In collaboration with the NUS Malay Studies Society (NUSMSS), the Malay Heritage Foundation (MHF) held the fifth Sembang Ilmu Series (SIS) and invited Dr. Pitchay Gani as well as a panel of young speakers to share their insights on the discussion forum titled: “Kita Dengan Bahasa, Tumbuh Sampai Ke Mana?” (Us with Language, Where will it Grow?). This topic was chosen to commemorate Bulan Bahasa (Language Month) 2021. Ms. Liyana Nasyita was the moderator for this forum.
Saturday, 11 September 2021 — Ms. Liyana Nasyita began the forum introduction by bringing up the importance of language as a platform for communication where for a language to be alive, it has to move in line with time, relevant to the society, dynamic and substantial ideas can be conveyed using the language. The session aimed to discuss how alive is the Malay Language in Singapore and how the Malay Language is developing, renewing and being used in the community. She then invited Dr. Pitchay Gani, PhD in Linguistics from the University of Malaya, currently a Malay Language educator who has been awarded The Long Service Medal in 2020 and a language activist, to open the discussion forum.
Dr. Pitchay Gani began his opening speech, titled Keberdayaan Bahasa Melayu (Vitality of the Malay Language) highlighting how Singapore has been actively contributing to the expansion and development in the Malay Language such as the formation of the Language of Congress and the Department of Malay Studies in NUS, Institute of Language and Literature in Kuala Lumpur while at the same time introducing the Malay Language as the national language. He addressed that the Malay Language is still very much alive.
He showed some data from his current research, which will be published in a book, where the vitality of the Malay Language in Singapore is much higher than the English Language based on about 200 respondents. This means, Singaporeans still do see the importance of the Malay Language. He also shared the results from Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei being reflective of each country’s ideologies that they hold onto. He then brought up the challenges we face today that we focus too much on identifying ourselves as Malays but we do not practice the culture and symbols of being a Malay such as practising the Malay language. He wishes to see this change in our community because there will be too much being lost if we do not maintain the culture.
Mikhyle Bin Mat Nooh, a 2nd-year NUS undergraduate and a member of Kelana Pantun Temasek, a performing arts group that focuses on Malay literary arts, with his discussion titled Kemodenan Bahasa: Intipati Bahasa dalam Negara — Kemanakah arah kemodenan kita? (Modernisation of language: Language in the country – What is the direction of modernisation?). He highlights that we use the English Language more often in our daily lives since we are more accustomed and is easier to understand such as while using Google Maps for directions. He brought up a concern that he has with the translation tools to English found in Berita Harian (Malay Newspaper) because it emphasises how this shows that it is challenging to read in Malay. It is then the role of intellectuals and the support of the youth to work together to be active in the usage of our language with our friends and families.
Next, Hidayat Malik, a 1st year undergraduate from the University of Durham, with interests in sociology, identity and culture of Malays. He begins his discussion, titled Takkan Hilang Melayu di Dunia? (Never shall the Malay(s) vanish from the earth) by stating the issue of the decreasing number of households using the Malay Language as their dominant language is not something new. It has been discussed since the 1990s and yet the community still panics when the data shows a decrease from 82.7% in 2010 to 60.7% in 2020. He highlights that we should be looking at whether the Malay Language is not used at all which stands at only 1.49%. This means that 98.41% of Malay-speaking households still use the Malay language at home.
He then addressed some developments in the Malay community where we now have Malay tuition centres, and these signify people’s determination where they see the importance of being bilingual and more diverse media materials such as Malay podcasts on Spotify. All this proves that the landscape of language activists is flourishing. He ended his presentation with some of his hopes for the Malay language to be more dynamic and open without losing its personality and where it can start by teaching the language ‘prescriptively but learnt descriptively’.
The third speaker is, Syazwani Sanep a 4th year NUS undergraduate, nominated as Rakan Bahasa in 2020, who is active in discussions with her topic Keseiringan Pertumbuhan Kita Dengan Bahasa: Ke Arah Bahasa yang Memacu Kemajuan Masyarakat (The Correspondence of Our Growth with Language: Toward a Language that Drives the Progress of Society). Once again, she touched on how a language that is alive should be a language that can cater towards the community, open to ideas as well as convey valuable ideas and not depend on other languages. She emphasised the importance of realising and understanding what it means for a language to be alive and being proud to be using the Malay Language. She reminded those who tuned in to the session that it is a shared responsibility to ensure they keep the language alive which includes educators, the youths, seniors, workers and employees as well as the intelligentsia while keeping an open mind to prolong the life of the language.
Liyana then invited the final speaker, Muhammad Ilyia, 4th year undergraduate from SUSS who was recently nominated as Sahabat Sastera by Malay Language Council in 2021. His topic, titled: Memalis Gerigis: Ke Arah Yang Biophilia (Towards a Biophilia Nature), ‘biophilia’ means the loving of life and everything alive including language. Other than defining what it means for a language to be alive which includes being liberating, progressive and being intellectual, he contrasted what it means when the language is dead. He highlighted that a dead language is one that is neophobic, afraid of taking in new words with the belief that new words will destroy the language, passive regressive which means only thinking that the language used in the past is the perfect one, and only being concerned with the technicalities and formalism of the language. He shared how one has to look beyond the words, as each word has its own story and origin and for the language to continue to prosper, the culture has to prosper first.
The forum concluded with an active Q&A segment where the panellists and guest speakers were invited to answer several questions from the virtual audience. The fifth SIS was moved online after the government announced that social gatherings and interactions in the workplace will no longer be allowed due to the rise in COVID-19 cases recently. However, the online session still received overwhelming support via MHF’s Facebook live stream. In total, close to 900 viewers were reached via the FB Live.
SIS continues to support and provide a platform for youths to discuss important and valuable issues related to the Malays in Singapore with MHF.
Useful Links
- Full video
- “Keberdayaan Bahasa Melayu” by Dr. Pitchay Gani Aziz
- “Kemodenan Bahasa: Intipati Bahasa dalam Negara — Kemanakah arah kemodenan kita?” by Mikhyle Bin Mat Nooh
- “Takkan Hilang Melayu di Dunia?” by Hidayat Malik
- “Keseiringan Pertumbuhan Kita Dengan Bahasa: Ke Arah Bahasa yang Memacu Kemajuan Masyarakat” by Syazwani Sanep
- “Memalis Gerigis: Ke Arah Yang Biophilia” by Muhammad Ilyia