Abstract
Malaysia and Brunei are two quite different polities, brought together in this chapter by a common language, aspects of history and geographic proximity on the island of Borneo. Malaysia consists of 11 states in peninsula Malaysia, which gained their independence from Great Britain in 1957, and Sabah (formerly North Borneo) and Sarawak on the north and west portion of the island of Borneo, which joined with Malaya in September 1963 to form Malaysia. (See Appendix A, Figure 10.) Singapore initially gained its independence as part of the newly formed Malaysia, but withdrew in August 1965 to become an independent country. (See Appendix A, Figure 12.) Brunei Darussalam (henceforth Brunei), a Sultanate formed by two enclaves on the west coast of Borneo, initially considered becoming a state in the new Malaysia, but ultimately decided to retain its independence. (See Appendix A, Figure 11.) Malaysia has an area of 127,316 sq. miles (329, 750 sq. km) and a population of 21, 376,066, while Brunei has an area of 2,228 sq. miles (5,770 sq. km.) and a population of 322,982.
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Notes
Majalis Bahasa Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia (MABBM) [Language Council of Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia] is the co-ordinating body for Bahasa Melayu / Bahasa Indonesia / Bahasa Malaysia (and Bahasa Melayu in Singapore).
The spelling standardisation and terminological issues are discussed in Chapter 6 (Section 3.1) in relation to Indonesia. Cupertino has focussed on spelling (e.g., see Asmah Haji Omar 1975, 1992d) and technical terminology where agreement is more easily possible. Vocabulary is impractical as the area is so vast, and since there are different traditions of borrowing. Malaysia and Indonesia have developed their own dictionaries and grammars.
English was the predominant language used in the courts until the end of 1989 when the National Language (Amendment) Act of 1989 was passed, although Bahasa Malaysia had been used in the subordinate Courts since 1981. English still can be used in courts at the discretion of the magistrate. The Malaysian legal system is based on English Common Law precedents and goes back to the British rule in the Straits Settlements. Up until the 1990s many of the judges and lawyers had been trained in England, most of the law books and precedents were in English, and most of the laws themselves were drafted in English (Asmah Haji Omar 1992:108 ff.). The legal system in most countries is notoriously linguistically conservative because words that have been tested in previous legal decisions have a known meaning and force, whereas new wording, or wording in another language, may not be deemed to have the same meaning. The ‘image’ of Malay is effected by its use in these key professional areas (Asmah Haji Omar 1998)
Sabah is also known as the ‘land below the wind’, a reference to the fact that it lies just south of the typhoon belt in the Pacific. The name was made famous by Agnes Keith’s memoirs of the same name that recounted life in Sandakan—from a Charter Company employee’s perspective—in the 1930s prior to the Japanese occupation in 1942.
The term Native, in the sense of bumiputra or son of the soil, is used extensively in Sabah and Sarawak to refer to the indigenous people of those states. While the term originally may have had negative connotations when used by the colonial administrators, in the English of those states it has a positive connotation as Natives are the original inhabitants and have certain rights that non-natives (e.g., Chinese) do not enjoy. The term also marks local ethnic identity and distinguishes Natives from Malays. Although the Federal Constitution of Malaysia considers anyone who professes the Islamic religion, habitually speaks Malay and conforms to Malay customs as a Malay, according to Ting (2001a) Chinese or Natives who embrace Islam, speak Malay and adopt a Malay life style consider themselves Muslims, not Malays, as social identity is salient for them. On the other hand, Asmah Haji Omar (1992c: 17) says that “in Sabah and Sarawak, the term ‘Melayu’ [Malay] is synonymous with ‘Muslim’....”
“The provisions were that the then current policy and system of administration of education should remain undisturbed and under the control of the two Borneo states until the Governments otherwise decide; that the use of English in these states should continue; and that the opportunities for education should not be dependent on knowledge of Malay (now known as Bahasa Malaysia) until such time as the state government concerned considers that adequate measures have been taken to teach the language in all schools.” (Khong and Khong 1984)
“Nevertheless, there continuse to be some uneasiness within the Malay community about the threat to the position of the Malay language posed by other languages. Although this relates primarily to the position of English and Mandarin, the promotion of indigenous languages has not been incouraged. In the past, the Borneo Literature Bureau produced materials in indigenous languages of Sabah and Sarawak. But this bureau was subsummed under the national language centre charged with promoting the national language, and discontinued production of materials in the vernacular languages.” (Lasimbang, Miller and Otigil 1992: 334–335)
Barraclough (1985: 10) notes that the 1971 Constitutional amendment not only makes it difficult for ‘sensitive issues’ (i.e., the special position of Malays and the national language) to be discussed in public, but members of Parliament and State Assemblies are also not able to do so without being guilty of sedition. Furthermore, the Societies (Amendment) Act 1981 makes it possible to de-register any society which discusses ‘sensitive issues’ or “the position of Islam as the religion of the Federation with other religions being practised in peace and harmony”. Under the Police Act, the police are empowered to limit the nature of issues discussed at public rallies. These and other regulations mean that it is difficult to discuss critically language in Malaysia or to look at issues related to language and religion — one can be imprisoned for three years under the criminal code for “causing disharmony, disunity or feelings of enmity on the grounds of religious differences” Barraclough (1985: 11). Such laws have been used to keep the more militant ‘Islamic’ parties in check. On the other hand, Sabah’s control of internal immigration was used to keep the then newly appointed Catholic archbishop (a Chinese from West Malaysia) from permanently taking up his post in Sabah. While the matter of language and religion is not a matter for public discussion, the links between Islam and Malay are clear (see footnote 5). Islam has also promoted the learning of classical Arabic. Hinduism and the Indian languages are mutually supportive, as are the Chinese dialects and Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. English has historic links with Christianity particularly through mission schools, but in Borneo the Christian Gospel was made available in native languages and a Catholic missionary developed the first dictionary of the Kadazan language (Antonissen 1958).
Bahasa Dalam (royal language) is the social register used by royalty and the palace household and a code indicating respect when used by others. It is government policy to promote knowledge of Bahasa Dalam to instil pride in the polity’s heritage. It is taught in civics classes in schools and colleges and to civil servants. Knowledge of the language and its use is part of the philosophy of the Malay Islamic Monarchy (Fatimah Awg Chuchu 1996).
Malaysia has for a long time run public awareness campaigns for Malay (e.g., Cintailah Bahasa Kita —Love our language; Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa—Language is the soul of the nation) and more recently for English, to encourage people to use these languages to promote belonging (Malay) and success (English) (see e.g., Asmah Haji Omar 2000: 248 ff.).
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Kaplan, R.B., Baldauf, R.B. (2003). Language Planning in Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam. In: Language and Language-in-Education Planning in the Pacific Basin. Language Policy, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0145-7_7
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