Saturday, April 17, 2004

Arabising the Malay culture, the hell?

I read an interesting article from Malaysiakini, where they had an interview from Rais Yatim, who happens to be the current Culture and Heritage Minister. Now there, from where did he get such absurd assertions that the Malays are trying to make their own culture Arab-like? I certainly don't see my own people covering their faces with arabaya and the men wearing thoubs everywhere? Women are alowed to work and drive in Malaysia. Then, what is he trying to say?

Enough about that. I heard that the DBP (Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka - responsible for anything that has to do with the Malay language), had just come up with the most ludicrous statement. Recently, they banned a local artist's song from being aired on RTM (one of the many radio stations in Malaysia), all because she (the artist) had words such as Seksis and Diva in it. To top it up, P.Ramlee's Madu Tiga, one of his classic hits, might end up being banned on RTM too because there's an English phrase which sounds "I Love You".

All of this pisses me off. It is apparent that the people that are currently in DBP are having this inferiority complex about the Malay language dissappearing. The way they think is so backward, they could be living in the dark ages for all we know. What's the big deal of having 2 languages in a song? The Chinese and Japanese have been doing it for years.

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