‘Speak BM out of love for M’sia’

Rais urges leaders to be patriotic and use national language

PETALING JAYA: The Attorney General and other leaders should respect Malaysia’s national language and speak Bahasa Malaysia more, said Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia member Tan Sri Rais Yatim.

Rais, who was the former socio-cultural adviser to the government, highlighted that the Federal Constitution states that Bahasa Malaysia is the national language and the language used for official purposes.

“We should respect the Constitution. We are 60 years into independence, and in my view, Bahasa Malaysia should no longer become an issue of contention,” he said, adding that the language is already entrenched in our system.

“Leaders should speak Bahasa Malaysia out of love and patriotism.”

He said Attorney General Tommy Thomas and leaders should speak Bahasa Malaysia at official events.

“I would suggest that the leaders in the country show some love for our country by speaking in our national language. If we Malaysians don’t do it, who will?

“They lead by example and speak in Bahasa Malaysia, not at every instance, but I believe they should be using the language more,” he said when interviewed.

Rais, who is a lawyer by profession, said this should be applied to the courts, ministers, deputy ministers and parliamentarians.

Commenting on Thomas’ request to speak in English in court, Rais said English could have been chosen because there were international media in the courtroom reporting on former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s case.

“But we must also consider a very large cross section of Malaysians who are following the case, shouldn’t we also attend to Malaysians rather than those from overseas?

“In my view, all preliminary statements should be delivered in Bahasa Malaysia at the very least. Not every word has to be in Bahasa Malaysia, but at least the general phrases should be in Malay,” he said.

Thomas was forced to cancel a planned press conference on Wednesday after a group of Najib’s supporters turned rowdy chanting Bahasa Malaysia, Melayu and Hidup Melayu.

The supporters were protesting as Thomas was speaking in English rather than Malay.

Separately, lawyer Latheefa Koya slammed PAS for criticising Thomas’ poor grasp of Bahasa Malaysia.

“I want to ask PAS, when they appointed Tommy to represent the Kelantan government to file petroleum royalty claims in court in 2010, what language was Tommy speaking in?” the PKR central leadership council member said on her Twitter account yesterday.

Latheefa was responding to PAS’ Dewan Ulama treasurer Datuk Dr Khairuddin Aman Razali who criticised Thomas and Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng’s use of other languages.

In a statement by Khairuddin on Facebook, he was referring to Lim’s use of Chinese in a statement that was released in his capacity as the Finance Minister, while Thomas requested the court for permission to proceed in English, instead of Bahasa Malaysia when Najib was charged.

Khairuddin said it was clear that Bahasa Malaysia was being sidelined by the Pakatan Harapan Government.

An online petition has since been initiated, urging the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to sack Thomas because of his poor Bahasa.

The petition at change.org garnered 2,309 online signatures by 4pm yesterday.

Ironically, the petition’s text was riddled with English grammatical and spelling mistakes.

We are 60 years into independence, and in my view, Bahasa Malaysia should no longer become an issue of contention. Tan Sri Rais Yatim