Oleh :Nazirah Ashari 

(Atas dasar kebebasan bersuara, TTKM tidak menyunting artikel ini untuk mengekalkan lenggok bahasa penulis)

YB LGE & isu bahasa.

“The moment a Minister of Malaysia is making any sort of statement, regardless platform, he is representing his office and the government. Meaning his audience is the rakyat at large. The rakyat’s main language is BM. Lepas tu gunalah bahasa apa apa pun. But BM must be there and it must be first.”

Let’s be clear about something: Tak semua orang yang disagree dengan his move to write a response statement on his FB page adalah mereka who are hating on Chinese or Bahasa Cina.

I personally have no issue about Mandarin being used to communicate any statement by a Malaysian minister, for as long as the language that is widely used by the rakyat is being used too (and first).

Bahasa itu adalah bahasa Malaysia.

At the end of the day, strategically, communication is about making sure information yang nak disampaikan — terus sampai dan orang mudah paham. Barulah berjaya communication tu.

To majority Malaysian, the language is Bahasa Malaysia, bahasa kebangsaan. Kemudian boleh lah difollow-kan oleh bahasa bahasa lain.

The moment a Minister of Malaysia is making any sort of statement, regardless platform, he is representing his office and the government. Meaning his audience is the rakyat at large. The rakyat’s main language is BM. Lepas tu gunalah bahasa apa apa pun. But BM must be there and it must be first.

Janganlah cakap “hal bahasa pun nak kecoh.” Tak elok lah begini. Ini bukan sekadar hal bahasa ye.

Language is the most powerful tool there is.

The moment LGE decided to make his follow up statement in Mandarin and English, he automatically eliminating audience who doesn’t understand those languages. And as someone who is supposed to speak to his audience—the rakyat, that’s failure of communication.

Of course, there’s the other part about memperkasakan bahasa kebangsaan, which is equally important. Apalah sesebuah bangsa Negara itu kalau pemimpinnya tidak cuba untuk memartabatkan bahasanya. In this case, LGE should have not even responded with that follow up statement in only two languages as it leads to the sentiment that we are seeing now.

Some yang confirm confirm anti PH atau worst, anti bangsa lain atau racist, will leverage on benda yang boleh dielakkan seperti ini untuk memperbesarkan isu. As a minister, this mistake shouldn’t have been made in the first place. Either he is responding too emotionally to the situation or someone in his team doesn’t advice him accordingly—benda ni patutnya tak jadi hal kalau pandai manage crisis.

I also hope that while I hate seeing these accusations by right wing Malays, there are also progressives like me who thinks his move was a bad one. I’m one of those people.

Mandarin is never the issue to me. And to people like me. But sebagai seorang pemimpin negara — bukan pembangkang lagi ya — LGE harus ingat yang dia adalah bangsa Malaysia dan bahasa kebangsaan kita, the language that he needs to use first to communicate to his people, the rakyat Malaysia — adalah bahasa Malaysia. Lepas tu, nak letak bahasa bahasa lain diharuskan letak, supaya lebih ramai orang faham. Maka communication pun inshaAllah, effective lah.

After my status semalam, ada yang comment that they’re speechless pasal my remark, can’t believe that I’m one of them lah, apa lah.

Ada juga yang siap DM cakap how disappointed he is with me.

You know who you are.

Takpelah, cakaplah apa apa. Malas nak layan.

Salam dari saya yang sedang belajar bahasa ketiga,
Bahasa Jerman. 😂😂😂