Gapena digs in, rejects push for multilingual education
Gapena, the National Writers Association, says the government must not give in to pressure for various languages to be adopted as part of the country's education policy.
Gapena, the National Writers Association, says the government must not give in to pressure for various languages to be adopted as part of the country's education policy.
The government must not bow to pressure from Chinese education rights group Dong Zong, which intends to hand over a memorandum at the end of the month for multilingualism to be adopted as part of the country's education policy.
Such a move would undermine Bahasa Malaysia as the national language, and affect its usage in the promotion of national unity, the National Writers Association (Gapena) said.
"As the election approaches there will be a lot of demands made, including from Dong Zong. Do not use this as an opportunity to ask for something that is impossible," the new president of Gapena, Prof Abdul Latiff Abu Bakar ( right ), warned yesterday.
"Gapena strongly rejects and opposes this demand for a multilingual education policy being made by Dong Zong as the position of the Malay language as the national language is protected under Article 152 of the constitution, while other languages may exist," Abdul Latiff said.
He stressed that such a move would be unconstitutional.
Dong Zong, or the United Chinese School Committees Association, had last week announced that it planned to submit a 10-point memorandum to Prime Minister Najib Razak at the end of the month.
"Najib should not bow down to pressure on multilingual education for such a move will result in other languages being on par with Bahasa Malaysia. This will affect unity and national integration," he said.
No compromise on status of BM
Abdul Latiff said Dong Zong was free to make other demands but not on multilingualism, as it would affect the position of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language.
"We are willing to cooperate with Dong Zong should it want to work in uplifting Bahasa Malaysia in Chinese schools.
"We are also willing to discuss with Dong Zong if it wants Gapena to share its experience on increasing the usage of Bahasa Malaysia and how it could be implemented in Chinese schools."
Abdul Latiff said as to the other demands by Dong Zong, it would leave it to the government.
The Gapena president also said that his organisation may submit a counter-memorandum after Dong Zong has made its demands known.
"We are not extremists or chauvinists, but are patriots and we want Bahasa Malaysia to occupy the right place in Malaysia," Abdul Latiff added.
