The restoration of Bahasa Malaysia as the official reference to the national language is most welcome.
DAP had been very critical of the move in the eighties when Bahasa Malaysia was dropped and replaced by Bahasa Melayu, as it was a step backwards for Malaysian nation-building.
The Cabinet decision in April to restore the term Bahasa Malaysia for the national language has proven the DAP right in taking a far-sighted nationalist position in the past two decades that the term Bahasa Malaysia should continue to be used to signify that the national language had been elevated to a language for the nation and all races which make up the nation — and that it was Umno, MCA,. Gerakan, MIC and all the other Barisan Nasional component parties which had been wrong in taking a retrogressive step.
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who was the Education Minister in 1986 when initiating the change, had been blamed for dropping the term Bahasa Malaysia in favour of Bahasa Melayu.
The question is why the other Ministers and leaders in Barisan Nasional, whether Umno, MCA, Gerakan, MIC and other component parties from Sabah and Sarawak went along with the change and did nothing to restore the term for the past 10 years when Anwar was no more in the Barisan Nasional.
In this connection, an explanation is warranted from the Information Minister, Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin for the sheepish, surreptitious and selective manner in announcing the April Cabinet decision after two months.
Today, only the Star and Sin Chew Daily were the only English and Chinese language newspapers to report this April decision of the Cabinet to restore the term Bahasa Malaysia as the official term for the national language. There was not a single Bahasa Malaysia medium which reported this important Cabinet decision.
If this is regarded by the Ministers as an important Cabinet decision in the nation-building process to foster national unity and integration, why was the subject treated as if it is an “unmentionable” subject for two months, and when it was made public, done in a most selective manner when it should be properly announced to all language media, whether printed or electronic?
The sheepish, surreptitious and selective manner the Cabinet decision of April had been handled has detracted from its value and meaning as an important step to promote national integration by emphasizing that the national language has transcended its racial origin to become a national language of all Malaysians regardless of race or religion.
Najib proudly proclaimed in the Singapore roadshow last week “NO FLOP FLOPs!!!”. Here is a prime example. The crooked bridge is another example. We had the PM and DPM making lofty announcements that we will be proceeding with the construction and then, just a few weeks later, made a complete turnaround.
Who is he trying to fool? Flip flopping is a Malaysia Boleh specialty. The root cause is our Govt are staffed by Ministers who lacks the culture or ability of thinking through an issue before acting or opening their mouths. Decisions made in wishy washy manners, for reasons of political expediency or playing to the gallery will never have the strength and conviction to stand the test of time.
As for the MCA, Gerakan and MIC, I think I best leave my comments unsaid on this bunch of eunuchs. They have already mortgaged their souls to the devil in return for the material trappings of their office. The day they were made ministers was the day their principles went out the window.
this is aprt of the flip-flop administration. So I bet there will be some major ads going out to promote this NEW BAHASA MALAYSIA and some crony will get the job done.
SACK the Minister of Information! It is not his business to be selective in the issuance of government information to the public. He has a duty to keep the People informed of government announcements/policies, why a two month delay? That’s deleriction of duty!
This guy has been a real embarrassment to the country, he must be replaced.
Being right for most part of the past doesnt help the future..DAP! I want to read about “what Mr.Lim would do for DAP?” Will the legacy of Father&Son continue? would new breed of representative being brought into DAP? When will you sing us a new tune? We already knows WOff WOff! the big bad WOLF!
Election is drawing near, give us something or reasons to vote for DAP. We dont want a watch dog anymore, we want an alternative government comprises of all races., an intelligent group of people representing the people of Malaysia.
No difference to me. i always referred to it as Bahasa Malaysia. Did not even bother when they called it Bahasa Melayu.
Anyway its not of much importance when the private sector employs English mainly, and only uses Bm in correspondence with government departments.
And internationally, no one cares whether its called Bahasa Melayu or Malaysia.
to me,
whether u are electing DAP or BN doesnt make any changes at all..
voting BN will only give them absolute power, and our non-Muslim demand would not be heard when they’ve get absolute power. And the government will keep on protecting their people, supplying them with what’s over supplies just to get them lazy,weak,corrupted and uncompetant.
