Back to Bahasa Malaysia
Monday, June 4th, 2007KUALA LUMPUR: Bahasa Malaysia will again be the official term to be used to refer to the national language.
In a unanimous decision last April, the Cabinet felt that reverting to the term Bahasa Malaysia would help inculcate a sense of belonging for all citizens irrespective of race, said Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin.
Is him again. Wow, we can hear/see him on newspaper/news every now and then. If you mind, maybe you can check on Bernama; almost (almost only) every week you can hear his opinion/criticism to blogger (few Malaysians read blogs, don’t worry), foreign newspapers, students abroad, national contract and you name it.
He said the term Bahasa Malaysia was introduced by Tunku Abdul Rahman after the country’s independence to inculcate a Malaysian identity.
“It was generally accepted and no one asked for a change until (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim became the education minister (in 1986).
“He dropped the term Bahasa Malaysia for Bahasa Melayu and it has remained that way. But now, we feel we should go back to the original term,” he said.
If I’m not mistaken, I remember well the National Language (Bahasa Malaysia) was changed term to Bahasa Melayu in the year 1995. That was the year caused a huge panic in my High School.
