Refleksi Minda

"I sound like stupid if I speak in Malay," says Sharifah Amani, winner of the Best Actress Award for the 19th Malaysian Film Festival. She won the award for her portrayal of Orked in the film Gubra, directed by Yasmin Ahmad. The film, incidentally, also won Best Picture.

For those interested, here’s the news link from Utusan Malaysia.

And in typical Malaysian fashion, criticisms started pouring in because of her remarks. Supposedly, she was ‘kurang ajar‘ and ‘tidak menghormati Bahasa Melayu‘ by saying it. Her critics include guest of honour, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, various linguists and the Perlis Malay Association (PEMANIS), who recommended that her award should be ‘reconsidered’ in light of her remark. Here’s the news link.

So more and more jaguhs of the Malay race have come foward. Let’s all crucify a young, bright actress right after she became the youngest winner of the Best Actress award. Let’s assasinate her public image over a remark that is taken totally out of context.

Appalling.

Firstly, let’s examine what she meant when she said that. Was she saying that bahasa Melayu is a stupid language, and that by speaking in it, she would sound stupid? Or is what she really meant was that her bahasa is not proficient and very colloquial, and she would make a fool out of herself if she attempted to speak formally in such a grand event the Film Festival supposedly was?

When I first heard what she said, I thought that she meant the latter. And I was proven right. She explained ‘‘Apa yang saya maksudkan ialah saya ingin bertutur dalam bahasa
Inggeris kerana tidak fasih berbahasa Melayu, nanti buruk bunyinya." In my opinion, she did the right thing. If she could express herself much better in the medium of English, then let her speak in English. Does it make her any less Malay? Not at all. Did she insult our bahasa kebangsaan? Not in the least.

The issue of language has always been a thorny one. There are some who believe that language is the be all end all benchmark of the Malay race. That to be Malay, one has to speak Malay. I remember the great ruckus created a couple of years ago about rojak songs, songs that incorporate both English and Malay in their lyrics. There were even calls to outright ban such ‘flagrant disrespect for the bahasa kebangsaan.’

In my opinion, such a stance shows an attitude that is not in touch with current reality. Like it or loathe it, gone where the days when Malays speak the flowery language of yore. Walk in Kuala Lumpur nowadays, you’ll discover Malays saying such things as;

"I rasa I nak tengok movie lah… you nak ikut I?"
"Nanti bila dah sampai kau call aku guna handphone kau"
"Dia tu horror giler"
"Struggle betul nak sampai sini, jam teruk"

Of course, to these Malay jaguhs, what they should be saying is;

"Ingin rasanya saya menonton wayang, sudikah anda menemani saya?"
"Sesudah anda sampai di situ, anda harus membuat panggilan melalui telefon bimbit anda"
"Perwatakannya itu sungguh teruk"
"Susah benar hendak saya sampai ke sini kerana kesesakan lalulintas yang amat teruk"

But one would be hard pressed to hear these words uttered. Does this make the people saying them any less Malay?

Make no mistake, I love the language. It is a beautiful language, rivaling any in the world. A well written Malay song, or Malay poem in my opinion is far more wonderful than any that can be made in English. And while I find myself personally better able to express myself in English because of the education that I underwent, I am also fortunate enough to be reasonably proficient in Malay, both colloquial and formal. I speak Malay in my house, and Malay is my mother tongue. But my father has always encouraged me to speak English as well, even though he is a sastera man through and through.

And I am proud to be bi-lingual. In fact, my regret is that I am only bi-lingual, when because of the multitude of languages in Malaysia I should be able to speak in more.

The Malay language isn’t going to disappear. In fact, like any language in the world, it has to evolve to survive. And this colloquial mix, this rojak language we hear Malays speak is that evolution. And we’ve also got to realise that with the rise of the Malay middle class, English is going to be spoken more and more. And why not? It’s the language of the world these days. And with the world getting smaller and smaller each day, we need to constantly keep up in order not to be left behind. And being able to speak in English is crucial to this. Isn’t that the reason why we introduced teaching Science and Maths in the medium of English? We should therefore be proud that at last, more and more Malays are able to speak English proficiently. How else are we supposed to be the ‘Melayu Glokal’ that our higher ups want us to be?

Malays are not going to cease to become Malay by speaking English. Our culture is richer than that, stronger than that. There are far worse things plaguing the Malays than our use of language. What about the high unemployment rates amongst us? What about rempit culture that indulges in lumba haram in the streets of Malaysia every single night? What about those Malay youths wallowing in a state of bleak future doing nothing but making a nuisance of themselves in the KLCC park? How come none of our jaguhs do anything, or even say anything about these real problems? Instead, what I hear harped on every time are things like defending our bumiputera ‘rights’ and the language our youths speak. Issues that are superficial at best and has no long term benefits to our bangsa.

Let’s wake up and smell the bunga raya, people. Before it’s too late.

Television weddings

It never ceases to amaze me how enamored we can be with celebrities. Leading up to pop diva Siti Nurhaliza’s wedding to ‘Datuk K’, the media has shown nothing but full blown coverage of this ‘national event’. Frontpage news and TV coverage of the wedding includes the hantaran, the wedding planner and even the kadi (a slice of fame for the man :)).

It’s as if nothing else mattered in Malaysia except the wedding.

In any case, I wish the both of them best of luck in their future together. Semoga berkekalan ke anak cucu, as the saying goes.

Snakes on a Plane

Lastly, I want to heartily recommend you to watch ‘Snakes on a Plane’. It’s the best piece of entertainment this year that a movie ticket can buy.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 21st, 2006 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.