opinion It was indeed a great honour for this writer and his wife to be invited by veteran Malay journalist Said Zahari to be guests-of-honour for the 'Malam Bersama Said Zahari' held at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 4.

The dinner-cum-seminar was organised by the Malaysian Social Science Association and UM's Academic Staff Association and sponsored by the publisher of Utusan Malaysia.

Last year, this writer was also invited to attend the launching of the Chinese edition of Said Zahari's political memoirs, Dark Clouds at Dawn. Although someone else more competent translated the book which was first penned in Malay and English simultaneously, this writer was privileged enough to be asked by the author to read the manuscript and suggest improvements.

Despite a vast difference in physical age and socio-political experience, Syed Zahari and this writer share at least one common vision - the birth of a multilingual generation of Malaysians and Singaporeans comprising Malays, Chinese, Indians and others.

Multiliguism will enable us all to more fully share joy and sorrow without mutual fear and suspicion and help us uphold universal values together as equal human beings created by God.

Knowing, and respecting each others' language will enhance mutual trust, empathy and solidarity.

Language of imperialism

Prof Rahman Embong, a sociologist at the University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Malaysian Social Science Association president, pointed out that evening that although Said Zahari did not attend university, he was zealous in acquiring knowledge, particularly of languages including English, Chinese and even Japanese.

The trials and tribulations of being detained without trial for 17 years after accused of being a 'communist' did not deter Said Zahari from learning languages. It is a well-known fact among those who know him well that Syed Zahari learnt his Chinese from, among others, fellow political detainee Lim Guan Teik.

Lim is now the respected president of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM).

The mastery of several major languages has not only enabled Syed Zahari to travel with ease and self-confidence around the world as a journalist and historian, but has also gathered around him a group of trusted Chinese, Indian and Western friends who together share their intellectual ideas, social information and personal experiences.

Looking back with hindsight on the modern history of Malaysia and Singapore, this writer cannot but admire the moral courage and farsightedness of people like Syed Zahari and Lim Guan Teik. It must be said that in their time, languages were politically, culturally and even religiously sensitive.

'Inferior' masses

Most of the Malays and Chinese during that era refused to learn English because they believed it was the language of colonialism and imperialism. To be anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist then meant reasserting their respective identities by not learning the language of the colonial masters.

For the Malays at that time, English was also said to threaten their Islamic identity as it was equated with Christianity.

For the tiny group of local elite who were English-educated, the Malay, Chinese and Tamil languages were the lingua franca of the more 'inferior' masses of labourers and peasants who were either potential 'revolutionary nationalists', 'communist terrorists' or 'trouble-makers'.

This monolingual elite group relied only on lowly paid translators and interpreters in the tradition of the Strait Settlements' Police Special Branch whose chief function was to monitor 'Bolshevik activities'.

According to this rather arrogant and London-centric world view, Malay, Chinese and Tamil languages were those of the 'backward' civilisations while English, of course, was the gateway to a more civilized and higher order of human society.

Proven wrong

However, despite widespread stereotyping and prejudices of each others' languages, morally courageous men like Syed Zahari and Lim Guan Teik dared to defy the then prevailing social conditioning.

While the Chinese-educated Lim learnt English and Malay, Syed Zahari learnt English and Chinese. Sharing a common condition of poverty and oppression, they helped and supported each other in their learning process as trusted friends.

Their success has proven wrong the idea that acquiring knowledge of another language would require one to compromise one's ethnic or religious identity or turn one into a traitor of his race and religion.

Today, while Syed Zahari is respected more than ever as an icon of free and independent Malay journalism, Lim enjoys popular respect in the Chinese community as a fair-minded, prudent, independent-thinking and non-partisan business leader.

In the grand tradition of Syed Zahari and Lim Guan Teik, veteran Chinese educationist Lee Ban Chen began to master Malay as early as the 1960s. He was then detained under the Internal

Security Act (ISA) for leading an industrial strike in the 60s and while incarcerated, wrote a book in Malay on modern philosophy. Occasionally, Lee also writes in English.

Human-friendly

Today, we have seen enough proof that English was not only the language of colonialism and imperialism, but also of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism.

English can be used to preach not only Christianity, but also Islam (remember Cat Stevens aka Yusuf Islam?), Buddhism and other secular ideologies ranging from capitalism, socialism, communism, liberal democracy, Hobbesian/Mahathirist 'good dictatorship', libertarianism and anarchism (in the proper sense of the word).

English is also used by both right-wing Wasps (White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants) and left-wing anti-globalisation, anti-war protestors in London and Washington DC to advocate ideas of polar extremity.

Languages are, and ought to be, race and religion-neutral. All languages should be made human-friendly and be the media of all truths.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia which produces the subscriber-based political report, Analysis Malaysia. Wong is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew, he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute for 1998 and 1999.