Language powerful unity tool, says CM

Kuala Lumpur - CHIEF Minister Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman said the role of the national language as a unity tool warrants more serious attention as unity among the races could be easily threatened if people forget about the national language.

"Differences of religions, beliefs, ideology, culture and others can lead to split and racial dispute if not addressed wisely," he said in his speech in conjunction with the launching of the National Literature and Language Month (BBSN).

Towards this end, he said the theme of the National Day this year "Unity the Thrust to Success" had gained the attention of the multi-racial people.

He said use of the national language had been limited because all this while every time effort to boost the national language was upped, the stronger the objection from certain quarters.

Hence, the main thing was to create care for the language among the community. "The rejection towards the effort may be reduced if the feeling of love and pride to the national language as the symbol of patriotism and unity of the multi-racial society is inculcated."

In the effort to bolster the pride to our national language, he said the mother tongue of the people in the State, in particular, must not be forgotten.

"This uniqueness in Sabah must be preserved and moves to gather and record the ethnic languages in Sabah will very well assist in the effort to enrich the Bahasa Melayu vocabulary by usurping words from these ethnic languages to support concept that is not found in the Bahasa Melayu vocabulary," he said.

In other words, Musa said that while efforts were being made to enhance the national language to become a modern language at the same time, ethnic languages were also not forgotten.

Musa said the State Government fully supported the strategies and approaches implemented by the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka in realising the goal to make Bahasa Melayu a major language in the world by 2020.

Source: http://www.dailyexpress.com.my (October 25, 2008)
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