KUALA LUMPUR MAY 22: Many countries have achieved the status of developed nation by dignifying their own language and as such Malaysia should have its identity and prove that dignifying Bahasa Melayu will not deter the country’s development.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said, the whole of Malaysian Family especially the civil servants should give commitment to dignify Bahasa Melayu.
Ismail said, the efforts to make Bahasa Melayu reach the global standard had been the government’s policy and one of the prioritised sector in the Malaysian Foreign Policy that was culture diplomacy launched on 7th December 2021.
“Instructions have been released that all centres involving correspondence via letters overseas have to use Bahasa Melayu.
“Letters that I had sent to the world leaders were in Bahasa Melayu and translated in English.
“I have also started the bilateral negotiation by using Bahasa Melayu. There was no defect in the negotiation. In the ASEAN-United States Special Summit with the US President, I had also used Bahasa Melayu ,” Ismail said.
The Prime Minister said that in his speech when launching the “Internatiolization of Bahasa Melayu Symposim” held at Balai Budaya Tun Syed Nasir Wisma Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) here today.
The Prime Minister has also mentioned that Bahasa Melayu had been used in the Malay Archipelago crossing political entity and is now known as Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, part of Thailand, part of Philippines and several countries in Asia such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.
“With the presence of Malaysian diaspora in Sri lanka, Surinam, South Africa, Madagaskar, West Asia , Europe and several other parts of the world, Bahasa Melayu has big potentials to be placed as one of the global language like in the 15th until 19th century.
“At ASEAN level, via the forum cooperation such as the Bahasa Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia Council (MABBIM) and South East Asia Literature Council (MASTERA), the standardised “Rumi” spelling system and terminology have been achieved.
“I hope the cooperation scope that has been broadened will include research, publishing and instillation and could be planned with intact so that Bahasa Melayu will return as the lingua franca.
“Bahasa Melayu has its uniqueness and its specialities specifically among the ASEAN countries and certainly could become one of the official languages in ASEAN.
“Bahas Melayu should be dignified in the country including amending the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP)1959 to give more power to DBP to implement enforcement towards the wrong usage of the language.
“Efforts should also be made to broaden the usage of Bahasa Melayu in the higher learning institutions,” Ismail said.
