YOURSAY | ‘Bahasa Malaysia too has borrowed many foreign words.’

Rais rues use of 'disgusting' English names over Malay for local places

AB Sulaiman: It’s so comforting to see the common reaction to Rais Yatim’s pronouncement on the popular use of English words to name buildings and residences. He mourned over the naming of places like Ampang Waterfront and such.

The fact of the matter is that one language borrowing a foreign word for its own use is pretty common in human history. Indeed, this borrowed word is known as a “loanword”. There are plenty in English like “pyjama” and “bungalow”, which I learnt were borrowed from India.

The Malay language, too, has borrowed many foreign words like dosha for dosa (sin) and phala for pahala (good spiritual merit), both from Sanskrit.

Rais might be happy that even some Malay words have been loaned to English, like lancar to “launch” a boat or ship, and mengamok (shortened to amok, or amuck), when a person goes on a temper tantrum. It’s a question of give and take, yielding a win-win situation all around.

Rais should not be too concerned so as to alert Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) about his fear. A loanword becomes integral to a language once the people accept it.

So far as I know here, the DBP is only a dictionary-compiling organisation. It has no say in rejecting such loanwords from its dictionary.

Dr Suresh Kumar: The reality is many Malay individuals that I know are trying hard to improve their English listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. But they tell me that they feel shy to do it.

When I asked them why, they told me that when they try to converse in English with other Malays, they get mocked. “Wah, speaking lah tu”, “dah jadi mat/minah Salleh ker”, “action lah tu, cakap ong puteh”, etc, etc.

I told them to ignore those people and continue to speak in English and also read English newspapers and listen to English news and jot down words and sentences that they don’t understand and share with me or with other friends who are more than happy to help them.

Now, with people like Rais, Malays who really want to learn the English language will feel demoralised and discouraged because the ordinary Malays have been conditioned in such a way to be beholden to their elders and leaders.

Meanwhile, hypocrites like Rais will never question other Malay leaders like Mohamed Nazri Aziz, who apparently sent his young child, who was given a French name, to France to attend kindergarten there. Why so?

Most of the elite ketuanan Malays send their kids to international schools where the medium of instruction is English, but Rais does not question that. Instead, he finds it appropriate to ask why the Chinese have Christian names.

Now, you might be able to decipher why these elite, ketuanan folk will always keep the ordinary Malays in their kampung and under the proverbial coconut shell.

Malaysia Bharu: It is a disgrace that relics are masquerading as lawmakers and talking nonsense to justify their appointment and make their presence felt.

How will Malaysia ever extricate out of the quagmire and progress if stupidity rears its ugly head in the name of political expediency?

A host of words in Bahasa Malaysia are itself adopted from English, let alone Tamil, Sanskrit and others. Words such as putra, bumi, jaya, perdana, menteri and others that dominate as names of roads and establishments are Tamil words.

And speaking of English names such as Hampshire, Ainsdale and others, why limit the rhetoric to housing gardens? What is the origin of road names such as Damansara this and Damansara that, which predominates huge parts of KL?

IndigoKite6964: What's wrong with our politicians? Use a Malay name like Timah and they say cannot as it sounds like the Arabic name Fatimah. Now they say English names are “disgusting” so if Winepak changed Timah to “Tin Ore”, that would be wrong too.

But what about KLCC? Must they change it to something else like “KL Bandar Tengah”? What about MAS? Should it now stand for Mana Ada Sistem? Then again, sistem is a bastardised English word turned into Malay. Even AirAsia has to change its name.

Tun Razak Exchange should now be named Tun Razak Tukar. Rapid KL should be changed to Pantas KL and Merdeka Square should be changed to Merdeka Empat Segi.

Rais, you are not a new kid in the block. Why did it take you so long to be disgusted with these English names? I think you need to retire before Alzheimer steps in. Oops, another English name. I think in Malay it would be “otak mati”.

Just A Malaysian: Many Chinese have Christian names, and to Rais, this is disgusting. He could have articulated his viewpoint in a more leader-like or more statesman-like manner instead of insulting Christians who, in their beliefs, are honoured to have names associated with their religion.

I guess it is hard for some Malays to appreciate this. It is always my religion, my language, my, my, my…

Andy Vinodovic: “The Malay-daily quoted Rais as saying the practice has portrayed an obsession with English-styled names, likening it to the Chinese who adopted ‘European names like Michael, James or George’ over their Chinese names.”

As if Malays haven’t been adopting Arabic names.

Plain old Malaysian: The loss of Malay culture is not so much due to the use of language. Malay culture is disappearing due to the fast influx of Arabic culture in the guise of religion.

The English language has been in use for many decades and it has not changed Malay culture in any way. Arabic culture and dressing, on the other hand, had overshadowed Malaysian culture in the past 20 years. So, which should be more worrying?

Rippoh2016: Malaysia is facing very serious problems like kleptocracy, declining standards in education, a recession, unemployed youth, human trafficking, modern slavery and institutionalised racism (of which Rais, you are very much a proponent), just to mention a few.

So far, I have not heard a single constructive idea from Rais or people like him on how to tackle these problems. Then again, I would be the first to admit sheer stupidity to expect someone like Rais to come up with something constructive.

There is no point in naming places using Malay when in the end, these places end up being part of a failed state.

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