Monday, June 4, 2007

Bangsa Malaysia and Bahasa Malaysia

Hi Bangsa Malaysia! You trust the u-turn to Bahasa Malaysia? or a phase in the metamorphosis of Bahasa Melayu into Bahasa Malaysia and back at last to Bahasa Melayu again in a decade or sooner. What is that pi mai pi mai tang tu? It's malaysian way of life that reflects the political temperature or climate of the nation. Yes or no? Not only the name changes quite often but the grammatical rules of the "bahasa" too. Pity the kids and the Gen2 or Gen3....since Merdeka 1957. If you see the setting up of DBP does not make Bahasa Melayu apa nama...Bahasa Malaysia predictable and conform to the grammatical rules just like other great languages of the world like English Language, Mandarin, Arabic, Tamil, etc. May be BM is dynamic and versatile..thus no fixed rules at all. Remember we do not have a "Agung's Malay" just like the "Queen's English" in case there is a confusion to settle with. No Bahasa Baku or standard Malay so no benchmark for the language.You can do what you like as long as there is communication. Will it suffer the fate of "Jawi" that the malays have long forgotten. One day they need to consult RO Winstedt or Abdullah Munshi to teach them again the alphabets of Jawi. I'm astrayed again. Back to BM, hopefully there will be a law enacted in parliament that will translate itself into actions in DBP, the exam halls, varsities and real life of Malaysians.

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