Bahasa Malaysia~

Hi~ its been a long time...

Now, how come i would want to write about "Bahasa Malaysia"?

This is because i've read on an article in The Sun newspaper.

The article is an interview with award-winner writer Uthaya Sankar.The thing that caught my attention is he has been ask frequently on "why you speak so good in Bahasa Malaysia?".

Now, i've met the same condition before when i went for camps or programmes out of my school. Usually, natives people or our Malay friends even my own Chinese friends will ask me, "Wow, you speak very well in BM. How can it be?" Well... frankly speaking, i felt like tumbling when i heard this question. I was thinking why this kind of question was given to me. I mean, I'm a Malaysian. There's shouldn't be anything extraordinary about being able to talk in BM, right? But, it did happen. They felt like " Wow, a chinese can speak like a Malay. What an odd thing to see!!"

Based on the history subject i've learnt during my secondary school which was a compulsory subject, if i'm not mistaken, Bahasa Malaysia has became our national and official language since independence. So, what's so wrong or abnormal about when a malaysian like me can speak well in BM. Although i'm a chinese, mandarin is the third language for me to learn. Honestly, English is my 1st academically learnt language while Bahasa Malaysia is the 2nd and Mandarin is the 3rd. I've been mingle around with malay friends sice i was a kid. My childhood friends were Indians and Malays. I've only made friends with Chinese when i enter primary school.

What i want to say is this is what our country suppose to be. All races live in harmony. I've malay, chinese, indian, and siam friends. I can communicate well with all of them. I think its time for us to think again and deeply about the future of our country. People or society is the main ingredient in a country. Without people, there won't be any country.

Well, actually i'm quite puzzled with the language system of BM. As i recalled, the term "Bahasa Melayu" and "Bahasa Malaysia" had been vice versa converted many times during my primary and secondary education. Bahasa Melayu is the national language, then Bahasa Malaysia? If its the national language of Malaysia, then why can't it be Bahasa Malaysia? This is the question been discussed among my friends. I mean, if its called Bahasa Malaysia, its fair to everyone because we all are malaysian. But, when its called Bahasa Melayu, it sounds like the other races are not malaysian. They are just foreigners who are learning the language of natives people or the Bumiputra's.

Anyway, that's just my point of views. I would like to encourage my friends especially chinese, please master Bahasa Malaysia, for the sake of our ownselves. For students, we need excellent grade for BM to apply for scholarship or further studies in Malaysia. For non-students, we need to socialise and communicate in this country with various people. Lastly, we need to know our own national language because we are MALAYSIAN.