Nampaknya saya tergerak juga utk mengulas isu yg sudahpun disebut dlm blog2 lain dan akhbar2 seminggu dua ini – ucapan Syarifah Amani, Aktres Terbaik dalam Festival Filem Malaysia ke-19.
Saya tidak melihat isu ini berfokus kepada beliau, kerana jika demikian, isu ini tentulah kecil jadinya. Lagipun beliau sudah memohon maaf seperti mana dlm laporan beberapa akhbar. Saya kira Amani cuba menjadi jujur, namun agak tak kena pada tempat dan masanya.
Sebaliknya saya berpandangan, insiden ini merupakan tamparan kepada bangsa Melayu seluruhnya. Lebih jauh drpd itu, nampaknya wujud sekelompok orang Melayu di negara kita yg tidak fasih berbahasa Melayu! Saya akur jika mereka ini lahir, dibesarkan dan bermastautin berbelas tahun di luar negara. Namun apa alasannya utk mereka yg tinggal di Malaysia?
Menurut takrifan Perlembagaan Persekutuan; Orang Melayu adalah orang yg mengamalkan budaya hidup Melayu, bertutur bahasa Melayu dan beragama Islam. Maka jika salah satu drpd tiga komponen tadi lenyap, sayugia kalau orang itu masih layak dipanggil ‘orang Melayu’. Paling tidak, saya menganggap kelompok mereka ini sebagai Melayu yg sudah ‘cair’ kemelayuannya.
Golongan Melayu cair ini semakin bertambah nampaknya dan mereka tidakpun rasa canggung malah bangga kerana merasakan mereka ini mewakili golongan Melayu kelas menengah yg bijak. Bijak semata2 kerana fasih berbahasa Inggeris! Sebab itu lah timbul lafaz perkataan “I sound stupid when I speak Malay” .
“Saya kedengaran bodoh (bermaksud teruk?) jika bertutur bahasa Melayu”.
Kalau ungkapan berkenaan dianggap masih tidak ada apa-apa, bagaimana pula dengan
‘saya kekok kalau makan pakai tangan” atau “saya kelihatan hodoh kalau bertudung!” ?
Dan ucapan itu pula dibuat dlm satu majlis rasmi, ditonton secara langsung oleh jutaan manusia, dalam dan luar negara, Melayu dan bukan Melayu? Bukankah kesemuanya dalam konteks yg sama? Sakit atau tidak nya mereka yg mendengar ungkapan2 tadi sangat bergantung kepada dalam ceteknya cinta mereka terhadap bahasa, budaya dan agama.
Tun Dr.Mahathir menyarankan kita menguasai bahasa Inggeris, hanya sebagai alat utk menguasai ilmu. Tidak sekali2 pernah beliau mahu kita jadi omputeh.
Pun begitu, kalaulah apa yg diucap itu tidak diiringi niat, sekurang2nya ia membenarkan lagi pepatah Melayu yg berbunyi ‘kerana pulut santan binasa, kerana mulut badan binasa’ dan ‘terlajak perahu boleh diundur, terlajak kata padah menimpa.’
Orang tua-tua kita pernah mengingatkan, ‘cakap siang pandang-pandang, cakap malam dengar-dengar…’
SUMMARY
It is a sad thing to learn that there are some of our Malaysians who are not very fluent and comfortable to converse in their very own mother tongue. It would be understandable had these people been living overseas for many many years. But I could not find any excuses for those growing up in Malaysia. Very true that our former Prime Minister Tun Dr.Mahathir had asked us, Malaysians, to learn English, but primarily for the purposes of seeking knowledge. Not at any time he wanted us to take Bahasa Melayu for granted.
MERDEKA !!
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5 comments:
Personally to me, its a blessing in disguise...ada Hikmah...
cos' kalau dia tak buat silap, dia don't know ia satu kesilapan. Then she learnt and will remember that in this world, we don't live alone.
so, we have to comply to the norms.
Kontroversi.. semua sama naik. Pelakon n filem sekali.
Abgjas gembira tulisan kali ini dapat diterima dgn baik walaupun 'keras' sikit bunyinya. Tak bermaksud menyinggung sesiapa, sekadar meluahkan apa yg dirasa.
