Berpada-pada dengan Bahasa Anda

I remembered when I was in the primary school, our teacher, Mr.Ong set this rule in our class and for all the prefects : Whoever found spoken in the chinese dialects will be fined 50sen. 50sen during our time is BIG money and that could mean no meals for recess time later. But his intention was noble, to encourage us to speak Chinese, English or Bahasa instead. Thanks to him, we all speak fluent Chinese now. Afterall, the 50sen collected would be contributed to our class/prefects fund for our own benefit, so no complaint.

Today, the news goes like this : The Cabinet (I thought in Malaysia, law is passed by Parliament?) has given the Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka (DBP) the power to advise and fine anyone not using the national language correctly on signboards. Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim (man, you again ah?) said this was one of the measures being taken to streghthen the national language. ~as quoted in Star, 05 October 2006

Datuk said that the step was outlined by the Ministry of Education and his ministry and approved by Cabinet to make sure the national language is not side-lined ( a favourite hot word made popular by u know who ) in any way.

So, first thing first, I really don't know that our cabinet has this power. I have always thought that fine or penalty is carried out when one has offended any civil or criminal laws (written) in the country. So I really don't know that without any clear definition of 'kesalahan penggunaan Bahasa', the amount to be fined, a law can be made a law. Maybe we do practise adat bertulis and adat tanpa bertulis till today. Pardon me, I have to admit that I am just a normal naive woman, very very ignorance about law, politics and the kind. So I bag your pardon for being a bit confused here...

Secondly, I think if I were to teach and encourage my kids in the future to learn Bahasa, I would certainly not fine them for mistakes that they do. Instead, I would just advise them and show good example of not speaking bahasa pasar. I would rather speak clearly, pronounce it properly so that they could learn. I think if I were to punish them if they speak wrongly, they would just give up and hate the language even more. Mistakes are bound to be made, but that is part of learning.

Thirdly, as I said, setting good example. Many a time, you will find notices that go like this in the government departments :
'Di larang masuk tanpa urusan' instead of 'Dilarang masuk tanpa urusan'
'Tolong senyap' instead of 'Sila (Diminta) Senyap'
'.......ditingkat atas' instead of '...........di tingkat atas'
'...........di atas perkara tersebut instead of '............atas perkara tersebut'

etc etc....

If simple grammar like this does not catch the DBP's attention so far, I think now it is time to act and act fast. It is nonsense if we are trying to fine the public when the authorities themselves are not doing it right, right from the start.

And so, side-lined? I would not to comment on this. I know what Bahasa meant to me. It is a national language, I have to learn it. I learn English too because it is an international language. I learn to read and write Chinese and Japanese too. I speak Hainanese, Hokkien, Cantonese etc. That does not mean that I side-lined my national language. Never.

Language is a platform for us to come together to understand each other better. It is a platform and should not be confined to a national and a national alone. If so, we are restricting the language to grow and evolve.