A REPORTER in Bukit Mertajam recently asked me to comment on the decision made by the police to improve English proficiency in the force especially among the senior officers. He claimed that some groups are protesting the move, alleging that the police force is sacrificing the use of the national language.
I must say I am perplexed by the brouhaha over the issue since mastering more than one language is beneficial to the individual and, logically, it should not be a problem.
Recently, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad called on senior civil servants to improve their command of English. InspectorGeneral of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun, who welcomed the Prime Minister’s directive, was then quoted as saying that the police had already conducted such courses in the past.
Efforts taken by Mohamad Fuzi and his team to improve their command of English must be emulated by other government agencies in line with the Prime Minister’s directive for senior civil servants to master the language.
With a good grasp of English, senior civil servants would be able to communicate effectively at the global level, particularly with their counterparts from other countries.
In the borderless world, transboundary crime is on the rise and there is an urgent need for our police officers to have excellent communication skills in English and other languages.
Therefore, it’s timely for the members of the force and other agencies to polish their English and, if possible, learn another language that is widely used such as Spanish and Mandarin.
The World Economic Forum, using a database of languages known as Ethnologue, has revealed that Mandarin, Spanish and English were spoken by more than two billion people last year.
Mandarin topped the list at 1.3 billion users followed by Spanish (437 million), English (372 million), Arabic (295 million), Hindi (260 million), Bengali (242 million), Portuguese (219 million), Russian (154 million), Japanese (128 million) and Lahnda, a language of the western Punjab and adjacent areas of Pakistan (119 million).
I believe that our dream to become a developed nation could be achieved earlier if our people are willing to learn more languages while at the same time strengthening their command of Bahasa Malaysia, our national language.
No one should question the position of Bahasa Malaysia as our official language and every Malaysian citizen must speak, read and write it well. This is in line with the government’s initiative to “Memartabatkan Bahasa Melayu, Memperkasakan Bahasa Inggeris (Uphold Bahasa Melayu, Strengthen the English Language)” at all levels, starting from primary school.
It cannot be denied that more efforts must be taken to improve the standard of Bahasa Malaysia in vernacular schools so that students there can master the language.
At the same time, any effort to help improve proficiency in English should not be perceived as a step to sideline Bahasa Malaysia, which will always be the language that unites Malaysians. History shows that Malay was the lingua franca for the people of various ethnicities in the area for a long time.
For those who are concerned about the fate of Bahasa Malaysia, it is time for them to do something against the use of bahasa rojak or Bahasa Malaysia mixed with other languages, especially English.
The rampant use of bahasa rojak by many Malaysians, including politicians and characters in local television series and films, is a matter of concern.
Unless something is done, our younger generations might perceive this as the way for Malaysians to speak.
While we are embracing English and other languages in our effort to communicate with others and seek knowledge in various fields, we want to see a society that is genuinely bilingual or multilingual, and not speaking in bahasa rojak or pidgin Bahasa Malaysia.
Besides Bahasa Malaysia and English, I am confident that Malaysians could and should master at least another language for their own benefit.
I must say that the polemic over the language issue has reminded me of the late Datuk Mahadzir Lokman, the former TV3 newscaster and much sought-after emcee who could speak many languages including Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin, Tamil and Hindi. He also had basic knowledge of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Greek and Japanese.
Mahadzir, fondly known as “Datuk Dale”, actually personified the true multicultural Malaysia, and his flair for foreign languages never made him less Malaysian or forget the national language.
TAN SRI LEE LAM THYE
Kuala Lumpur
This article was clipped from The Star.
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