Hi Greeny,
I'm totally agree with u, we don't live alone, we have to comply to the norms. Spt kata Deanz, masuk kandang kambing mengembeeeek...
Hi Wan,
Dlm kita bereaksi agak emosional, ada pihak yg masih menangguk di air keruh kan?
Yahh..jom tengok Gubra !
Hi Joseph,
Thanks for your comment. You've always see the coin from different side ya.. could you please enlighten me on 'for your own protection'?
"It is a sad thing to learn that there are some of our Malaysians who are not very fluent and comfortable to converse in their very own mother tongue"
I read the summary and re-quoted one para that i've reflected back to myself. I agree with abg Jas. It is, of course very sad to have malaysians acted like they forgot how to speak in the mother tongue (especially when you are raised in a family that converse in Malay everyday)
I lived in europe for a year- in countries that taught me a lot about life and myself (and there, english was not even the 4th language). I met 2 interesting persons to relate to this topic.
1st a Malay girl, born and raised in malaysia and refused to speak Malay- she said she forgot to speak the langage after 2 years. How could she forgot? I lived without Malay speaking people around me for a year and i barely speak Malay when i was there but never i forgot a word of it. At the end of the day, i just think that it is how one feels and thinks about his/her identity. I guess she is losing track. 2nd, a 7 year old Malay boy who moved to different countries every 3 years with his family since he was born. He understood Malay and whose Malay command is poor and responded only in English. The family, however still exposed him to the malaysian culture and laguage and when i visited the family one day, he made me smile when he told his grandpa (who didnt speak english), "Atuk, I want to wash my hand". and the gradpa was like "Apeeeelah anak kau ni cakap Yati, aku tak paham". In this era, there are soo much to learn and an open mind is a requirement. Learn other culture, but never lose ours. That is what i personally learned. Travel has made me wiser.
Back to what i would like to bring up here. Malay is my mother tongue, but dont we forget that Malay has different dialects. For 4 years in Peninsular Malaysia, i've picked up their dialect (of how they said the "standard" malay) here and there and having said that i lived with my fellow friends from Sabah and Sarawak for 3 years (outside the campus, when i was studying in UKM), and to have 90% of my coursemates chinese and involved with an international stdent society- made me converse mainly in Sabahan Malay dialect and English more than the "standard" Malay. I have friends who approached me and said, "Hey Sri, apesal aku jarang dengar ko cakap melayu? Ko tak pandai cakap ke, ko nak mengada?" and my standard answer "Da ko tak selalu tak hang out ngan aku"
"La, kau kan slalu pegi persatuan AIESEC tu. Kawan2 ko memanjang ckp english. Aku tak pandai cakap"
"Cakap je lah. kalau tak cakap memang tak pandai. Aku kan dari Sabah, Melayu aku tak sama. Banyak orang kat sini tak faham"
and after that they forgive me for not being fluent in the "standard" peninsular Malay. So here, to reflect back, we should understand where one comes from and how she/he is raised. I learn the "standard" Malay just like how i learned other languages.I say, i am not fluent to converse/speak using the "standard" malay but i do fluent in my dialect. Is that something i should be shamed of? for me- No. I was raised and converse almost my life now in that dialect and it is sad to have some people blamed me for not being able to speak their dialect because their dialect is adopted as they way you rightly speak Malay.
In my situation now- working at a company whose employees are 95% chinese (i'm the only malay) and to live with 2 french girls, an american man and a malay lady- it is soo much easier to speak english.
To to add up a lil more- learning other languages is really really fun. Language is part of the culture, once you learn a language, you will have a really good access to one's culture. I discovered that when i learned other languages (reading cyrillic is fun. It is now my secret code that none of my friends here understand). It is also a good way to add value to yourself. The same goes to religion. We shall not limit ourselves to get to know only our religion, but also others- then only we know so many reasons for so many things. I remember a conversation with my landlord when i was renting her apartmnent in serbia; "Marlia, I speak no english, you please learn srpski becos english we dont know. And dont worry, you can eat the bread- No pork meat only pork oil(lard)". I smiled like i never smiled before :o)))))) tough life but worth it.
Just to share- Before this i didnt feel the sense of belonging in malaysia, so i traveled far far away from home to see the world and find myself. After all i've been through, Malaysia is still where i belong. As per the old say, "Hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri sendiri, baik lagi negeri sendiri".
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