Speaking in Bahasa Malaysia to the world

Why would you give a speech in the language of the speaker instead of the listener? Is it because it’s the only language the speaker is confident to speak in, and doing otherwise might be embarrassing? — 123rf.com

“Dalam video ini saya nak sentuh latar belakang dan alasan Russia malangnya terpaksa – dan saya tekankan ‘terpaksa’ – memulakan operasi tentera di Ukraine.” (“In this video I would like to touch on the background and reasons why Russia unfortunately has been forced – and I stress ‘forced’ – to begin a military operation in Ukraine.”)

This was the start of a speech made by a member of the Russian Embassy in Malaysia in the first week of March, 2022. A few things might jump out at you. Perhaps some will question how much you need to stretch the word “terpaksa” to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But the thing that came to my mind, of course, was that he spoke in Bahasa Malaysia (BM), specifically in the week after the Malaysian Prime Minister had said that Malaysian government officials representing the country overseas should only speak in BM.