the majority of the chinese are also the most well-educated and responsible for a great deal of malaysia's well and any advancements. malaysia is regressing at a terrible rate with heavy focus on the malay language instead of english, which is what's responsible for the country languishing while it's chinese population and singapore are advancing into the next half of the century. i have a cousin who is an elementary school teacher in the state of malacca. she's half Malacca-Eurasian and half chinese. her english is ATROCIOUS. there's so much emphasis on malaysia's ethnic malay identity and islam by the government. even the catholic schools in portuguese malacca have had to drop it's 'christian' names, such as 'holy infant jesus convent' is now something like insert 'street name' school. friends and cousins who holiday there during ramadan and other muslim holiday periods have to be careful and sure that they have their IDs (which state their religions) and wear their crosses so as not to be mistaken for malays engaged in 'sinful' activity...such as EATING (at the wrong time), eating PORK, imbibing, or associating with the opposite sex (esp if unmarried).
malaysia is a beautiful country, but it is night & day when compared to singapore. the religious nutters are getting worse with every pandering politician they put in office. while there's much i disagree with where singapore's governing style is concerned, i'd rather pack my bags to live there than in malaysia, no matter how beautiful it is, no matter that my maternal heritage is firmly footed in historic malacca. btw, they adorn themselves with 22k gold because it's easily pawned and worth a great deal. try selling gemstone jewelry to a pawn shop owner...he'll usually scoff. try selling him crap american 14k - he'll laugh you right out of the store!!
Not learning english will hurt themselves in the international markets.
Not just alot of tourism but also business is often conducted in english.