YOURSAY ‘Learning Bahasa is our duty because we are Malaysian, but don't tell me we have to learn it because we have to be grateful to the Malays for not using Jawi.’

Repay Malay sacrifice by using BM, urges ex-judge

Aries46: Coming from a man with Mohd Noor Abdullah's notoriety, his outlandish claims lack any basis and are very much in question.

Indeed, it is the sacrifice of the non-Malays under the New Economic Policy (NEP) that enabled the likes of Mohd Noor to enjoy the fruits of his lofty position in the judiciary.

Instead of belittling and insulting the non-Malays, Mohd Noor would do well to show some gratitude to them for tolerating 40 years of Umno bumiputera supremacy, racism, discrimination, corruption and whatever ills the nation suffers.

A section of the non-Malays, having toiled to develop this nation to what it is, has largely remained poor unlike the Umno Malays who today monopolise and control every sphere of national life, civil service, finances, public and commercial institutions, land and natural resources and whatever else one can think of.

The least Mohd Noor can do is to repay some of their kindness or keep his mouth shut.

Wira: Malaysia’s first PM, Tunku Abdul Rahman, and the rest of the Malay leaders chose the Romanised script for Bahasa Malaysia in 1955 because it was more widely used then than the Jawi script.

Moreover, the type writers used for English then could also be used to type Malay in official documents. It was for practicality that our founding fathers elected to use the Roman script. It is certainly not what this bigoted ex-judge make it out to be.

T: I cannot find any historical evidence that shows that the reason the Malay language was Romanised was for sake of "national unity" based on my five-minute research with Google:

1. Wikipedia indicates that Romanisation started in 1927 well before Malayan independence.  

2. There is evidence that Romanised Malay was already popular by 1957. Discussions to make non-Malays citizens only started in 1955. It is unlikely that one can make Romanised Malay popular within two years.

3. Indonesia also Romanised Bahasa Indonesia, which is similar to Malay. Did they also do it as a sacrifice for non-Malays?

In summary, the evidence is weak.

SpongeBob: If Mohd Noor does not have a good knowledge of history, how did he become a Court of Appeal judge and an expert in constitutional law?

Factnot Fiction: Learning Bahasa is our duty because we are Malaysian, but don't tell me we have to learn it because we have to be grateful to the Malays for not using Jawi. Use it if they want to, no one is stopping them.

P Dev Anand Pillai: Perhaps this ex-judge should ask himself why today’s young judges and lawyers are unable to speak English in the first place?

Being an ex-colony of Britain, we should be proud of our ability to speak the language but we have deteriorated to such a level that even judges today can't understand English. We may one day have a PM who can't speak English at the rate things are going.

Bahasa Malaysia is understood by everyone, it is our national language and we are proud of it but we have to be multi-lingual in order to survive in this world.

As a small country, it would be advisable for us to ignore the ex-judge's advice and learn as many languages as possible.

Anonymous #44199885: This seems a smokescreen to change the character of the vernacular schools to be more in line with national-type schools.

BM is already being taught in all vernacular schools along with English and so there is no validity to Mohd Noor’s propositions.

It’s funny that prior to GE13, he was not a known crusader for BM. Language has got nothing to do with the rejection of BN at the polls.

BN does not have a God-given right to be in government and non-Malays are perfectly entitled to choose non-BN Malays to represent them, and at the end of the day, this is what irks this man and his kin.

Real Truth: I am a non-Malay Malaysian who voted for PAS and Pakatan. How does it affect the Malay unity and the Malay language?

Anonymous 007: If you have former judges behaving in this way, it does show the make up of our judicial system. It looks like we have the best judges money can buy.

JBGuy: I wonder if these people are living in denial despite the overwhelming evidence showing us that the only way to move forward is to bring back English-medium schools.

This would prepare us to be competitive in an increasingly globalised world and it would help to ease racial polarisation.

In the 1960s when we had such schools, the problem of racial integration was minimal. Our leaders today are a product of that system. Politics should not hinder our education system.

It is not as if I am saying the Malay language should be phased out, just make it a compulsory subject to be mastered. Do our politicians have the guts to admit this and implement the necessary?

Powerpuff: I was happily learning Jawi until Year Three when Mahathir took over in 1980. The next year my teacher told me I can't learn Jawi any more.

By then, I could write essays in Jawi. My mom, a Chinese, was also fluent in Jawi, she learned it in school. So what is this ex-judge talking about?

Human Being: How about repaying non-Malays' sacrifice of their tax money used to pay such judges appointed by the Umno government?

As PM keeps mum, ex-judge strikes again

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now