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Monday, June 25, 2018

Other languages in statements okay, but...


There is nothing wrong with Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng’s move to issue press releases in the Chinese language, according to several commenters.
Nevertheless, Bahasa Malaysia should remain the national language.
“I think there is no issue to translate any official statement from the government of Malaysia. Nevertheless, priority should be given for the use of Bahasa Malaysia for the first press release.
“This procedure can help avoid much confusion and misunderstanding,” Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman said in a statement today.
He said Section 2 of the National Language Acts 1963/67 already provides that the national language shall be used for official purposes.
There is also a need for all government business to be conducted in Bahasa Malaysia to ensure there is no confusion regarding anything published by the government, he said, adding that English and other translations can be provided if deemed necessary, such as to cater for the foreign media.
'Why reply in Chinese?'
Meanwhile, Gerakan youth chief Tan Keng Liang concurred that there is nothing wrong with Lim to releasing a trilingual press release, but questioned why the subsequent clarification was only available in Chinese.
“I think the Finance Minister should just accept public criticism with an open heart. They just want you to write in a language (that) they can understand.
"You can write in Chinese, but please also include Bahasa Malaysia and English at the same time," he said on Twitter.
“Nothing wrong if the finance minister wishes to issue a trilingual statement in Bahasa Malaysia , English, and Chinese. Perhaps should also include Tamil.
“Question is, why did he subsequently reply only in Chinese but not in other languages?"
Lost in translation
Separately, PKR's Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil (photo) defended Lim’s move, saying that there is a necessity for Lim to issue his press release regarding the government bailout for Tun Razak Exchange City Sdn Bhd (TRXC) in Chinese.
He said press releases are typically issued in Malay and English, but there are times when Chinese press releases are necessary to avoid confusion.
“All statements regarding his job as the finance minister are written in Malay and English, but in view of some technical terms had been misinterpreted or mistranslated in Chinese (which caused a Chinese press release to be issued).
“I have been made to understand that since he became the Penang chief minister (in 2008), he had prepared Chinese translations for the Chinese press, but the original statements are in Malay and English.
“For me, there is no issue about differences in the content. We need this for technical, financial issues to ensure that it is (correctly) translated into Chinese, Tamil, or other languages,” he told Malaysiakini when contacted.
Speaking from his own experience as his party’s communications director, he said he too frequently received questions from the Chinese vernacular press to seek clarification and ensure that certain terms are translated correctly.
This includes the position of Anwar Ibrahim as the party’s de facto leader (ketua umum).
“There is no specific term in Chinese for (de facto leader) and different publications may use different terms for the same position, so there is a need (for translations) for the Chinese audience,” he said.
Lim announced last Thursday that the government is forking out RM2.8 billion to bail outthe TRX project in Kuala Lumpur. The announcement was accompanied by press releases in English, Malay, and Chinese.
Some quarters, such as the Friends of BN Facebook page, had singled out the Chinese-language version of the press release to accuse Lim of sidelining the national language.
Lim issued a separate statement on his Facebook page last night to defend his decision to issue the trilingual statement and said he would continue to do so.
However, his response only drew more criticism as it was only available in Chinese.
Readers complained that they had to use Facebook’s machine translation tool to understand what he was saying. - Mkini

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