The debate in Malaysia over the reversion of Bahasa Melayu back to its old term of Bahasa Malaysia, er, after it was changed from Bahasa Melayu in the first place, only goes to reinforce what a paucity of self confidence there is in Malaysia’s polity.
Using Bahasa Malaysia, or Bahasa Melayu or whatever it is called in Malaysia, is a risky business in Malaysia precisely because of this lack of self confidence, especially in its capital city, Kuala Lumpur.
There, if you’re a Malaysian who’s lived abroad for some time, you never know when to use English or when to use Bahasa Malaysia Melayu Malaysia. Speak to a professional in Malay there and if the other person is Chinese or Indian and you get a look like you’e just come out from Tanjung Rambutan. Speak to a professional Malay and he might get insulted: “You tink I cannot speak English ah?” is the likely riposite you’d get.
So, confused, you decide to use English the next time you speak to a Malay. Only this time it is in a government department. “Oi lu Cina Ah Pek, tak tahu cakap Melayu ah?” is the typical remark that you would get in thought if not in words.
So you can’t win. Unspun‘s solution is to inflict Bahasa Indonesia on those I should be speaking Bahasa Malaysia Melayu Malaysia. As Unspun‘s friends can attest, Unspun‘s Indonesian is atrocious, but not quite Melayu either, so it confuses the hell out of everyone.
This confusion has its uses. It has helped Unspun avoid having to pay a bribe to a Malaysian policeman on the North-South highway once. And it’s also won him many friends among taxi drivers, all of whom speak Bahasa Malaysia Melayu Malaysia, but who on discovering that Unspun speaks Indonesian welcomes him like a compatriot. That’s because there’s a lot of Indonesians with Malaysian identity cards in Malaysia.
Perhaps Malaysia should do the practical thing and change Bahasa Malaysia Melayu Malaysia into Bahasa Indonesia. You’d then have over 250 million people speaking the same language. Some might be tempted to see this as an exponential expansion of the Malay world, except that the Indonesians are too sensible for such chauvinism. To them, the Malays are just a small ethnic group hailing from Sumatera. Now that’s perspective.
Bahasa “Malaysia” / “Melayu” or whatever you wanna call it, is actually a collection of many languages. Words like Bomba, Bola, Almari and so on so forth are of Portuguese origin. Portuguese words constitute to approximately 15% of the “Malaysian” Language. The Dutch words take up another 20%. The remainder is part Arabic, Sanskrit, Tamil, and so on. Like I’ve mentioned many many times before, the only 3 original “Malay” words are Saya, Padi, and Babi.
Truly Asia speaks Truly Asian Language. (albeit with a little bit of European and Middle East thrown in). The young ones of today find it “hip” to throw in English into the pot; just re-spelled badly. Like Komputer, Kompromi, Ekonomi, Duplikasi, and so on so forth.
The Museum Curator (he himslef a Bugis from Sulawesi) of the “Bugis Museum” in Johor speaks verhemently against the existence of the “Malay” race. And I quote, “Apa Bangsa tiada Bahasa?”, meaning “What race does not have a language?”. What he means is that you cannot call the “Malays” a “race” because it does not have its own language.
You should go have a chat with him. He’s open 7 days a week. Also, avoid all prayer times, as he will be at the Mosque praying. He’s also the guy who told me that Chin Peng should be called the other “Bapak Malaysia” as he fought against foreign powers (Japanese). and was awarded the Burma Star Award (1939-1942) by the British for his “selflessness” in Combat against the Enemies of Her Majesty.