FOR YOU: Termuzi presenting a souvenir to Fatimah during the courtesy visit.
KUCHING: Advertisers beware! A proposal has been made for Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) to work closely with Kuching City South Council (MBKS) and Kuching City North Commission (DBKU) to standardise the use of Bahasa Malaysia on billboards.
Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office Datin Fatimah Abdullah said the suggestion would be forwarded to the local authorities to make it mandatory for all advertisers to use proper Bahasa Malaysia words, besides requiring them to submit their advertisements to DBP for approval before they are put up.
“This approach has been put into use in West Malaysia and we try to expand it to Sarawak to give prestige to our national language. That is why we are bringing this suggestion to MBKS and DBKU,” said Fatimah after a courtesy call by DBP which was led by its director-general Datuk Termuzi Abdul Aziz at her office here yesterday.
She also believes correct usage of the language in advertisements helps promote the nation’s identity.
“It is not hard to advertise in Bahasa Malaysia because they can refer to DBP online through its portal [email protected] which operates 24 hours,” she stressed.
On the same note, Termuzi said 150 million words were uploaded to their portal as reference for correct usage.
He also said six months after its launch, some 1.4 million users had visited the portal with 45 million transactions throughout the world.
end. Photo Inhouse: kch-bp040811-ic-billboard.jpg
Caption: FOR YOU: Termuzi (centre) presenting a souvenir to Fatimah (right) during the courtesy visit yesterday.