Zainuddin Maidin's Backdoor Attempt To Suppress Chinese And Tamil Languages

RTM's decision to introduce more Chinese and Indian dramas in Bahasa Malaysia is part of the drive to encourage multi-culturalism. Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin, who said this, added it was not to enforce any monolithic assimilation.

In a press statement answering criticisms on the issue, he said Chinese and Indian dramas presented in Bahasa Malaysia could help everyone to better understand and appreciate the cultures that co-exist in the country.

"It could lead to better acceptance of the different ways of life thus promote greater integration among the different races in this diverse country."

He added that using Bahasa Malaysia to explore communal and cultural context would not erode the strength of non-Malay racial and cultural identity.
He also clarified that RTM would not dub over Chinese or Indian drama into Bahasa Malaysia.

Instead, he wanted the Chinese and Indian scriptwriters to simply depict the issues concerning everyday life of their community in the national language.

"I agree that we already have dramas in Bahasa Malaysia that attempt to explore non-Malay issues and feature Chinese, Indian and characters of other races in the plots, but these are still predominantly Malay-centric as they are usually authored by Malays.

"They may not fully appreciate the intricacies of a Chinese or Indian point of view and they may not be able to pick up on issues close to the hearts of these communities." (NST)

***** This is the most impractical solution to promoting multiculturalism on television. A rational and reasonable person not tainted by ulterior racist motives would have probably urged for a more realistic portrayal of the Malaysian scene by ensuring that Malay script writers introduce substantial non-Malay characters in their dramas instead of the present katak dibawah tempurung, by-the-Malay-for-the-Malay productions exclusively catering to a 100% Malay audience.

It will take an exceptionally patient non-Malay to stomach the present sub-standard fare passing off as entertainment in the form of Malay dramas. Zainuddin Maidin now intends to squelch the already insignificant number of dramas that RTM dishes out in Chinese and Tamil. Of course he won't succeed. All that he will achieve is to push more and more of the non-Malays toward the private TV channels and Astro which will welcome them with massive amounts of vernacular programmes.
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