KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is confident that US President Joe Biden had understood his messages despite them being delivered in Bahasa Malaysia.
Claiming that he had spoken in the national language at the Asean-US Special Summit held in Washington recently, he asserted that the contents of his speech were well-received.
“The message that I conveyed was clearly accepted by the American president, even though I spoke in Bahasa Melayu,” he said at a symposium on internationalising Bahasa Malaysia held here today.
He added that following orders for Malaysian offices to conduct global correspondences in Bahasa Malaysia, letters from his office to world leaders have been in the national language with an English translation.
“I have also initiated bilateral negotiations using the Malay language and there are no defects in the negotiations,” he said, urging Malaysians, especially civil servants, to express their commitment in upholding the national language.
He said that while dignifying Bahasa Malaysia is not an easy task due to the many challenges faced by defenders of the language, efforts to internationalise it have become a government policy.
“Cultural diplomacy is one of the priorities of the Malaysian Foreign Policy Framework launched on December 7 last year.”
Last Friday, Ismail Sabri and Biden had gathered with other Asean leaders at the White House for a historic meeting that is seen as a starting point to positive changes regarding America’s diplomatic, trade and economic relations with Malaysia.
In February, Ismail Sabri had said that the government will continue to use English in countries where it is the main language of communication, with Bahasa Malaysia only being used where the local language is not English.
He said this during a visit to Bangkok, noting that he had also spoken in the national language during the meetings conducted there.
Early last month, the Indonesian government had rejected Ismail Sabri’s proposal for Bahasa Melayu to become an official Asean language.
Indonesia’s Education, Culture, Research and Technology Minister Nadiem Makarim reportedly pointed out that Bahasa Indonesia is the most widely used language in the Southeast Asian region and should be used for Asean’s functions instead of Bahasa Melayu. – The Vibes, May 22, 2022
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