ANOTHER devious move to strip Malaysian Chinese of their heritage rights?

The only radio station broadcasting news in Chinese dialects, AiFM will stop doing so from January 1 next year. The Chinese community is generally against such restriction, and there have been calls to boycott the station.

Five or six years ago, Chinese dialect news also suffered a near demise but thanks to the intervention of the Chinese community and politicians, dialect news eventually survived and was allowed to go on. This time, dialect news once again comes into limelight following the decision by AiFM to shelve dialect news on the pretext of cost reduction.

AiFM has been broadcasting news in four Chinese dialects, i.e. Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka and Cantonese every evening from 8.00p.m. to 8.30 p.m. The newscasters are hired on a part-time basis, earning RM60 for a 10-minute slot. The total cost for a 30-minute program is just RM180, which is insignificant to a government-run radio station and is not expected to impact the overall operation of the station.

Moreover, broadcasting news in four different dialects within only 30 minutes is by no means too much. Doing away with this half an hour program will affect older audience who understand only the dialects, particularly those living in rural areas. These people can only understand the major developments within the country through dialect news programs. Stopping dialect news will rob them of the only opportunity to keep in touch with the outside world.

Drastic social changes

The family structures of Chinese families have experienced dramatic changes over the decades, from large families to much smaller ones today. In the past, people used to live with their parents and grandparents many of whom spoke only dialects. As a result, many people have managed to pick up one or two Chinese dialects from the old people at home.

However, couples in modern-day families speak only English or Mandarin and because of that, many new generation children do not have the opportunity to learn dialects. Coupled with the campaigns to promote Mandarin in recent years, fewer people speak the dialects such as Hakka, Cantonese, Teochew, Hainanese and Hokkien today.

According to a study conducted by a Chinese primary school in Johor two years ago, some 45% of Chinese primary school students didn't know a dialect and had no knowledge of their ancestral homes in China. Additionally, some 30% could understand the dialects but could not speak. In other words, 75% of the students will not be able to pass down the Chinese dialects to their children in future.

If AiFM were to halt the broadcast of news in Chinese dialects, the younger generation would not have a chance to listen and learn the dialects.

To be honest, it takes the effort of Chinese community itself to ensure its continued survival of dialects. Indeed, Mandarin is capable of uniting the Chinese community while facilitating oral communication between individuals of varying dialect groups, that does not mean we should forget about our native tongues and ancestral history.

Dialects enable us to trace back the origins of our ancestors and serve as a medium to pass down our ethnic culture. Many local operas and performing arts can only be disseminated in dialects. Fewer and fewer people will appreciate Cantonese and Teochew operas today because people are not conversant in the dialects.

No one can tell whether dialects will be wiped out altogether from the Chinese community over the next 20 to 30 years. But judging from the current trend, this prediction could as well turn into a reality sometime in the future.

We sincerely hope that AiFM will shoulder this social responsibility to keep the dialect news. More so we hope that Chinese families will treasure the cultural and linguistic legacies we have inherited from our forefathers. - mysinchew