THE question of the relevance and significance of Bahasa Melayu has once again come to the fore as propounded by A. Murad Merican in his column in the New Sunday Times (NST, Oct 30).
He lamented the dismal use of the national language, which should have been an ingrained and seamless vehicle of both oral and written communications. But it was, and is, not to be.
The authorities have again and again made efforts to reenergise and revitalise the use of Bahasa Melayu by having the Bulan Bahasa with its slogans of Cintailah Bahasa Kita and Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa in an effort to galvanise the use of this language by all Malaysians, regardless of colour, creed or race.
To emphasise its academic stature and encourage academic works beyond the normally perceived literary language, the Higher Education Ministry established the Anugerah Akademik Bahasa Melayu award in 2012. It is open to all disciplines and thus far, four scholars have won the award.
In spite of these initiatives, the reception to the usage of Bahasa Melayu has remained at status quo, prompting the author to pen his commentary that sounded more like a dirge than just an ode to a lament.
We have heard the same tune played over and over again since Merdeka to emplace Bahasa Melayu as the national language of intellect, commerce and diplomacy with varying success but not the expected outcome of a premier language that binds the populace.
Before Merdeka, English was the official language of governance, education and urban and international commerce.
Malay held sway in the rural areas in trading, education (Malay and religious schools) and general communication among the races.
But English was indispensable if one wanted a good education and a respectable job both in the private and public sectors.
This situation persisted until the end of the 1960s when Bahasa Melayu was used in governance and education.
It was a painstaking effort but it was not wholly accepted by the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as certain segments of the populace for obvious reasons.
The government strategy then was to encourage the people to adopt Bahasa Melayu by making it mandatory for all official communication to be in the language.
It also quickly emplaced Malay as the main medium of instruction in national schools.
The Chinese and Indians felt that such a policy was deemed to infringe on the rights of their mother tongue and therefore, a need to preserve them. As a consequence, almost all Chinese and Indian parents recluse to the vernacular schools.
The situation persisted until today as a sizeable segment of the Malaysian population are still unable to converse in the national language.
Such a situation was allowed to persist because the government adopted a laissez faire attitude in the implementation of the national language policy. It was more of a strategy of motivation than coercion.
As a result, even after 59 years of independence we are still struggling to establish its supremacy simply because the language eco-system is not conducive to such proposition.
Although the medium of instruction is Malay in institutions of higher education, it is not supported by the available corpus of knowledge in any university’s library, which houses mostly works in English.
Furthermore, lecturers must meet their KPI for publications in international journals, preferably ISI (International Scientific Indexing) rated, which only accept articles in English that would aid in the ranking of the university.
The population of foreign students, which is an important factor in a university’s ranking, will be affected if all the degree and postgraduate programmes were conducted in Bahasa Melayu.
Another impediment to the widespread usage of Bahasa Melayu is that graduates educated in Bahasa Melayu have difficulty in securing jobs not only in the private sector but also in some government ministries that conduct international dealings.
The development and vibrancy of a language depends on the socio-cultural, political and intellectual milieu that support the practice of the language.
Bahasa Melayu currently lacks such support due to not only the political realities but also the attitude of certain segments of the society towards the language.
Since time immemorial, Malay has been the lingua franca of the archipelagic nations and very much so in Malaysia.
Notwithstanding the competition from other languages, especially English which is an essential language in this globalised world, the Malay language must be preserved and advanced.
Its usage must be extended to all facets of our livelihood.
MOHAMED GHOUSE
NASURUDDIN, Penang