Do other party a favor, buy them some chairs so that at least the government is not 100% run by a single power. ( which i take this as dictatorship..haha…)
Speaking of flip flops…..On the day that had an international seminar in JB on the IDR, everyone was shocked silent by the MB’s declaration that there would not be a Free Access Zone even though it had been announced that we would have one earlier. So who they trying to convince about the no flip flops. They have done it on day one, and will continue to do so.
Flip flops or fail flaws………………..no big thingy for Malaysia Boleh!
I entirely agree with lakshy. Call it what B Malaysia or Melayu DOESN’T MATTER. Waste of effort arguing about it. More focus to other political issues that would remove BN in future.
rayden, seems we have nothing to vote for then..let other decides the fate of our nation. As the following from DAP site, looks like internally you have member making away with some small loot, like dinner contribution and subscription fees. Why bother to ask him to respond, as usual you have proof of theft, make a police report. (Breach of trust)
DAP Disciplinary Committee Expels Khong Chee Seng
___________________
Media Statement
by Chow Kon Yeow
______________________
(Petaling Jaya, Saturday) : The DAP Disciplinary Committee today expelled the secretary of the DAP Consumers’ Affair Bureau Khong Chee Seng.
He was sacked after repeatedly failing to respond to correspondence by the Disciplinary Committee seeking answers on allegations of organising two fund raising dinners under the party’s name on 24 th and 25th September 2005 and failure to submit due levies to the Selangor State Committee.
He has also refused to respond to the request to submit new Teratai branch membership forms and subscription fees to the party HQ.
The Disciplinary Committee has written three letters to ask him to explain the situation but there was no response from him. As a result, the Disciplinary Committee decided to expel him from the party.
Khong has the right to appeal the decision within 14 days to the Central Executive Committee
Our political leaders are fond of trivializing and sidetracking issues that are obvious to the lay people. They make our lives stressful! Heck, politics are not supposed to complicate our lives but in Malaysia, we have to learn to live under leaders who cannot see critical issues from trivial ones.
I suppose most people don’t care if the Malay language is called Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia. They are the same but called by different names in different context. To the Malays, it is Bahasa Melayu because it is their language. To the non-Malays, it is still Bahasa Melayu. It becomes Bahasa Malaysia when politicians start to politicize a language to call it a language that unify the various races. And yes, especially when elections is around the corner. It is BS because unification is not done by a statement from a minister. It has to be worked at hard to get people to respect and honor each other. After 50 years of independence we are still quarrelling on how to call our national language? Shame on our leaders!
We may as well call Islam Agama Melayu and for unification purpose Agama Malaysia. That is consistent isn’t it?
Whatever they do I will only get serious if they make sense. So far a lot of what comes out get mostly in my book of political jokes.
Unless there are changes at top leadership in BN then only we have hope to progress, the old one should go and the new one take over. But the problem is the young one is even worse because the old one never teach them how to stand properly, because the old one didn’t know how to stand themsleves, after fifty years the learned how to pass the tongkat proffesionally,
acts like a spoiled child while the unfortunate Rakyat lives painfully. It doesn’t matter what languages you are speaking.
aku tak kisah sangat pasal bahasa malaysia ke, bahasa melayu ke, atau bahasa kampong. at least, dia kata untuk malaysian. tu aku setuju. yang aku tak setuju, kaum kaum lain nama saja malaysian, tapi mereka di ketepikan.
walau bagaimana pun, bahasa tidak dapat diguna secara meluas diluar negara. saya lebih suka jika anak anak saya di didik dalam bahasa inggeris dan bahasa ibundanya. bahasa inggeris adalah bahasa international, dimana ramai dapat bertutur, menulis. membaca dan memahami sesama sendiri.
by the same token, should we rename Keretapi Tanah Melayu = Keretapi Malaysia, and Judges of Malaya = Judges of Malaysia?
