Bahasa Melayu champions confused? Bahasa bahana bangsa?

I respect the views of the champions of the Malay language in their overzealousness to stop the teaching of Maths and Science in English. I do not think they need to be investigated by the authorities for being strong advocates of it. But I cannot agree with them.

Being a speaker of Johor Malay and even trained to write well in Jawi when I was a kid, and having gone through my studies both in English and in Bahasa Melayu, I must say that the language nationalists are getting confused on the issue.

I have not read in detail the research conducted by the group in collaboration with several universities. I would like to read its sampling, methodology, and most importantly ideology governing the intention to conduct the research.

At this juncture, But I have this to say:


The importance of the English Language as still, the lingua franca. The reality is that English is perceived a language of the colonial masters. The protest against it is giving our children the reason not to try harder in a language that is all around them. Teachers are given the license to give up without much trying.

We are going downhill neglecting this language. The standard of English in the our system nowadays is fast declining. We have too many adults in society giving the wrong message to children. These adults live in their nationalist past whereas the young ones are to be prepared for a cosmopolitan future.

For who/whom does nationalism serve then?

Could these protesters be hypocrites and betrayers of the rights of the child to be multilingual? Blind nationalists should start listening to English teachers.

Or consider my proposition below:

Bahasa Melayu these days have indeed lost its "spiritual core" and now playing the role of a language utilized to colonize each other. Just analyze the long-winded salutation and the over-glorification of human beings embedded in the language of formal speeches delivered in the Malay language. Just look at court language and think of how much dehumanization is embedded in the way human being relates to one another. Language, power, ideology at play.

The powerless kowtows to the powerful through language and "communicative competence" and lives in such a reality all their lives. Those who owns the material means owns the means of deploying language to their advantage, unconsciously.

Should the slogan Bahasa jiwa bangsa should be replaced by Bahasa boleh membahayakan bangsa?

Maybe ...