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Why Baku unacceptable - MGG Pillai By web aNtu 25/1/2000 8:04 am Tue

Why Bahasa Baku is Unacceptable Pronunciation of Malay In 1988, the education miniter, one Anwar Ibrahim, ordered that time-honoured Johore-Riau pronounciation of Bahasa Malaysia was not nationalistic nor native enough, and introduced a system of pronunciation when he then imposed on his charges. He called it Bahasa Baku; almost everyone else was sure Baku was a short form of "bahasa anak keling utara". After much water under the bridge, with several education ministers, including the present deputy prime minister, the cabinet discovered it had not caught on and should be discarded forthwith. The education minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamed, said Bahasa Baku should not be taught in schools nor used in television and radio broadcasts. Besides, it confuses the public. "What is the use (of teaching bahasa baku pronunciation in schools) ... it is taught only in schools but the public does'nt speak it." Like the smart schools his predecessor went into with alacrity and in which his wife's involvement in providing hardware and software became a scandal which has yet to surface, this is yet another move to confirm the widely held view that the education portfolio is not to ensure a sound basic education for children, but to use them as guinea pigs for their political advancement. When Bahasa Baku was introduced, it was rammed down the throats in ways only Bolehland knows how, as the new system is. It was half-baked then, created by graduates in linguistics who themselves were not linguists and by obsessive politicians wanting to prove their commitment to education. It has nothing to do with education. Bahasa Baku was not widely used. TV3 does, but not RTM. The public -- and this includes the Prime Minister -- speaks in the dialect of whence they come from. The immediate past education minister got himself out of a political difficulty by claiming he spoke in the Pekan dialect which was misunderstood! Last week, the minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Dato' Rais Yatim, ordered radio and television stations to use Standard Malay pronunciation instead. It was a gross mistake, he implied, and time it is corrected. Were it that simple! A wide body of influential opinion thinks the government has gone too far, and conflicts with the law on standardisation of spelling and pronunciation. The Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka or the Language and Literary Agency, entrusted with these matters, opposes it. But Dato' Rais insists that "there should not be any suspicion or opposition because language depends on its use by the people", quoting a phoenetics expert who said language evolved with the community and not shaped within an official mould. Did it take the Cabinet 11 years to realise this, and the education ministers after Dato' Seri Anwar and before Tan Sri Musa did not know this? But the decision on Bahasa Baku pronunciation was itself political. It was rode rough shot over the same arguments that the minister now pouts, but what the education minister wants he gets. The education ministry, typically, is a stepping stone to higher office; it is not to ensure a sound education system. If that happens, it is accidental. At one time, teachers were an influential force within UMNO, especially in the early years of the country independence. May 1969 changed all that. The man who succeeded Dato' Hussein Onn as education minister in the early 1970s, Dato' Abdul Rahman Yaakub -- yes, the same man who went on to be chief minister of Sarawak and, as Tun, Yang Dipertuan Negeri -- politicised the post amidst the virtual Malay coup in the aftermath of the riots. In the changes that followed, the teachers became all but irrelevant in UMNO affairs, replaced by nouveau-riche officially-sanctioned corporate types, and education became an incidental byproduct in the struggle for power within UMNO. That underlines this move on Bahasa Baku. The Cabinet did not consult or study the implications. That this is opposed is clear. The Utusan Malaysia had a whiff of that. That the move has to explained not by the education minister but by others as well -- the banning of Bahasa Baku in radio and television broadcasts should have been made by the information minister, not, as happened, by a former information minister -- underwrites the confusion that hangs over the decision. This does not surprise. The deputy education minister is Dato' Aziz Shamsuddin, a key man in the destruction of the education minister who introduced Bahasa Baku pronunciation into the curriculum. This move is yet another attempt to destroy any lingering legacies of Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who rose to greater heights as deputy prime minister and to greater depths after his dismissal and subsequent jailing and a#sualt, whilst blindfolded and shackled, by the Inspector-General of Police whilst under police custody. The reversion to Standard Malay pronunciation has nothing to do with the official reasons: it is part of a continuing botched saga on how not to destroy a political rival. The early rumours that Tan Sri Musa would be a puppet emerge afresh. It begins to hurt: Dato' Rais insists the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, as an adjunct of the Education Minister, has no right to express its views publicly. Well, it has. What does Tan Sri Musa intend to deal with this rebellion? M.G.G. Pillai pillai@mgg.pc.my