Ahmad Rejal Arbee, the former Berita Harian group editor questioned the patriotism of non-Malays, especially Chinese, who refused to embrace the Malay language. His comments, which appeared in the Umno-controlled Berita Harian, showed his scepticism of non-Malays because after 53 years of independence, he said they were not proud of the national language and hence were not loyal citizens.
As we approach the general election, we can expect more contemptuous and baseless arguments similar to those made by Ahmad Rejal and other members of the ruling coalition.
Ahmad Rejal said, “They get so sensitive when their patriotism is doubted but make no effort to use and understand Malay. What loyalty is there if they do not try to learn and use their own national language?”
He said that what was learnt in Chinese vernacular schools was only to pass exams and that the non-Malays deliberately “belittled Malay” despite calling Malaysia their country.
His comments reflected former Prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed’s sentiments, who said that “non-Malays should cut ties with their countries of origin if they did not want to be considered immigrants in this country”.
According to Mahathir, Malaysia belonged to the Malays and therefore, non-Malays should accept the culture and language of the dominant community.
As for Ahmad Rejal, he opined that non-Malays made no effort to uphold the use of Malay.
He said, “Can you blame Malays for assuming that Chinese do not want to uphold Malay as the national language? When can we hope for Chinese and Indians to speak in the national language in their daily speech?”
Ahmad Rejal also called on the Education Ministry to have must-pass oral exams for students taking Malay.
Ahmad Rejal’s pathetic measure of patriotism is similar to the Ipoh Mayor who said that the people who did not fly the Malaysian flag outside their business premises and homes were unpatriotic. The mayor threatened to fine those businesses or revoke their licences, if they did not fly the flag.
One would have thought that Ahmad Rejal, a current Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Fellow and a former newspaper editor would have been more open-minded, would have valued the benefits that competition brings and would have thought more in global terms.
Normal people value change and know that to be successful in the modern world, they would have to move with the times. In science, technology, commerce and the diplomatic world, the common language is English. It is not Malay.
The world’s most spoken language is Chinese, followed by Spanish, then English. We have enough trouble learning Malay, and English, it would be a job for our students, to try and tackle Spanish.
Anyone wanting to undertake research in the higher disciplines is hampered by the lack of appropriate terminology in Malay. Moreover, many modern Malay words terms are clumsy bastardisations of English, like ‘explorasi’, ‘potensi’, ‘realasasi’, ‘komunikasi’. No wonder people use ‘permutasi’ for permutations when the Malay equivalent is ‘pengubahan susunan sesuatu’, which is rather a mouthful.
The lack of subtlety in the Malay language makes it unattractive to many people, Malays included. So don’t blame the people, especially the non-Malays when it is our academics who do not make the language or the study of the language more interesting and creative.
People like Ahmad Rejal are simply trying to turn the Malays against the non-Malays.
Is it the fault of the non-Malay whose child is not fluent in Malay because the child was sent abroad, to be educated? Is that his fault that his parents were denied access to educational facilities for their children in Malaysia?
What about the Malaysians in East Malaysia who are fluent in their own language? Are they to be condemned?
One should not equate loyalty towards one’s country with fluency and use of the Malay language.
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