“I think this is a difficult issue. We need to look at it from the (Indian) community’s perspective and the perspective of the Education Ministry and try to solve this because in our Malaysian context, sensitivities of races are always there.
“It is something which needs to be put into consideration in any policy which we do and any system within the set-up of the country,” he told reporters.
Subramaniam said the ministry and DBP have to approach the matter not only in terms of language but also understand the different communities.
“I think the Education Ministry and Dewan Bahasa have to look into this issue more holistically,” he said.
The ministry had released a statement stressing that words in the Kamus Dewan must be seen from the Malay perspective and not from that of other races, pointing out it compiled words used in Bahasa Malaysia, including those borrowed from other languages like English, Chinese, Sanskrit, Tamil, Dutch and Arabic.
It said that all races in Malaysia must accept the fact that the Bahasa Malaysia dictionary reflects Malay language, customs and culture.
The ministry was responding to a report in Tamil daily Makkal Osai on March 31 that the Kamus Dewan contained words offensive to Indians.
An Indian literature group has accused the ministry of denying non-Malays rights to Bahasa Malaysia by saying the dictionary belonged only to Malays and cannot be questioned by other races.
Kayvan Literary Group (Kayvan) president Uthaya Sankar SB said the ministry’s stand showed it was trying to deny that the national language belongs to all Malaysians regardless of race.
MIC had originally called for the controversial “Interlok” novel to be dropped from secondary school syllabus but later relented after amendments to parts which were deemed sensitive to the Indian community
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