The use of the term Bahasa Malaysia to refer to national language alone will not promote togetherness, unity and integration among Malaysians if cabinet ministers continue to be narrow-minded and lacked broad nationalist outlook.

Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang said the government must also look beyond the reversion in promoting national unity.

He however welcomed the government move to revert the name of the national language from Bahasa Melayu (Malay language) to Bahasa Malaysia (Malaysian language).

It was reported yesterday that the Cabinet last April had unanimously decided to make the change which was aimed to inculcate a sense of belonging for all citizens irrespective of race.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was then quoted in the media as saying that the reversion was intended to promote togetherness, unity and integration among Malaysians.

He also said the government did not want to see the Cabinet's decision being turned into polemics.

"We all know that the national language means the Bahasa Melayu (Malay language) but we want the language to belong to all Malaysians regardless of race, ethnic groups and so on.

"So, by referring to the language as Bahasa Malaysia means that the language belongs to all of us," he was quoted as saying.

Najib's role

Lim however pointed out that it has taken Najib 20 years to understand the rational behind the calls made by many, including DAP, for such a revision.

"It has taken Najib more than 20 years to fully understand and accept the DAP's arguments [...] that the national language must transcend its racial origin to become a language of all Malaysians. It is better late than never," he said.

The DAP veteran also said that Najib was responsible in turning the issue into polemics in 1986 when the then Education Minister Anwar Ibrahim dropped the term Bahasa Malaysia for Bahasa Melayu.

"One of Anwar's strongest supporters in the change at the time was none other than Najib, who was then the Deputy Umno Youth leader to Anwar as the Umno Youth leader," he said.

However, Lim stressed that the change now does not mean that the various mother-tongues of multi-racial, multi-lingual and multi-cultural Malaysia are not Malaysian languages.

"All mother-tongues of Malaysians must be fully recognized as an integral part of the Malaysian linguistic and cultural mosaic," he stated.

Unsolved issues

Lim added that the government must look beyond the revision in promoting national unity considering its failure to deal with grave problems and challenges facing the country including:

the unresolved keris-wielding scandal by the Umno Youth leader and Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein in circumstances showing utter contempt for the sensitivities and rights of all Malaysians and his refusal to meet up with Dong Jiao Zong to discuss the National Education Blueprint 2006-2010 and Chinese education;


the continued decline in international competitiveness with no political will to create a national environment where excellence in education and towering Malaysians regardless of race or religion could surface and flourish;


the indifference to a new exodus of brain-drain with the best and brightest turning to emigration in their disappointment that they do not have an equal place under the Malaysian sun; and


the religious polarisation and constitutional crisis stemming from a spate of cases, the latest being the Lina Joy case.

"If Najib is serious about wanting to promote togetherness, unity and integration among Malaysians, these are some of the problems he must urgently get the Cabinet to address and resolve," Lim added.