Turning Malay into a language of knowledge

THE ongoing discourse on the Malay language has attracted many views – social media is hyperactive on the subject. Why do we always have knee-jerk reactions to issues?

Essentially, what we truly desire is to make Malay a language of knowledge. We know many other countries do that with their native languages. Japan, for example, has been consistent in making the Japanese language a language of knowledge by translating into Japanese practically the entire world’s repository of knowledge – whether the knowledge is developed in Japan or elsewhere.

Every country that sees knowledge as a priceless asset also does this.

Indonesia has been translating all forms of knowledge into Bahasa Indonesia for years. But they do not neglect the need to master other languages, especially English which has become a global language of communication. Indonesia is succeeding in transforming Bahasa Indonesia into a language of knowledge while also improving its people’s mastery of English.

But Malaysia cannot claim to be doing the same. We tried embarking on such a journey in the 1970s when the government launched an ambitious programme to make Malay a language of knowledge. Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka (DBP) was tasked with anchoring the project.

Many of us were just back after gaining a degree and, unlike these days, jobs were more or less guaranteed for graduates then. We went after different positions but all of us came together regularly at the many DBP science translation committee meetings.

Those days, we were really serious about making Malay a language of knowledge. The government allocated funding for the translation of science books into Malay. Local universities were actively using Malay to teach; Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia was one that persisted with teaching in Malay.

Sadly, as usually happens with most initiatives here, that programme could not be sustained. The funding slowly dried up and the dream was never realised.

Now it is being raised again. If we are truly serious about making Malay a language of knowledge, we need to have proper planning. And we have to be committed to executing the plan for the long haul.

However, making Malay a language of knowledge does not mean we should abandon attempts to make our people multilingual. Apart from English, which is most widely spoken around the world, we should also promote the learning of Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish and others.

We should never forget the fact that we are a trading nation. The more countries we can easily communicate with, the better our chances of building global business links.

For the moment, like it or not, English is the international language. Making Malay a language of knowledge need not be at the expense of mastering English.

PROF DATUK DR AHMAD IBRAHIM

Tan Sri Omar Abdul Rahman Centre for STI (Science, Technology and Innovation) Policy Studies,

UCSI University