Musa admits switch to BM has affected English usage

Published on: Saturday, January 07, 2023

By: Daily Express

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Musa being welcomed by Pairin.

OCTOBER 30

1980: Education Minister Datuk Musa Hitam said efforts were being made to check the decline in the standard of English in schools.

He said during a visit to Sabah that the Ministry was recruiting 100 teachers from Britain for the purpose.

“Of course to be frank English has suffered in schools with the switching of the medium of instruction to Bahasa Malaysia,” he said.

1980: A cargo ship was ordered to take back 841 bags of sugar which were found to be contaminated with sulphuric acid while being shipped to Sabah from Port Kiang.

The sugar was found to have been stored in the, same compartment as a consignment of sulphuric acid and was destined for Tawau.

One millionth phone exchange line launched

1983: The Telecommunications Department launched its one millionth telephone exchange line with the commissioning of a computerised exchange system in Kota Kinabalu. The programme was designed to provide for the instailatio4 of another 1.4m exchange lints till 1985, to bring to two million, the number of such lines by the end of the fourth Malaysia Plan period.

OCTOBER 31

Kudat dairy centre

1974: Experiments were being carried out to set up a dairy exchange line launched farm in Kudat that would make it the centre of a major cattle industry.

There were already three major private cattle farms operating in Banggi, Lok Dongkan and Mengkabong. They have a total of 3,500 heads of cattle imported from Australia. 1,000 acres of pasture land were due to be opened up.

Papar-Beaufort Highway work

1978: The new 38mile Papar-Beaufort Highway is now through.

When open to the public the following year, the stretch reduced the distance between Kota Kinabalu and Beaufort by 10 miles and motoring time by 45 minutes to about two hours.

The road is the first portion of a package awarded to Tobishima by international tender a year ago.

It also included upgrading and partially realigning the existing road of about the same distance between Beaufort and Sindumin gravel all-weather standard.

The entire project cost RM55miilion and is financed by the World Bank,

‘Gas grid’ project signed

1981: The State Government signed an agreement with two oil firms, paving the way for commercial utilisation of gas now being flared in offshore fields.

An estimated RM600,000 in gas is being flared daily at the Semerang, Erb West and Ketan fields.

Called the “gas grid” project, the agreement was signed with Sabah Shell and Pecten.