<div dir="ltr"><h2>Malay language policy dividing communities instead of uniting them, forum told</h2>
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<strong>BY SHERIDAN MAHAVERA</strong><br> <strong class="">May 18, 2014</strong><br>
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<p>
<span class="" style="width:540px"><img alt="(From left) Faisal Tehrani, Dr Mustafa Kamal Anuar, moderator Wan Hamidi Hamid, Prof Muhammad Salleh and Pauline Fan at the forum last night. – The Malaysian Insider pic, May 18, 2014." src="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/assets/uploads/resizer/bahasa_jiwa_01_1_540_303_100.jpg" style="width:540; height:303; "><span class="">(From
left) Faisal Tehrani, Dr Mustafa Kamal Anuar, moderator Wan Hamidi
Hamid, Prof Muhammad Salleh and Pauline Fan at the forum last night. –
The Malaysian Insider pic, May 18, 2014.</span></span>The government’s
flip-flop policy on the Malay language and persistent efforts by Malay
supremacists to tie it to one race and religion have divided Malaysians
and sparked conflicts such as the tussle over the word Allah, a forum
heard last night.</p>
<p>
By tying together ethnicity, Islam and the Malay language, so-called
“language champions” have in reality reduced the language’s reach and
shrunk the minds of parts of the Malay community.</p>
<p>
Novelist Faisal Tehrani said the ban on the use of the word Allah by
Christians, seen in the confiscation of Malay-language Bibles and
restrictions imposed on Christian worship, has made the Malay language
the exclusive language of one community.</p>
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However, this practice also contradicts the government’s own policy of
making the Malay language the national language that is supposed to be
adopted by everyone.</p>
<p>
“When language is tied to one race and religion, it actually heightens a sense of sensitivity (among a community).</p>
<p>
“So when a Chinese says 'Insyallah', the Malays are shocked. But in
reality, it only means 'God willing'. Just like 'Salam' is just a
greeting of peace.</p>
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“This is the problem when the authorities try to control language,”
said Faisal, who is also a fellow at UKM’s Institute of the Malay World
and Civilisation.</p>
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<span class="" style="width:350px;float:right"><img class="" alt="Novelist Faisal Tehrani says problems arise when authorities try to control language. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Shafiq Safiee, May 18, 2014." src="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/assets/uploads/resizer/faisal_tehrani_novelist_350_238_100.jpg" style="float: right;"><span class="">Novelist
Faisal Tehrani says problems arise when authorities try to control
language. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Shafiq Safiee, May 18, 2014.</span></span>Faisal’s
novel “Perempuan Nan Bercinta” (Women in love) was recently banned by
the Home Ministry for supposedly containing Shia Muslim elements.</p>
<p>
The current Barisan Nasional federal administration’s failure to
resolve the row over the use of the word Allah is what Faisal calls “the
fourth sin” the government has committed against the Malay language.</p>
<p>
Faisal was speaking at a forum titled “Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa Bahasa Jiwa
Kuasa?” (language the soul of a people or language the source of power?)
organised by the Penang Institute in Shah Alam.</p>
<p>
Other speakers at the forum included National Laureate Prof Muhammad
Salleh, Penang Institute fellow Dr Mustafa Kamal Anuar and Malaysiakini
columnist Pauline Fan.</p>
<p>
Faisal said Malaysia’s problematic language policy started in the 1930s
when an influential group of Malay writers adopted the belief that each
community should be identified by one language.</p>
<p>
This belief had been pioneered before that by famed author Munshi
Abdullah. Interestingly Munshi was an ethnic Tamil who spoke and wrote
fluent Malay, said Faisal.</p>
<p>
So the Malay language was identified with the Malay community, when in
actual fact the language, as part of a larger group called
Malayo-Polynesian, was spoken throughout the region by many other ethnic
groups.</p>
<p>
This was the first sin against the Malay language, Faisal said.</p>
<p>
The second sin was when Munshi’s idea was then adopted and promoted by
Malay nationalists in Umno who also weaved it into their independence
campaign against the British colonial government.</p>
<p>
The third sin, Faisal said, was when former Prime Minister Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamad flipped the national language policy on its head by
having Mathematics and Science taught in English in schools.</p>
<p>
“A survey at this time had shown that for a majority of Chinese
Malaysian families in Kelana Jaya, English was their third language. The
first was Mandarin, followed by Malay.”</p>
<p>
Muhammad, on the other hand, said the use of certain Malay terms itself
to describe the government and the public were problematic as it
nurtured a feudal master-subject mentality.</p>
<p>
“The term 'rakyat' is actually paired with 'raja' (king) and 'kerajaan'
(kingdom). Rakyat has a subjected, submissive connotation. I prefer
'warga negara' (citizen).”</p>
<p>
<span class="" style="width:300px;float:right"><img class="" alt="National Laureate Prof Muhammad Salleh says certain terms nurture a feudal master-subject mentality. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Shafiq Safiee, May 18, 2014." src="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/assets/uploads/resizer/Prof_Emeritus_Dr_Muhammad_Haji_Salleh_300_192_100.jpg" style="float: right;"><span class="">National
Laureate Prof Muhammad Salleh says certain terms nurture a feudal
master-subject mentality. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Shafiq Safiee,
May 18, 2014.</span></span>Muhammad also said paradoxically, the British
school system he experienced in the 1950s encouraged students to debate
and think for themselves as compared to the Malaysian education system
today.</p>
<p>
“If we narrow the spaces for debate and dialogue we will never reach new forms of understanding and knowledge.” </p>
<p>
Fan, who translates works in German and English into the Malay
language, said she had always found Malay culture and members of the
community open-minded and tolerant.</p>
<p>
These values were the opposite of the tone taken by groups who claimed to be speaking on behalf of the Malays.</p>
<p>
“I have never experienced the racialism that you often read about in the Malay newspapers from ordinary Malays.” </p>
<p>
Mustafa Kamal echoed these ideas and said the tussle over the use of
the word Allah and the identification of the Malay language with a
single community has prevented the Malay language from being a language
that unites all communities.</p>
<p>
“When you have one group who supposedly can use certain terms and other
groups who cannot use them, then you are dividing language and people.
It’s a form of apartheid.</p>
<p>
“If Malay is to be a national language there should not be any restrictions on its use and who gets to use it.” – May 18, 2014.</p><p><a href="http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/malay-language-policy-dividing-communities-instead-of-uniting-them-forum-to">http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/malay-language-policy-dividing-communities-instead-of-uniting-them-forum-to</a><br>
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