Quote FuturePolitician:
“Election is drawing near, give us something or reasons to vote for DAP. We dont want a watch dog anymore, we want an alternative government comprises of all races., an intelligent group of people representing the people of Malaysia.”
Firstly, I cannot see there’s an alternative party to vote for besides DAP. Not voting will be the worst decision. And please you guys should stop complaining about what opposition party can do.
Which party has always had 2/3 of the parlimentary sits since independence?
Who are the people who put the ever corrupted government into the power?
Who are the people that despise the opposition parties and made their parlimentary power so pathetic?
It WAS all of you (your parents, relatives and friends) who EVER voted for BN!
It is obvious that oppositions can’t have enough man power to govern the country at present time. But it is obvious and realistic that the strategy for oppositions now, are to gain at least 1/3 of parlimentary seats so that they can be there to uphold our rights and interest! (To prevent BN from passing anymore discriminative law or attempt any cover-ups)
It would be all bullshit if oppositions start drafting a plan on how they’ll gonna govern the country cause as if they’ll gonna every get over 50% of parlimentary seats in the 20 years to come! The oppositions are just being realistic, and you have to learn to be too! “Rome is not built in a day.”
If you ever doubt the capability of the oppositions’ candidates, just think of it this way —>
YB Lim has withstand greed and grief to ever merge DAP with BN (Not like MCA dogs counterpart) despite all the diappointment in past elections and the ‘wealth’ that BN offers! As the earlier article pointed out, “It is hard to be right when the government is wrong!”. DAP has not waiver a moment in their fight for Malaysians. So let us, as voters, not surrender before the battle has even started!
If not, could anyone in the world be worse than the current ‘leaders’ of BN besides dictators like Hitler and Stalin?
FOR NOW, everyone should start educating their friends and family alike to vote for a change in the coming election, they have been dumb already for the passed half century, and do not let this continue. May God bless Malaysia!
Just last night, the Democratic candidates for the Democratic Primaries were asked on live TV if they thought that English should be the official language. Except for one, none of them thought that English should be the official language of the United States.
Everybody else agrees that English should be the national language.
The reason?? Because if English were to be made the official language, then interpretors would not be made available at state expense when their services are required in courts and hospitals etc.
That makes sense.
What does not is that why in Malaysia does language continue to be politicized by our politicians both sides of the political divide??
Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Melayu, is there any difference. What’s the point of splitting hairs when as in Samy Vellu’s case there is none that belongs to you left to be picked???
The real Bahasa Melayu is actually Bahasa Indonesia.
There’s actually no such thing as Bahasa Melayu.
The Bahasa that we used daily.. is actually a hybrid of Bahasa Indonesia and mixed with a wide range of words taken from English, Chinese, Indian and etc.
Hence, it should be Bahasa Malaysia.
Or, why not call it BAHASA NEGARA?
Like in China, they call their language, ‘Guo Yue’ which means National Language. Instead of ‘Hua Yue’ like we used here which means Chinese Language.
It’ll be nice to just call it BAHASA NEGARA.
I love that.
FuturePolitician Says:
Being right for most part of the past doesnt help the future..DAP! I want to read about “what Mr.Lim would do for DAP?†Will the legacy of Father&Son continue? would new breed of representative being brought into DAP? When will you sing us a new tune?
With due respect, why don’t you share with us here what YOU can offer and what you can do instead of running down this blogger who has sweat almost all his life in his endeavour to keeping us updated with his opinion; his commentary always supported with statistical facts of the case. There is so much to what one man can do.
On the other hand, realistically do you expect that we can change the government in the next GE. Most of us are not that naïve to think that way.
LKS or for that matter anyone, cannot make it themselves alone,
WE . . . . . have to chip in to do our part.
FuturePolitician,
I think politics is not your forte.
LoL !!!! good one, undergrad2 !
The 4 Scandinvian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland) are among the richest countries in the world. Most of the Scandivians speaks more than 2 foreign languages.
These countries know very well without mastering foreign languages, their economies and growth will be doomed!
