Is language really a unity factor? We keep hearing calls by Perkasa that if everyone used Bahasa Melayu then Malaysia would be united. Well in Kelantan, where most of its inhabitants speak fluent Kelantanese dialect, it is not a uniting factor, but its the basic communication. But to say we all live happily ever after side by side, is over simplistic optimism. We can communicate with each other but we may still disagree and have plenty of differences in opinions and ideas. It is NOT a uniting factor. Infact the Arabs speak Arabic and they are not united. The Taiwanese speak the same language and they beat each other up in Parliament. As a matter of fact, even as a Malay who speaks Bahasa Melayu with another Malay, that wont mean that we Malays are united. Language is just a communication tool to express your thoughts, no matter how different. So if language is not a uniting factor, what is it? Language is a source of knowledge. How do you derive knowledge if you dont understand the language of the knowledge? So lets say you want to learn something new, you need to comprehend the subject matter. If you want to learn science for instance, then you need to use the language in which it was discovered. If you want to understand the Quran, then we have to master Classical Arabic, not just the spoken Arabic. Otherwise we would end up translating terms into a language and losing that essence of the subject. The universal language of Science is English. Its acceptable. And being proficient in English means one can effectively pursue knowledge.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 00:45:16 +0000
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