Mind Your Language

I always want to write about this..BAHASA..

Tapi hari ni baru rasa nak menulis,sebab Dato' Seri Wong Sai Wan,an executive editor for The Star (a Malaysian daily newspaper) has told me about something that I don't really agreed with this morning..

As usual,Malaysian news is always full of racial rhetorics and ethno-centrics propaganda.. Something that we have to fix..and language is one of our sub-problems..I am a firm believer (bukan peminat Justin Bieber) that language is the best tool to achieve unity..

Pada zaman Maharaja Shih Huang Ti di negeri China beribu-ribu tahun yang lalu,rakyat dan wilayah-wilayah yang ada di bawah penguasaannya,hidup berpecah-belah dan tidak bersatu..Demi untuk menyatukan rakyatnya di bawah satu jajahan yang besar,Shih Huang Ti menggunakan bahasa Mandarin sebagai satu standard bahasa untuk negara China..

"In an effort to reinforced the idea of a unified China,Ch'in Shih Huang-Ti instituted a program to standardize the Chinese language,as well as measurements for width and length,and a series of roads and canals were built to converge on the capital city of Xianyang.." (Ch'in Shih-Huang-Ti,Science and Its Times,2005-2006)

Di Indonesia,pada zaman Presiden Sukarno,beliau menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia untuk menyatukan 17,000 kepulauan dan ribuan etnik-etnik berlainan bangsa dan bahasa..Dari Kupang,Irian Jaya, hingga ke tanah Jawa dan Sumatera,semuanya tahu berbahasa Indonesia..Dan seluruh rakyat lebih mudah bersatu dengan penggunaan bahasa yang sama..

Kalau negara-negara yang besar ini boleh disatukan rakyatnya dengan penggunaan bahasa yang sama,kenapa tidak kita,sebuah negara yang lebih kecil dari segi nisbah bangsa dan bahasa rakyatnya?

Kenapa sampai sekarang kita masih lagi bermasalah?

To be able to understand this,we cannot run from the fact that the major source of this problem,came from our school system..I'll try to give some explanations,as much as I can.. National integration,is always one of my interests,something that I always like to encourage among Malaysians..

I have nothing against any other language in Malaysia..In fact,I love them too..I love our diversity..How I always wish that I can speak Mandarin fluently..But now,we are talking about UNITY..

Kalau Shih-Huang-Ti,dia pakai cara dictatorial sikit..He was infamous for eliminating what was known as Hundreds School of Thoughts to suit his ambition of a unified China.. Presiden Sukarno menggunakan kaedah Asimilasi..Kita?What shall we do?Not until that level perhaps..

Shih Huang Ti - 'The Dragon'

All my next coming posts will touch about this issue..In terms of what we have in our Federal Constitution, my own experience in Malaysia,what I've faced in Australia while mingling around with other Malaysians,and some stories happened during my time in UMNO Club not so long ago..

Till then,have a great weekend everyone!

p/s: Sori..I hope that my 'rojak' language in writings would not divert the intent of the post..Just trying to make it light and easy for our mind digestion as usual..huhu..Peace~