Language and nationhood: contestations and their implications for the Malaysian modernisation project

Abstract

Language is not merely a medium of communication, but equally importantly, a conveyor of thought and culture, an identity marker, an instrument for shaping a community, and a vehicle in the nationalist struggle for independence, nation-building, and modernisation. This has been so in multiethnic Malaysia. While attempts at achieving consensus regarding the importance of the national language may have brought some success in the early years of Malaysia's independence, the politics of language

has always been rife with passion and dissension, stretching well beyond the immediate post- independence years. In fact, the politics of language has been divisive, being a potent brew that fans

elhnic sentiments. While Malay has been accepted in varying degrees among the diverse citizenry, as the national and official language, the medium of instruction in public schools and universities, as well as the language to shape the evolving Malaysian nation, it has never been accepted without dissent and qualifications. In recent years, more so since the 1990s, with the rapid pace of globalisation, the old issue of the position and role of English has not only resurfaced, but more importantly, has impacted upon policy, and the nationalist project. Influential quarters in the country including its top leadership maintain that the country cannot progress to become a competitive and developed nation by 2020, without mastering at least three critical skills - English, science and technology - and that Malay has not been able to respond adequately to the challenges of the new age. This paper is a modest attempt to at unravel this vexing question of the politics of language, the relationship between language, power, and ideology, and how it will affect the character and direction of Malaysia's modernisation project in the twenty first century. It will examine in particular the nationalist project of the Malay language, the Malay-English contestation , and the possibility or otherwise of reconciling the modernisation project and the nationalist project in Malaysia.