Anwar and the Politics of Language Nationalism

P. Ramasamy, former Deputy Minister of Penang expressed his opinion in MalaysiaNow on 23 October 2023 that whether or not it is sheer hypocrisy on the part of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to jump on the bandwagon of language nationalism to instruct government departments to return or reject correspondence or letters in languages other than Malay remains to be seen.

The question of Malay as the national language has long been settled in the country. There is no reason or rhyme to invoke language nationalism any more other than for political reasons.

• Malay is the language of communication at government departments, and the medium of instruction at public schools, universities, and others. There is no question of other languages creeping in surreptitiously to replace Malay. If there is fear, then certainly it is a misplaced one or based on paranoia.
• However, at schools and certain public universities, English might be used to encourage students to become proficient in the language. Some universities and colleges established to cater primarily Malay students also employ English as the medium of instruction.
• While instruction in English might contradict the national language policy, the requirements of the larger good might be a countervailing factor. For e.g. English is the medium of instruction at the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) to cater international students and it is a clear contradiction but IIUM being an international university, so the use of English is justified.

He raised two questions about the statement by Anwar Ibrahim on the rejection of government departments to correspondence in languages other than Malay while the use of Malay has been unevenly implemented in public institutions of higher learning:

• Would foreign correspondence be exempted as Malaysia also wants a high international profile? Imagine potential foreign investors intending to pour billions in investments but their letters to government departments get rejected because they were not written in Malay. Would the government departments reject them if they were written in English or languages other than Malay? Are Malaysians that narrow-minded that they would reject letters in English when the latter has become unofficial second language in Malaysia and a language of international communication and discourse?
• What about states like Sabah and Sarawak who agreed to join the Federation of Malaysia with one of the conditions, to use English as one of their official languages. Shall government departments there reject or return letters written in English to their correspondence too? How can Anwar superimpose a language requirement in those states when terms of their entry into the Federation of Malaysia in 1963 clearly allowed the usage of both Malay and English?

On the other hand, Ramasamy agrees that efforts should be taken by the government departments to strengthen and improve the usage of Malay. This should be a routine exercise without any intervention of the prime minister. He further said that there is no question on Anwar's commitment to uphold Malay in Malaysia. However, Anwar as the prime policy maker in Malaysia should not be a fundamentalist in the implementation of Malay or he should be giving speeches in Malay during international events if he is that nationalistic to the Malay language.

He further stated that, Anwar has a pretty good command of English as compared to the former prime minister such as Ismail Sabri Yaakob and the current deputy prime minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Ismail had to deliver speeches in the international platform in Malay not because of his nationalism to Malay but because of his poor command of English. Similarly, it is better for Zahid to keep to Malay in his speeches due to his English is not up to mark.

Ramasamy said that lately, Anwar has been trying to score political points to ingratiate himself to the Malays. The political coalition he leads has lost considerable Malay support to Perikatan Nasional. He wants to last the full term. In order to do so, he is trying his best to be popular with the Malays. Among of his prominent political antics are as below:

• Reminding the non-Malays of their social contract;
• Leading religious conversions;
• Trying to portray himself as the champion of Palestinians as though the earlier prime ministers had failed;
• Giving premature approval for the holding of a Palestinian Solidarity Week in schools; and
• Giving advice to government departments to reject letters written in languages other than Malay.

Ramasamy further stated that he understood the enforcement part of the use of Malay in government departments, but the government also has an open policy in the promotion of English. This could be seen in the dual language teaching programme in national schools that has gained much traction among both Malays and non-Malays.

Ramasamy agrees on the emphasise of the importance of Malay as the official national language of Malaysia. However, he believes that Anwar does not have to go to the extent of micro-managing correspondence in government departments. Ramasamy advises Anwar to focus more on economy such as:

• to address food shortage in Malaysia;
• to address the decline of Ringgit's value against US Dollar;
• the creation of a talented of workforce; and
• to ensure that the pledges of investments being materialised.

Ramasamy ends his opinion that in order for the economy to keep going, Anwar needs a good team in the Cabinet. Some of the deadwood appointed for reasons other than merit must be dropped. It is also about the time that Anwar replaces himself as the country's finance minister.