Here in Malaysia, most of the Malays speak only BM. Looking at the trent, we all know what will happen to Malaysia and especially to Malay people in 20 years time!
Even for Japanese people, though they may not able to speak well (Japanese people do not have much chance to converse in English), most of the younger generation Japaneses are extremely good in reading and writing in English.
Calling it Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia makes no different, important issue is we Malaysians must be bilingual or trilingual in order to survive in this competitive world!
forward- gostan – forward -gostan – forward- gostan ……..
to some, jadi jaguh kampung is good enough.
No need to talk about globalisation.
After makan, can tidur bawah pokok kelapa tepi pantai.
And this will be an everyday affair.
What for talk about globalisation or even outer space.
the most also do a teh-tarik experiment in outer space.
my kinder-garten teacher told me in outer space got no gravity, how our learned spaceman can do a teh being tarik in space (without gravity) would be a wonderful discovery.
simply change from Bahasa Melayu to Bahasa Malaysia won’t make me feel more like part of Malaysian in this country..our great grand parent lives here for as far as we know..we still get threat as org asing…whereby other immigrant indonesian get the PR status and their next generation is “Bumiputra”…
Another time and $ wasting effort for the govt!
Forget about all this crap. Doesn’t our ministers have anything better to do? There are so many things that needs immediate attention and they choose to address all this unnecessary stuff. Please….focus on your job to make this country progress forward rather than backwards. Lately there have been so many activities to rename roads, now renaming the language!
Btw, where are the performance goals set for the year and the KPI goals to measure the performance of the ministers? Pay rise should be aligned to their ranking Vs the KPI and not across the board.
Do I look like I care if it is called Bahasa Rojak? We have more urgent matters to look into and these baboons are hogging the front page of major newspapers with their dumb suggestions ….again.
Futurepolitician ‘d better focus more attention on the current happenings rather than the unknown future.Kudos to Utopia and others who can distinguish between the right and the wrong.
Yup, what Utopia said is true.
1> Hats off to Unc Lim for fighting w BN for so many decades in parliaments – i wonder how his heart takes it debating with clowns all these years in parliament. May you live long n healthy to continue this fight and WE will be with you. The people of Ipoh Timur, you were the heroes in the last GE!
We all owe to ppl like LKS, Karpal Singh, the late Ahmad Nor, the late P Patto and Guan Eng, and the rest…
Without them fighting i think we would be worst off.
2> We HAVE to started educating, spread the message thru net, etc, on our frens, colleagues, family members (Manage to get my wife to resgister as a voter last week, :-) YES, DAP has got an extra vote d!) And if everyone here can do the same, there’ll be many more votes to come.
The plan is to win more seats that’s all.
And each day if any of you still watch any local made dramas, you will find that the usage of bahasa rojak is a norm. I tak suka la. You sudah makan? And we thought they were dead serious once when they wanted local dramas to use just bahasa melayu. Crap!
Many of us had missed the subtle message. I think they are trying to put somebody who was the Minister of education at that time ( in the 80s)in bad lights as he was the one who changed from Bahasa Malaysia to Bahasa Melayu.
If you look at it critically, there is a strong message there.
Gosh, what’s with all these craps lah? These goons are really that “wu liao” meh? From Japanese toilets to Bahasa Malaysia. Oops, I actually mean Bahasa Rojak or rather Bahasa Zak Fan. When I was driving to work yesterday, I tuned in to MyFM radio news. When I heard that Bahasa Melayu was gonna be replaced by Bahasa Malaysia, my instinctive reaction was like, “oh ok, whatever”.
Strictly speaking in Chinese, Bahasa Melayu is called “ma lai yu” while Bahasa Malaysia is called “ma lai xi ya yu”. No Chinese ever bothers to distinguish between the two. People from Mainland China and Taiwan often refer to Bahasa Melayu or Malaysia as “ma lai yu” which is short for “ma lai xi ya yu”. So I’m just wondering what’s the big deal here. It’s just they and their BM, toilets and what not.
