Islamic understanding more inclusively. In addition, he said at this point of time the effort to show such understanding was facing the challenges of knowledge, attitude and understanding.
He claimed that the economic view of the country "must not be just good governance and no corruption but there must be human values. Because sometimes development in terms of numbers shows stunning growth but the human dimension is marginalised."
