Zam Regrets Some Media Still Using Bahasa Melayu

LANGKAWI, Jun 4 (Bernama) -- Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin is disappointed that some print and electronic media are still using the term Bahasa Melayu instead of Bahasa Malaysia.

He said Bahasa Melayu should no longer be used to refer to the national language after the Cabinet made its decision on the matter in April.

"The Cabinet had made its decision and I had informed the media through Bernama (Malaysian National News Agency) on this. But unfortunately, some media choose to ignore the instruction.

"I also believe that Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka should play an important role in ensuring that the term Bahasa Malaysia be used by everyone," he told Bernama here, Monday.

He said there should be no excuse for any quarters not to use the term Bahasa Malaysia as the language to unite all Malaysians.

"The Indonesians too do not use Bahasa Melayu to refer to the Malay language but use Bahasa Indonesia instead.

"Bahasa Malaysia is for all and not just the Malays, but I regret that there are Malays who are still narrow-minded that they refuse to use the term.

"This has caused prejudice among certain quarters towards Bahasa Malaysia, hence foiling efforts to turn Bahasa Malaysia into a dynamic language," he added.

Zainuddin said there were also those who were more interested in trivial matters instead of focusing on pragmatic approaches for the development of Bahasa Malaysia.

"It is hoped that Bahasa Malaysia is used by all citizens of this country and people from outside too so as to bring it to a higher level," he said.

-- BERNAMA

Me : I wonder what is actually wrong in defining it as Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Melayu. To me, it is still the same. The reason is simple, Bahasa Malaysia is because the language is the official language of Malaysia, and Bahasa Melayu goes for the mother tongue for Malays. So what is there to be rambled about? Defining it as Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Melayu won't give a difference to this racist problem. If not, then why is English Language called as such? It is because it sourced from the Englishmen, the Britons.

If we are to built a real harmony in this multi-racial country, the very first thing to do is to avoid bringing such cases to court. Yep, the court power in high, but the effects are high too. For instance, the Lina Joy case. The Muslims won't agree if Lina Joy's appeal was allowed. The liberalists will stand by Lina Joy if she lost her appeal (and yep, they did that). Thus, the government created an open wound automatically by bringing such cases to court. Would not it be better if someone in the government just tell Miss Lina Joy that apostasy isn't allowed in this country, so please travel to another country, and change nationality and then change the religion status. Would not that be easier?

That is , of course, just a beginning. There is still much needed if we were to build a harmonic multi-racial country. Not by this Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Melayu. Please, stop becoming a laughing stock.