Linguists drum up support for Malay
Jupriadi, The Jakarta Post, Makassar
Linguists from Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei began an annual two-day Malay congress here on Monday with a pledge to struggle for Malay to be recognized as an official language in ASEAN, alongside English.
The forum, held in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, is being attended by 196 participants from Indonesia, 30 from Malaysia, 13 from Brunei and two observers from Singapore.
Chief delegates at the meeting agreed to take the plan to leaders of their respective countries, who are expected to discuss it at an ASEAN forum.
Dato' Haji A. Aziz, chief of the Malaysian delegation, said he was optimistic that the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will accept Malay as their second official language after English.
"There are around 250 million people in ASEAN speaking Malay. So, it is not impossible that Malay will become their official language," he argued.
He said that Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei and Singapore all support the campaign.
"We strive to make such an ideal achievable and hope leaders of our nations support it," Aziz told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the congress.
Brunei's chief delegate, Haji Abdul Hakim Mohd. Yassin also expressed confidence that Malay would soon become ASEAN's official language.
"We are making joint efforts to mobilize support for the plan," he told the Post.
Hakim admitted that extra effort has to be made to realize the plan, as several ASEAN nations, such as Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines, do not speak Malay.
Dendy Sugondo, who leads the Indonesian delegation at the congress, said support from ASEAN governments and their community members would be required to recognize Malay as an official language.
"We are seeking to ensure that Malay be spoken in various parts of the world," he told the Post.
To further support the plan, Aziz said Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia along with Singapore have been conducting research and publishing in Malay.
They are also promoting Malay terms in science and technology, as well as publishing a journal on national literature in Southeast Asia, he added.
Aziz said the three-member council would soon publish 70 Malay novels selected from Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, which would be distributed worldwide.