Hi mendela, speaking of the Nordic countries, are the Scandinavians able to speak each other’s languages? I learnt that Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are almost mutually intelligible to one another, but not Finnish as it’s unique.
You said that Scandinavia are among the richest nations in the world but I’m just curious why they are not part of the G7 or G8 nations?
No, that is not Bahasa Malaysia. That is Bahasa Malaya. Melayu language in Sarawak is different from that in Malaya
Name is not important…..the people must take pride of the national language.
True, but the thing is, it’s difficult to take pride in the national language when it’s biased towards a certain colour and creed. Moreover, it’s not given worldwide recognition as the European languages, Mandarin, Korean, and Japanese. Bahasa Indonesia is a different ball game though.
There was not a single Bahasa Malaysia medium which reported this important Cabinet decision.
The reason. This has to be kept a “secret” from the Malays as it will hurt their pride. Remember, election is near and the BN needs non-Malay votes, so let only the non-Malays know about it.
After the election there is nothing to stop the flip-flop government from reverting to Bahasa Melayu or even to Bahasa Bumiputra.
As for me, “Who cares?”
After all I am a non Bumiputra, second class citizen. Does it matter what the national language is ,when the government does not recognize me as a full-fledged citizen with equal rights with the others.
hi takazawa,
does a country have to be a member of G7 or G8 to be rich & prosperous ?
I’ve known a lot of Scandinavians during my uni days and read abit abt their culture and countries, and let me tell everyone here, their welfare and quality of life is even way better than the US or any of the developed countries.
So what say u ? :)
Dear Takazawa, Scaninavian countries are very rich but they have very small population. Finland only has 5.2 M, Sweden if I am not wrong is around 9 Millions population only. Denmark too is very small.
G8 countries must be relatively big in size in their GNP.
We never really treasured our heritage from history. They tried to put their own heritage above the rest and priority. Most of us don’t mind at all. Our History lessons have been revised to focused more on their heroes and things that they contributes for the birth of this country. All along we never object their intentions as long as there are also enough rooms for others to continue their own practices and beliefs.
With a bigger percentage of population (including those ‘awarded’ citizenship, they cannot make a breakthrough mainly because of these few reasons :
1. These ‘selected’ people that they taken in to make up the numbers are also having a different level of beliefs and practices.
2. They still have enough roots back in their origin country that they are more comfortable with.
3. They are staying here because of better living opportunities as compared to where they used to be.
4. Among themselves, they also segregate their activities and family or roots pride.
5. They still transferring funds back to their origin country.
There could be many more reasons to why and please don’t blame other races when coming to the question of supporting Malaysian Malaysia.
Strange that my wife’s office (government department) received a circular about this yesterday. Which means that it was decided much earlier. I dont see how the government can send a circular so fast unless everything has been decided waaaaay in advance.
Any way, its much ado about nothing. Makes no difference in everyones life. It’s still NOT MY language, and its of no importance to the rest of the world or even malaysians what its called. I use this bahasa ROJAK when necessary.
// The 4 Scandinvian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland) are among the richest countries in the world. Most of the Scandivians speaks more than 2 foreign languages. //
mendela – yes the Nordic countries (N, S, D, F and Iceland) can speak a few languages. But that may not be the reason for their relative prosperity. India has a few hunderd languages (and most of them are as foreign to each other as you can get) and even more dialects. But this does not make it rich.
The other common denominator among the Nordic countries is that they all have secular rule. And they are all ranked among the Top 25 richest per capita GDP in the world. Religions does not factor very much in these government and policies are not made by religious bigots.
In fact, I would extend this to most of the rich countries in the world – they all have secular rule. Contrast this to all the failed states in the world – they are all ruled by religious regimes.
