This is a truly historic and auspicious day for Malaysian ethnic communities. We have gathered here today (Feb 21) to celebrate International Mother Language Day at a time when the global scene is beset with threats of war while locally we are facing challenges to our respective mother languages.

There has never been a greater need for understanding, tolerance and dialogue among Malaysian NGOs involved in mother language.

The commemoration of this International Day is relatively new. It was launched at the 30th session of the General Conference of Unesco in 1999.

This not to say that the endorsement of mother language by the international community as a human right is a recent development.

Cultural rights were already defined clearly in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and further elaborated in Articles 13 and 15 of the International Covenant o­n Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The first major international support for the idea that education is best carried out in the mother tongue was at the Unesco meeting of specialists in Paris in 1951.

This was a preoccupation of the United Nations in the early fifties at a time when many colonised countries were being dominated by the magic of colonial language.

In 1982, specific recommendations o­n mother language education were promulgated at the World Conference o­n Cultural Policies in Mexico City that year.

More recently, institutions and NGOs, signatories to the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights met in Barcelona in 1996.

Inseparable loss

At the launching of the International Mother Language Day by Unesco in 1999, it was made known that 3000 out of the 6000 languages that exist in the world face extinction.

The delegates at that conference resolved that the disappearance of any language is an inseparable loss for the heritage of all humankind.

The decimation of mother languages is more acutely noted by those who care for all mother languages in the world.

The mother language of a community can be wiped out through a total ban o­n its usage as was implemented in Indonesia after the military coup in 1965.

In o­ne generation, the mother language system of the ethnic Indonesian Chinese was uprooted.

Ethnocide or the erosion of an ethnic culture, can come about through wanton government policy as was seen in the displacement of 10,000 indigenous peoples from the Bakun area in 1998.

One of the first to be displaced was the Ukit community, who happen to be the o­nly Ukit community in the world.

Article 1 of the Unesco Universal Declaration o­n Cultural Diversity proclaims: As a source of exchange, innovation and creativity, cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature.

In this sense, it is the common heritage of humanity and should be recognised and affirmed for the benefit of present and future generations.

Cultural heritage is thus seen as the wellspring of creativity.

Global imperative

At another level, we also see the gradual de-culturisation of the mother language through the supposed global imperative of the magic international language - English.

In Singapore, Chinese has been taught as a subject for the ethnic Chinese there in mainly English-language institutions. Now their leaders are lamenting the fact that Singaporeans have become so Anglicised or at least

too Singlish that they are importing expatriates and students from China and Malaysian Independent Chinese Secondary Schools to make up the cultural gap.

In Malaysia, we are now faced with the same argument that globalisation warrants the Anglicisation of our education, the same argument used by the Singapore government years ago.

The process of globalisation, facilitated by the rapid development of new information and communication technologies, represents a challenge for cultural diversity.

We do not accept such a definition of development. We challenge this so-called imperative of globalisation..

Article 3 of the Unesco Cultural Diversity Declaration confirms our stand that cultural diversity widens the range of options open to everyone; it is o­ne of the roots of development, understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but also a means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence.

We believe, o­n the other hand, that Malaysians must build o­n what we have and grow from strength to strength.

Chinese-language education in this country has a history going back 184 years. Compared to what we had achieved at Independence, namely 1342 primary schools, 86 secondary schools and a Nanyang University, we have certainly regressed.

Now, the new Education Act and policies to Anglicise our primary schools threaten the development of our mother language education system.

In October 1998, Unesco established an advisory committee for linguistic pluralism and multicultural education committed to create conditions for a social, intellectual and media environment conducive to linguistic pluralism; to promote, through multilingual education, democratic access to knowledge for all citizens.

Guarantee of peace

The awareness of our respective linguistic and cultural traditions based o­n understanding, tolerance and dialogue such as this celebration is the best guarantee of the flowering of our mother languages and the guarantee of peace.

Contrary to the official justification for a monolingual education system, Article 2 of the Cultural Diversity Declaration states that policies for the inclusion and participation of all citizens are guarantees of social cohesion, vitality of civil society and peace...Cultural pluralism is conducive to cultural exchange and the flourishing of creative capacities that sustain public life.

The defence of cultural diversity also implies a commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular the rights of persons belonging to minorities and those of indigenous peoples.

Last but not least, the guarantees of cultural diversity are freedom of expression, media pluralism, multilingualism, equal access to art and scientific and technological knowledge and the possibility for all cultures to have access to the means of expression and dissemination.

For Malaysian NGOs involved in the respective mother languages, we need to deepen the debate o­n questions relating to cultural diversity with a view to influence policy-making, create greater awareness of the need for cultural pluralism, and clarify the content of cultural rights as an integral part of human rights.

This first celebration of International Mother Language Day is significant in forging understanding, tolerance and dialogue among Malaysian NGOs.

Cultural diversity, if it is to be fully realised in Malaysia, must involve civil society participation in the framing of public policies.

The above is a speech by Dr Kua Kia Soong, Principal of the Dong Jiao Zong New Era College

at the International Mother Language Day celebration in Kajang o­n Feb 21.