THERE have been newspaper reports on the recent move by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) to propose punishment for those who disrespect the national language and by the Sabah Pakatan Harapan (PH) to make English the second official language of Sabah.
The fact that this issue on the official language of Sabah has cropped up again nearly 59 years after the formation of Malaysia in 1963 is akin to that of a grandfather reminiscing on lost opportunities for what could have happened if different choices were earlier made.
Is it too late now to make changes to the official language of Sabah?
To sort out this matter, we need to go back to the report by Lord Cameron Cobbold to Harold Macmillian, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on the matter of Independence of North Borneo (later known as Sabah) and the establishment of a federation (later known as Malaysia).
The above report, known as the Cobbold Commission Report 1962 (‘Cobbold Report’) at paragraph 148(f)(ii) stated that “...a majority of opinion favours Malay and English as official languages without any time limit in the Borneo States...”.
However, the Malayan members of the Cobbold Commission recommended that “…the continuance of English as an official language in the Borneo territories along with Malay for a period of 10 years after the establishment of Malaysia and to continue thereafter until such time as the Central Government in consultation with the State Government of the territory concerned provides otherwise…”.
This recommendation was accepted and the people of Sabah enjoyed both Bahasa Malaysia and English as the official language for ten (10) years starting from Malaysia Day, 16.06.1963.
On 27.09.1973, an enactment known as National Language (Application) Enactment, 1973 [En. No. 7/1973] was submitted and passed by the Sabah State Legislative Assembly stating that “2.…The extension of any Act of Parliament terminating or restricting the use of the English language for any of the purposes mentioned in Clause (2) of Article 161 of the Federal Constitution is hereby approved…”. The Constitution of the State of Sabah was amended by the Constitution (Amendment) Enactment 1973 [En. No. 8/1973] to make Bahasa Malaysia the official language of Sabah.
However, the validity of the two Enactments is questionable because it was only on 13.05.1983 that the National Language (Amendment and Extension) Act 1983 stating “1(2)…shall come into force in the States of Sabah and Sarawak on such dates as the respective State Authorities may by enactments of the Legislatures of the respective States appoint and different dates may be appointed for the coming into force of different provisions of this Act in those States…” was passed.
This allowed the National Language Act 1963/67 to be extended to Sabah subject to the State Legislatures’ enactment.
The catch here is that no such enactment was passed by the Sabah State Legislative Assembly in 1983 and so it appears that the change of official language in 1973 was a case of putting the cart before the horse.
While the Federal Constitution (‘FC’) still allowed the use of English in Sabah, the Sabah State Legislative Assembly has enacted otherwise.
This contradiction between Federal Law and State Law means that it is still constitutionally possible for the State Legislative Assembly to make English as the Official Language without too much fuss.
What are the implications resulting from a possible change to make English as the official language in Sabah? There are several far and wide implications of which one is the thousands of civil servants who are now used to Bahasa Malaysia as the official language and another is the hundreds of thousands of students in primary, secondary schools and University Malaysia Sabah (‘UMS’) who now use Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction.
However, would such a possible change in the official language be of strategic value to Sabah in the future regardless whether Sabah is considered as one of thirteen states in Malaysia or as an equal partner to Malaya?
In this respect, Sabah should take every opportunity under the FC to forge ahead so that it can stand out and set new and higher standards.
In this sense, Malaysia was never meant to be a unitary state and the need for Sabah to excel and distinguish itself from the other states should be the rallying call for all Sabahans.
This is especially so because competition in International Trade is very intense and a good knowledge of English is an advantage to any Sabahan whether young or old. This is something worth considering for all Sabahans and especially the Adun and the MP.
Article 153A of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore on 09.08.1965 allowed for four official languages, which are Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil with Malay as their National Language. In explaining the need for English as lingua franca and for three other official languages, the then Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew in his speech on 24.11.2004 stated that “English for trade; mother tongue to preserve identity”.
Put in another way, this means that our forefathers when formulating the conditions for the formation of Malaysia were of the view that English and Bahasa Malaysia would serve Sabah better rather than just Bahasa Malaysia alone.
How will this proposal to make English the official language of Sabah affect our relations with Putrajaya?
The answer is that most probably there will be no effects because the Federal Constitution and the Cobbold Report had envisaged the possibility of English and Bahasa Malaysia being maintained in Sabah.
If this proposal materialises, this will be probably the first step to reclaim some of the special rights of Sabah that were lost under MA63 and the Constitution.
In a way, the dreams of a grandfather may pave the way forward to show that a unique Sabah with its diverse culture and natives will make a better and stronger Malaysia.
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