Ahemad Sade giving his speech when launching Sabah Forest Department’s Anti-Corruption Plan Book and the online Timber Royalty Inspection and Assessment System.-Information Department photo
KOTA KINABALU (Oct 26): The Sabah government will continue accepting official letters in Malay and English for the time being, says Sabah Deputy Secretary Datuk Ahemad Sade.
“Since the decision to only accept official letters in Malay was made by the Federal government, we have to scrutinize first.
“Sabah’s top leadership will be having a meeting to discuss whether we want to follow our Federal counterpart in this regard.
“I am not sure when this meeting will be held, all I can say is very soon. Maybe shortly before or after the next State Assembly sitting.
“For now, we still accept bilingual official letters,” he told reporters after officiating Sabah Forest Department’s Anti-Corruption Plan Book and the online Timber Royalty Inspection and Assessment System at Pacific Sutera hotel here on Thursday.
Ahemad was representing Sabah Secretary Datuk Seri Safar Untong. Also present was Sabah Chief Conservator of Forests Datuk Frederick Kugan.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim reminded official letters sent to government departments must be written in the national language, otherwise they would be returned to the sender.
Anwar reasoned that empowering the culture of the national language is an essential part of nation building, in line with the fundamentals of the Federal Constitution which requires communication with government departments to be in the national language.
Article 152 of the Federal Constitution states that the Malay language or Bahasa Melayu is the national language, while the position of the Malay language is also specified in the National Language Act 1967.
Former Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak had opined any policy requiring the use of Malay in official correspondence should be coordinated with the Sabah and Sarawak governments to ensure smooth implementation.
Salleh said although he welcomes such a policy, the importance of mastering English cannot be disputed as it is widely used as a global language and needs to be mastered, especially by civil servants dealing with foreign countries.
Sarawak Secretary Datuk Amar Mohamad Abu Bakar Marzuki in response to Anwar’s reminder, said Sarawak will maintain English as one of the official government communication languages, emphasising the directive does not apply to Sarawak.
Looking back, Sarawak Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg last year had declared the state’s civil service would continue using English as its official language alongside Malay, stressing the importance of Sarawakians being multilingual.