Rafizi Ramli : Malaysia Must Recognise UEC Now - Mandarin Will Replace English as World’s No.1 Language
In the podcast, Rafizi Ramli strongly argued why Malaysia must officially recognise the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) and, more importantly, why the country needs to urgently transform itself into a trilingual society: fluent in Bahasa Melayu, English, and Mandarin.
His core message was this: We are living through a historic shift of global power from the West to China. Within the next 10–20 years, China is on track to overtake the United States as the world’s largest superpower.
When that happens, Mandarin will replace English as the most important global language in business, economy, technology, science, and knowledge.
He warned Malaysians not to pretend otherwise.
“Don’t fool ourselves into thinking Mandarin is not important,” he said.
“In 20 years, English will become less important compared to Mandarin. The future global language will be Mandarin.”
He then asked a direct question to every parent:
“What will happen to our children’s future?”
“Imagine your son or daughter is 5 years old today. When they grow up and enter the workforce, they will need Mandarin to advance in their careers. We are going to live through an era where, without Mandarin, we will be at a serious disadvantage.”
Because of this reality, Rafizi believes Malaysia must move from being a bilingual society (Bahasa Melayu + English) to a trilingual society (Bahasa Melayu + English + Mandarin). He repeatedly emphasised:
“We must become a trilingual nation. Our children must start learning Mandarin now.”
“The rakyat must accept that becoming a trilingual society is no longer optional; it is a necessity.”
“Our country leadership should start selling the narrative of a trilingual society.”
“Even in the 13th Malaysia Plan (RMK-13), the government has already included the concept of a third national language.”
“To prepare for the future, we need to accelerate the teaching and mastery of Mandarin for all Malaysians, regardless of race.”
“The public needs to have the common sense that we need to be a trilingual society.”
On the UEC issue, Rafizi pointed out what he sees as clear hypocrisy and tied it directly to the practical challenges of building a trilingual nation:
“The Chinese community has been paying taxes for decades while receiving very little government assistance for their schools.”
“Thousands of top universities around the world already recognise the UEC. We accept A-Levels, the International Baccalaureate (IB), and many other foreign qualifications without question, so why do we make it so difficult to recognise UEC?”
“If we want to be a trilingual society, we need to recognise UEC—because we will be lacking Mandarin school teachers.”
“Only by recognising UEC can UEC graduates teach in our national schools nationwide.”
“Refusing to recognise UEC, and the broader reluctance to promote Mandarin widely, is effectively denying an entire generation of Malaysians the chance to master the language they will need most in the future. It is a keperluan masa depan (necessity for the future).”