Muhyiddin: Bahasa Melayu is being marginalized

MalaysiaKini : Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today that many Malaysians appear to be ashamed of speaking Bahasa Melayu so much so that the national language seems to be marginalised in the country.

The Deputy Prime Minister said this was not the case in countries like China and Japan where people were proud of their own languages, using them at all levels.

"There's a worry that our national language may be sidelined as people prefer to use English.

"When I was in China, everybody there spoke Chinese. People in Japan also speak their own language. There will only resort to English when they want to speak to you personally.

"I think that it boils down to attitude. Perhaps using a language other than English is not that glamorous, as if Bahasa Melayu is a low-class language," he said in response to a question from Senator Datuk Dr Firdaus Abdullah on the declining usage of the national language, at the Dewan Negara sitting here today.

Muhyiddin, who is Education Minister, said people seemed to miss the fact that the Malay language continued to be among the more prominent languages in the world, and spoken by more people globally than certain other languages.

He observed that English seemed to be the preferred language at many public and private sector events, including government functions, despite the fact that the grasp of the language among Malays and non-Malays had improved.

The deputy prime minister also took a swipe at event organisers who chose English over Bahasa Melayu at functions where "only two or three Westerners" were present.

He wondered aloud whether the use of Bahasa Melayu would translate into less customers and dwindling profits for companies.

Muhyiddin said that a special committee had been set up to look at how to restore the national language to its proper place.

He pointed out that legislation to promote the use of Bahasa Melayu had been put in place, but people may accuse the government of being inconsiderate if action was taken against those who flouted such laws.

A new circular stressing on the importance of using the national language at all levels would be issued to all government departments, he said.

Muhyiddin added that awareness campaigns focusing on the need to use Bahasa Melayu would continue -BERNAMA

Labels: Malays 1 comments:

tukangkata said...

There is indeed evidence that BM is being sidelined and being at the wrong end of urbanites' attitudes. Many localized websites for Malaysians are only in English without a BM option. And I hear people scoffing BM as an unoriginal language that borrowed too heavily from other languages. If that is so, neither is English (borrowed heavily from Latin, Greek and French) nor Japanese (borrowed heavily from Chinese)!



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Malaysia Airlines cuts expansion plans amid soaring fuel cost, Japan’s crisis.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysia Airlines said Wednesday it would trim its global expansion this year as it suffers from the double blow of soaring jet fuel prices and the consequences from Japan’s earthquake.

Managing Director Azmil Zahruddin said the flag carrier would still grow this year but at much lower than the targeted 10 per cent rise in capacity. He said the airline has cut flights to Tokyo from 11 to seven times a week after the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis severely crimped inbound travel.

Much worse was the cost of jet fuel, its single biggest cost item, which has tripled since 2009.

Malaysia Airlines has raised fuel surcharges by more than ten per cent since late 2010 and may increase it further if fuel prices continue to rise, he said. It has hedged 25 per cent of its fuel needs this year at about $90 per barrel of crude oil.

“Fares may or may not go up depending on the markets. The key is to lower non-fuel costs with better efficiency and less wastage. If fuel prices keep going up, there is a negative impact on us,” he told reporters at an economic forum.

Azmil said the carrier’s fleet renewal program, including a range of new fuel-efficient Airbus planes that would be delivered through to 2016, would help cut overall costs by 2 per cent and lower costs on per seat basis by up to 15 per cent annually.

The airline is on track to receive the first of its six A380 superjumbos in April 2012, after five years of delay, he added. Last year, Malaysia Airlines’ net profit fell 55 per cent from a year earlier to 237 million ringgit ($78 million).