Good BM won't unite racially divided Malaysia
YOURSAY 'As long as we have fanatics ruling the country, citizens of any country are not going to be united'
'These students are worse than Bangladeshis'
Wg321:
If those Chinese trainees cannot speak the Malay language, they deserved to die. The Chinese community will not pity them. Today, the Malay language or Bahasa Malaysia (BM) is widely spoken in the Chinese community compared with 30 years ago.
This is because of the uncontrolled influx of more than three million legal and illegal Indonesian workers, not counting the Bangladeshis, Nepalese, etc.
Chinese bosses and Chinese workers in factories, hawker centres, construction sites, and other Chinese places of employment, speak BM with these foreign workers.
On top of that, BM is also widely spoken in Chinese households because of the employment of Indonesian maids. There are more than 300,000 Chinese households employing the Indonesian maids.
I must admit there is minimum contact between Chinese and Malays because of the existence of UiTMs, Mara junior colleges, religious schools and vernacular schools but that doesn’t means the Chinese don’t speak BM in their daily lives, or for business survival.
Spirit of Malaya: Even though I do not subscribe wholeheartedly to what the Utusan guy is saying, certain issues raised by him are correct. I have personally seen and heard some Chinese youngsters struggling to speak even simple Malay.
When I inquired on something in our national language from them, they just cannot interact and I'm talking about simple Malay here.
Once, when I was at the bank, this Chinese customer told me, quote "tak tahu cakap, Cina ada kah?" unquote. And I'm not talking about an elderly uncle or auntie.
I'm not saying that I agree with the Utusan guy but something must be done to instil respect of our Bahasa Malaysia.
Funny: Bangladeshis speak Malay so that they can tackle Malay girls. Once married, they can get IC. The Malays are losing to Bangladeshis.
Somucfun: It’s such a big joke - most of the political elite and ministers speak English to their children at home.
TingTing: The language that is most used (in the world) is Mandarin, second is English, and third is Hindi. That speaks volumes for the importance of these languages. Bahasa Indonesia and not Bahasa Malaysia, is listed.
Cinta: I just can't believe this. Are you saying these students never studied in secondary school where passing Bahasa Malaysia is compulsory?
Geronimo: You mean speaking BM will unite the people? But then I don't see it happening to the Malays in Umno Baru, PKR and PAS. Patriotism and loyalty to the country does not lie in the language.
It is in the hearts and minds of the people. Let's assume that I may not be good in BM, but if I have the brains to be doctor, lawyer, engineer or scientist and can contribute to the nation's wellbeing, I think this outweighs all the talk about language.
If the Bangladeshis are good and have the brains to contribute, who am I to complain?
Interested bystander: Utusan said "SJK(C) is the catalyst for many Chinese to isolate themselves from accepting the Malay culture." They aren't Malays, so why in the world should they accept ‘Malay culture’?
Spiceboy: As long as we have fanatics ruling the country, citizens of any country are not going to be united, be it in schools or at the workplace. Vernacular schools are not the cause, it’s the BN/Perkasa policies that should be blamed.
Tembikai: Please also do a survey to find out how many Malay students cannot speak the Malay language fluently, especially those from the upper class and from international schools, Ku Seman Ku Hussain and Utusan.
If the number is high, please go after these Malay students. It is very shameful that Malays cannot speak their own language.
Odysseus: Only 604 cannot speak Malay. Is the number representative of the real issue? If one were to conduct a survey in Sekolah Kebangsaan and determine how many cannot speak English, you might be shocked at the number.
Does it mean, we have to replace the national language with English? No. You find the gap and address it with strong political will.
Samurai: Utusan should be more concerned with all our youths' inability to speak good English because that's what gets them bread on the table at the end of the day.
I was so embarrassed for our once great nation when watching a China news channel interviewing a Malaysian navy man during the MH370 search expedition, and he merely shrugged at the reporter's question and said "cannot speak English".
Wsoi: Dear fellow Malaysians, this editor is paid to split the country. This guy does not deserve our respect, please ignore him completely. We need a united country to stay in harmony and peace.
Mamba: The Bahasa taught in my daughter's Chinese vernacular school is so difficult even her Malay classmate is not coping well.
The subject has become the most feared among the kids since the textbook only teaches on boring propaganda, on the six Umno prime ministers, the 'tokoh' who aligned to Umno, and various culture and traditions in Malaysia.
Kids being kids, they are not interested in the topics on patriotism/propaganda at all, it is difficult to arouse their interest in BM if the subject topics are kept in this way - not a single topic on Sang Kancil, Sang Harimau, like what we used to study.
Swipenter: I hardly come across Malays who can speak the languages/dialects of fellow non- Malay Malaysians. I know of a haji who has been selling freshly cut flowers at a wet market for almost 20 years in a sea of Chinese traders and customers and he can't speak more than a few words of Cantonese. I asked him why.
His reply was that there was no need for him to learn because everyone including ‘por pors’, ‘ah sohs’ and ‘ah peks’ speak to him in Malay or pasar Malay. Many Indonesians and Myanmarese workers there can speak better Cantonese and even Hokkien than him.
Cascara: 604 out of 14000 is only 4.3 percent. That may just be equal to the percentage of backward and poor performing students from any race. No big deal.
Speaking sense: What is the point of speaking the national language when it is used to discriminate and divide, rather than unite us?
Master Sun: A lot of Malay parents sent their children to Chinese schools.
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