Rankings > GDP per capita – purchasing power parity (Top 30)
Rank Country Value / Unit
1. Luxembourg $55,100
2. Norway $37,800
3. United States $37,800
4. Bermuda $36,000
5. Cayman Islands $35,000
6. San Marino $34,600
7. Switzerland $32,700
8. Denmark $31,100
9. Iceland $30,900
10. Austria $30,000
11. Canada $29,800
12. Ireland $29,600
13. Belgium $29,100
14. Australia $29,000
15. Hong Kong $28,800
16. Netherlands $28,600
17. Japan $28,200
18. Aruba $28,000
19. United Kingdom $27,700
20. France $27,600
21. Germany $27,600
22. Finland $27,400
23. Monaco $27,000
24. Sweden $26,800
25. Italy $26,700
26. Falkland Islands $25,000
27. Liechtenstein $25,000
28. Singapore $23,700
29. Taiwan $23,400
30. United Arab Emirates $23,200
http://www.geographyiq.com/ranking/ranking_GDP_per_capita_purchasing_power_parity_dall.htm
Bahasa Indonesia
Bahasa Melayu
Bahasa Malaysia
Bahasa Negara
Bahasa Kebangsaan (we used to have this in the 1960s, remember?)
To me they are all the same in different clothings. Outsiders will say to us, Get a Life, Malaysia! We seems to be stuck in terminology with a lost identity. Happy 50th birthday!
megaman,
Not necessarily, but I’m just wondering why Italy and Russia are part of G7/G8 when their social welfare is definitely way inferior to that of Scandinavia and north western Europe.
Or the question I should ask is what are the main criteria in evaluating a G7/G8 nation? Can anyone please enlighten me on this?
utopia – opposition currently doesnt have the manpower? Fix it., what BN can do, opposition or alternate government can do it. Does the opposition has a component party within itself? If you look at BN structure, it is like a Company. there are plenty of Watchdog around, even if Uncle Lim retires, there will be other watchdog barking at the government, why? Human nature..we need attention, some more some less, like babies. The toothless dog is worthless because it will be ignored due to its harmless bite. Nothing will change, if DAP doesnt change its role and look into the bigger picture. DAP would see the apology by the two MP as victory, but without the global support and the foreign medi and importantly the internet..all effort would be wasted.
Alvin- i am an ordinary citizen concerntration on My OWN BUSINESS. I would honestly like to see some changes in the political situation at current stage. During TDM era, non-malays could enjoy business ties with the malays in working on projects and sharing the profits fairly., now?? 50% this 70% that, 30% must give par value instead of market, 30% free, 7% discount, places of santuary torn down, Place of Worship in Shoplots, Bangalows,etc. If it continues, probably I would be a MUSLIM so I could survive and call myself ABDULLAH. This is not freedom, your choices are being reduced.
GOdamSingh – I dont need to study political science to be a Politician, I need to be a CARING CITIZEN, A RESPONSIBLE PERSON, A FATHER to A CHILD, A HUSBAND to A WIFE and THE PEOPLE will elect me if they BELIEVE I can bring Better CHANGES to their LIFE. Still I have to start somewhere..why not here.
Yes, for 50 years BN rules the Country and for 50 years DAP bark at them.. what is new? YOU all want changes, reduce majority of BN, Cry DONT vote for BN! For 50 years, the same tune.. for 50 years, the opposition is in disarray… WHY become a nuisance like fly? Maybe I am naive about the whole concept of DAP, maybe I am ignorant about their missions..Maybe I am not meant for being in DAP.. then I go back to Minding MY OWN BUSINESS..at least I make $$ doing it then trying and hoping DAP would make a real effort in changing the political situation..HECK! Maybe I join PAS..if they could be the alternative government, and DAP still, forever a barking dog.
takazawa,
From wiki – Group of Seven (G7), a group of seven industrialized nations of the world, formed in 1976 when Canada joined the Group of Six (United States of America, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom); now known as G8 (with Russia)
The key word is “industrialized”. I guess it also takes into account the geo-political considerations. Also, notice that all the countries are “white” countries; Japan having been considered an honorary “white”. It is a matter of time before it becomes G9 with the inclusion of China.
Thanks for the info. You’re spot on bro! I guess Korea should be in it in the near future as well.