The Metrosexual

I seriously think that this step in attempting to "preserve"
our national language is utterly unnecessary. Bahasa Malaysia is a wonderful language no doubt, but it is a relatively young language which
still borrows certain terms from English. The ministry should not spend our
limited funds by hiring "officers" to ensure that our national
language is not being misused. Furthermore changing well known names such as
Boulevard to Lebuh Perdana for the sake of Bahasa Malaysia
is a rather for lack of a better word stupid.

If one were to really improve on
our National Language, we need to start from the beginning. Through education
the government and DBP can form a strong foundation in today’s youth in Bahasa Malaysia.

The key to it is to make learning the language fun, only then would they have
interest in it. Having some traditional Malay folk stories such as Pak Pandir
and legends such as the adventures of Hang Tuah and his friends would surely
help cultivate a life long interest in the Malay language.

Next would be on the
quality rather than the quantity of shows shown on national television using Bahasa Malaysia. Most of
the programmes shown are local soap operas of very unrealistic characters and
scenarios that are unheard of in Malaysia.

The reason why most Penangites or Kuchingites who are mostly Hokkien-speaking
can catch Cantonese is due to the Cantonese soap operas shown on TV. By applying
this method, indirectly television can be used as a tool to help improve our
Bahasa Malaysia. The only thing now is that we lack good story lines, dialogues
and a decent set of actors and actresses.

In my humble opinion, Datuk Seri Rais
Yatim isn’t doing our National Language any favors by advising or fining those
individuals who do not use the language properly. We all can’t be grammatically
correct all the time cannot we? (Note the example). Instead he is driving a
wedge between the people and the language itself. A mixture between English and
Malay, Hokkien and Malay, Tamil and Malay, Iban and Malay, Kadazan and Malay
languages is inevitable. It is sometimes used not only for communication
purposes but also for business (i.e. the presentation of products on signboards) If the good
Datuk were to fine these entrepreneurs how is this going to help the growth of
our country? The common folk whose command of the language is substandard at
best would be further estranged by it.

What the good Datuk should do is to
reward those businessmen or individuals who portray Bahasa Malaysia CORRECTLY. Trust
me if he were to do this our National Language would be strengthened. It is
much better to win others by love rather by force in a delicate matter such as
this.

P.S the author is currently very bored and has plenty of time on his hands and is sick of surfing through the naughty sites.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 26th, 2006 at 2:36 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.