KUALA LUMPUR: Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) is urged to be the main channel for popularising the usage of Bahasa Melayu, while private media organisations are reminded to raise its usage.Information Communi-cation and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said the thinking that using Bahasa Melayu was less sophisticated should also be erased because with 250 million speakers of the language, Bahasa Melayu came sixth on the list of most-spoken languages after Mandarin, English, French, Russian and Hindi.
“The ministry very much hopes for the usage and popularity of Bahasa Melayu to be raised, and RTM should be the main channel to promote the policy.
“The more we use Bahasa Melayu, the more popular it becomes. It should be the lingua franca and the language of unity, civilisation and administration,” he told reporters after an exclusive interview by Radio Klasik Nasional at Wisma Radio in Angkasapuri, here, yesterday.
Rais said the level of Bahasa Melayu usage by RTM was commendable in line with the language policy, but there was still room for improvement, especially at the private television and radio stations.
He, however, reminded that Bahasa Melayu should not be used haphazardly in trying to woo viewers or listeners.
“Sometimes they do not pronounce the words properly when they become too dramatic. For example, the word ‘dan’ is pronounced differently by the announcers and not the way it should be.”
Rais said his ministry would continue to monitor such matters, but what was important was for the announcers at the private stations to love Bahasa Melayu and be confident of its position as the best communication language in the Malay Archipelago.
He also reminded government employees and others as well not to use foreign words if there were Bahasa Melayu words for the terms to be spoken.
Asked whether there should be enforcement of the law to ensure proper Bahasa Melayu usage, he said: “There should be no law enforcement when it comes to language. It must come from within (ourselves).”
On the erroneous use of the language in advertisements, Rais said the ministry could apply the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Act, but they needed only to correct the wrong terms used and not fined.
On blogs, Rais was confident that their usage as a medium to bring down others would eventually wane or be rejected by the public.
However, he said, his ministry would continue to monitor blogs which carried negative or false news to curb the dissemination of such news while blogsites were also bound by the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
“Under Sections 232 and 233 of the Act, the ministry can act against anyone who abuses the usage of this new media, but only after the warnings had been issued and ignored,” he said. – Bernama