http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...orant-buffoons/

Learn our national language, you ignorant buffoons!
Fa Abdul
| November 22, 2015

While English is important, so is our national language and no citizen of this country has the excuse not to speak it well.
COMMENT

What do you call a Malaysian who cannot speak Bahasa Melayu?

What do you call a Malaysian who is embarrassed to speak Bahasa Melayu?

What do you call a Malaysian who prefers to speak anything but Bahasa Melayu?

What do you call a Malaysian who upholds his/her native language at the expense of Bahasa Melayu?

I call them ignorant buffoons and you should too.

While fluency in our national language is not indicative of a person’s loyalty or love for his or her country, the inability to master one’s own national language does speak volumes of a person’s character.

Two weeks ago, we were shocked with news that 1000 medical graduates gave up on their dreams of becoming doctors despite having completed a two-year housemanship in public hospitals, because they lacked proficiency in English.

While many have blamed our education system for the appalling standard of English among our students and graduates today, we seem to forget that our national language is going down the same longkang too.

Seriously, if it is seen as important for medical doctors to possess a fluency in English in order to do their jobs well, is it not just as important that they have a good command of Bahasa Melayu for the very same reason?

I have met quite a few doctors who are unable to make themselves understood by their patients just as they are unable to understand their patients because of a language barrier.

Without a basic comprehension of either English or Bahasa Melayu, how do doctors ask about the medical histories of their patients so that they are able to recommend the best treatments for them?

Let us not forget, 70 per cent of us are native speakers of Bahasa Melayu – why then are we not making fluency in our national language an important skill to master for medical practitioners as well?

In all honesty, if Bahasa Melayu was made a compulsory subject to pass for our graduates, I foresee many more dropouts in our local universities compared to the number of dropouts today due to the lack of proficiency in English.

This brings me to the recent case of a DAP Member of Parliament who insisted on using English while debating a bill in Parliament despite being rebuked by the Deputy Speaker to speak only Bahasa Melayu.

Why the stubbornness?

While I, myself see no issue in using English in Parliament since our MPs are pandai-pandai belaka (I think-lah) and can comprehend the language, I wonder why it is so difficult to also be able to present one’s arguments in our national language when requested to do so.

In my honest opinion, anyone representing the people should be able to communicate effectively with all levels of communities, thus making the ability to converse well in our national language a priority. How else are you going to listen to the rakyat’s problems if you do not understand them?

Perhaps it is time for us to make the proficiency of our national language one of the fundamentals of citizenship in Malaysia.

I guess that would be the best way to rid this country of ignorant buffoons.

She, not he.

She did say - While English is important, so is our national language and no citizen of this country has the excuse not to speak it well.

Esperanto.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto

But can't make everyone on earth use it.

We only have one national language, which is Malay.

I actually agree with most of what she said, not the ignorant buffoons part.

Errr...did you read the whole article? She said English is important. But so is our national language.

Don't know if people never read the whole article or they comprehended it differently.

Helps to tackle aweks.

Fine.

I don't mind using BM. I actually wish I had a better command of it.

I don't see what is the problem, at least for me.

I am older but I will continue to make an effort.

I will also try to improve on my Mandarin.

I don't see why I have to limit myself like it is beyond my abilities.

Some just refuse to. Not that they can't.

That's some of the people the writer is referring to.

Yes, your teacher was good and smart.

I guess some people a bit offended by the ignorant buffoon remark.

Seriously?

Why some of you are attacking her for points she didn't even raise?

Is it poor comprehension?

Or didn't read the article in its entirety?

Or some of you perasan the ignorant buffoon remark so much that you just want to hentam back?

This post has been edited by joe_mamak: Nov 22 2015, 05:39 PM

Don't see why it is stupid [could you please stop using the f word?].

One of the reasons why BM was adopted is so that everyone could communicate with each other. BM is a good choice for that.

Back then, I doubt the pondok schooling system or the Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools were ready to shift to Malay or English for that matter. Hence things remained the way they were until the 70s.

It would have been good if we had both.

Seems some of your frustration is leading you take it out on BM, the language.

The DAP MP was trying to make a point as far as Sarawak and Sabah is concerned.

DAP MPs over in West Malaysia are all using Malay in Parliament.

Hey, could you please stop it with the stupid vaginas remarks? Thanks.

Yes. But it was something the education ministry had to and has to deal with.

Can't go back in time already. This is where we are today.

We can either keep dwelling in the past and keep having whatever hangups about BM and keep lamenting about BI not being emphasized or we move forward and try to make things better.

Don't know whether it was appropriate or inappropriate. To a Sarawakian and a Sabahan it might have been very appropriate.

And he is a Sarawakian.

This post has been edited by joe_mamak: Nov 22 2015, 06:44 PM