KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 -- Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad urged defenders of the national language to set aside their objections to the use of English in education, saying the learning of science and mathematics would be harmed otherwise.

The prime minister told the Dewan Rakyat during the Minister's Question Time today that science and mathematics were fields of knowledge that advance rapidly and continually, and that insisting on teaching these in Bahasa Melayu would hamper Malaysian students.

"(New discoveries in) science and mathematics is not something that is pioneered in Bahasa Melayu as it is studied by those whose mother tongue is a different language. If we don't understand the language, it will be difficult to translate...