For LSM, extract about the Brunei 1962 Revolution

This is basically for LSM, since he seems to fancy articles about the Revolution. However, I also want to share with the rest of you and show how smart I am reading such stuff because we rarely get articles like this one on the Internet anyway.

Anyway, this is an extract from Jones, G. (1996), The Changing Role of English in Brunei Darussalam, presented at the English in Southeast Asia Conference, Singapore.

In preparation for elections and full independence, a political party, the Parti Rakyat Brunei (Peoples' Party of Brunei) had been formed on 22 January 1956. The Party was diametrically opposed to continued leadership by the Sultan. An intense power struggle, followed by elections theat were annulled, resulted in open revolt in 1962. The insurrection was quickly suppressed by troops loyal to the Sultan and British troops and Gurkhas. In the aftermath of the rebellion, many schools were used as barracks and temporary schools had to be built. An immediate consequence was that the Baki-Chang report and subsequent National Educational policy of 1962 were buried, their recommendations were never acted upon and instead the pre-1959 educational policies were continued.

There. Read on if you are interested on what impact the Revolution has on our education system.

This is an important point in tthe history of education in Brunei and on the role of English in the state. Had the revolt not occured, then Brunei would have followed the same education model as Malaysia. Today there would be no bilingual system and Malay would be the maiin medium of instruction in all Bruneian schools.

Thank GOD. I would be out of a job if the revolt hadn't happened. God knows where I'll be. Still doing the Sciences majoring in Biology perhaps? Gasp! I might not even be in University! *shudder*

The 'Malaysian model' referred to in the article is where Malay is the main medium of instruction in all national primary and secondary schools in the nation and English is only taught as a subject. Imagine that. 

Anyway, I am doing some reading and revision for my Bilingualism exam so expect a few posts on Brunei Bilingualism and its National Educational Policies. Tune in if you are interested. But not too much! I can be predictably lazy.