By Asia Samachar | Malaysia |
Meet Sardar Joginder Singh (1924 – 2018). The Malaysian-born held the distinction of being one of the few people in the world to have written a Malay book on the Sikh faith.
Unity advocate Anas Zubedy and his team anchored on Joginder’s astounding language talent to put across their salient message for this year’s Vaiskahi celebration.
“His command of Bahasa Malaysia was so good that he was a lecturer to potential Malay language teachers. He was also proficient in English and his mother tongue, Punjabi,” they wrote, tagged with a sketch of later-day Joginder.
The underlying message with the team’s Vaiskahi 2022 greeting was this: English is not in competition with Bahasa Malaysia. They complement each other.
“Our BM must be strong as it is the national language that unites us. But let us send the right message to all Malaysians, especially the younger ones, to master other languages too, especially English. We do not want them to lose out by being monolingual – especially our brothers and sisters in the rural and semi-rural areas,” they wrote in the note. See below for the full text.
This is classic Anas at work. For some years, he had taken up full-page advertisements in Malaysian newspapers to celebrate major festivals like Hari Malaysia, Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Wesak, Vaiskahi and Christmas. The fact that someone paid cold, hard cash to celebrate those festive occasions caught the attention of the nation.
“My brand is unity. I support uniting people. It’s our Zubedy brand. We started the [full-page newspaper] advertisements in 2001 for Hari Malaysia,” he told Asia Samachar.
Anas is the principal consultant and founder of Zubedy (M) Sdn Bhd, a Kuala Lumpur-based marketing and advertising firm that he founded in 1994 after leaving Nestle. He was with conglomerate’s branding team for coffee.
With social media gaining traction, Zubedy has begun using those platforms to continue pumping out their messages, with unity of the nation always as the underlying theme.
For Vaisakhi 2022, they heard about Joginder’s contribution. It resonated with an on-going debate about the use of the English language. Joginder was a lecturer at Teachers’ Training College in Tanjong Malim and a founding member of the Sikh Naujawan Sabha Malaysia (SNSM).
He was actively involved with Sikh activities in Malaysia, including running Sikh camps all over the country. This led to him writing the book, Ugama Sikh, published by the SNSM in the 1960s. He later moved to Adelaide, Australia, where he lived for some four decades before passing away on 4 July 2018.
But Joginder’s zeal, commitment and dedication lives on, as amply reflected in anchoring Zubedy’s message for Vaisakhi 2022.
(Full text of Zubedy’s Vaisakhi 2022 message)
ENGLISH IS NOT IN COMPETITION WITH BAHASA MALAYSIA. THEY COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER.
We seem to have cultivated the unproductive bad habit of pitting unrelated subjects to divide the nation. To hurt, snide, deride and spite the other. It is a form of bitchy politics that permeates our psyche.
For example, some love chest-thumping, “I am first a Malay, or Chinese, or Indian, etc” and then the other will retort with similar pomposity saying, “I am first a Malaysian”. The former is our ethnicity while the latter is our citizenship – they are not in competition with each other. WE ARE BOTH, FIRST. That is one of the reasons why we are unique and special. But no, let’s practice bitchy politics and divide the nation further. Sigh!
Today, some are trying to pit English with Bahasa Malaysia (BM) and vice versa. This was after the [Malaysian] Prime Minister announced that BM must be used at every official function it is involved in, including at international meetings. The decision has its merits. Especially when in the past we had Ministers who presented in poor English that made us cringe. Bad for the Malaysian brand. Speaking in BM with confidence and passion can create an aura for the brand even if a speech has to be translated.
However, we must not forget the Malay proverb, “Masuk kandang kambing mengembek, masuk kandang kerbau menguak” (When in Rome do as the Romans do.) There are times like during a bilateral or business meet, our delegation must speak impeccable English or the language of the other party to make a strong impression and win the deal. Use any language that helps us achieve our goals, not just our pride. That is why we suggest that English is complementary and not a competition to our national language. Ditto other languages like Mandarin and Arabic.
Our BM must be strong as it is the national language that unites us. But let us send the right message to all Malaysians, especially the younger ones, to master other languages too, especially English. We do not want them to lose out by being monolingual – especially our brothers and sisters in the rural and semi-rural areas.
Let Bahasa Malaysia anchor our hearts in unity but at the same time let English and the other languages be our wings to conquer the world.
Let us add value,
Have a meaningful Vaisakhi
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Closed Minds Open Hearts: A True Story (Asia Samachar, 18 June 2021)
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