"UM students angry over English stress".
Prime News, Straits Times today the 12th of March, 2011.
Prof. Datuk Dr Ghauth Jasmon, do not, do NOT ever apologise to those students: narrow-minded, emotional, blind university students.
Tell them, those people from the Academy of Malay Studies, that you do not become less a Malay for knowing more of English. I AM INDIGNANT!!
I was a graduate from UM majoring in English Studies and went on to do my second degree at U of Nottingham, UK, majoring in English Literature. Am I less a Malay because I know more about Shakespeare than Hang Tuah? I would like to tell about my own experiences with these folks from the Malay Dept of UM because their gall against English had been just as intense in those days.
A Malay reading English, to them, is unpatriotic. And they looked upon me, a slip of a girl from Kota Bharu, Kelantan, as both unpatriotic and arrogant so they tried to invade into my life. Students from the English Dept had forever been wearing jeans and t-shirts. So one smart aleck from the MS (my friend Fatimah Hashim and I called them 'MS' for Malay Studies) sent a message via another to please tell Rohani not to wear jeans. The messenger also told me not to go out with that boy from Johor. So to protest, I wore jeans even on Fridays whereas I had always worn baju kurung on that day of the week, and I rode with `that boy from Johor' on his Yamaha BAJ 9612 even to lectures. I took my tray of food and sat with him in the dining hall. The MS always practised `group eating' and `group dressing', like, they went down for meals in a large group and occupied a whole long table. They wore baju kurung everyday, and if anyone decided to be in something slightly different, then the entire gang of girls would wear the same. They called the phenomenon `solidarity'. I called it `insecurity'. The girls would walk with such sway and grace. The girls from my Dept stomped and skipped. They giggled with their hands covering their mouth. We guffawed.
Then, after graduation and everyone finally became the citizens of the country responsible for its development and progress, the irony set in. How?
I met a girl from the MS who already had a baby then. What did the baby call her? "Mummy". And the father ? "Daddy." My kids call me Mama and their father (the boy from Johor) "Abah."
Then I become a grandmother and met another ex-student of UM from the MS, after so many years, she too, with a grandson. Good Heavens...you know what she asked the little chap to call her? "GRANNY" !!! And my own grandsons call me NENEK!!!
Another graduate of the MS started a business and a huge signboard went up that said "Beauty SALOON and Spa". Hey, guna Bahasa Melayu lah...`Kedai Kecantikan' is so Melayu, kan? And did she know the difference between `saloon' and `salon'? Or, how many signages have you seen around town that said `Ayu Butik' (or some other name)..did these people learn grammar in school? Oops...of course not. Grammar is for English and we must not stress English, right? Because, dear entrepreneur, it should be Butik Ayu or Ayu Boutique. Forgot what your `teacher' or `sir' taught you about placement of adjectives? Why must all businesses be in English? Why try so hard if you do not know a word of that invaders' language? Let me tell you - it's stylish.
Now they pass statements like "...the call (to give importance to English) was seen by students of the Academy of Malay Studies as a move to sideline Bahasa Malaysia"..wait til they get out there, to reality. Then the first thing that will happen to them is to name their first son 'Isaac' and their daughter `Eva'. Mummy and Daddy. Wear green contact lenses. Dye hair light blonde. Go eat at fancy restaurants and all they order is `chicken chop' because what the hell should they say if they ordered steak (`stik') and the waiter asked "How would you like it done, madam?" ...UNdone?
Wait a minute. How about the names of those Nasyid groups: `In-Team' and `Nowseeheart'...are they supposed to be 'Intim' and `Nasihat'? I just wonder why the need for those spellings...if they intend to go International, why make things eady for the foreigners to pronounce? `Raihan' or `Rabbani' don't seem to have any problems. Which brings to mind what my friend in England had asked the moment I got there, eyes still blurry with jet-lag: "So...what English name have you chosen for yourself?" Huh? "Well, I'm Salbiah, but they can never say my name, so I let them call me Sally." I nearly puked.
And dear protestors...you are well aware of how the Malay Language itself has evolved. Surf the Net. Go to anyone's (who's Malay) Facebook, and read their language...example: 'aku g jap jerk, bole? ' I have received SMS which I could not decipher, and they are supposed to be in Malay.
Do you remember the Malay proverb that says, the more knowledge you have, the humbler you should be? So, the more you know of the English Language, the lesser you would want to assimilate into their culture. When my grandsons were born, the first warning I gave my son is, no English/Western-sounding names for the twins. No Danish. No Daniel. No Ryan. Or Isaac. Or Alexander. So I have now my adorable Umar Iman and Umar Imran. Hair and skin so light in colour they could pass as, er, Orang Putih.
Let us not be hypocrites, lah, ok? Let's not display our insecurities and low self-esteem to the world. Because that is what it is: INFERIORITY COMPLEX.
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