KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) has come under fire by several social media users this week who accused the department of using derogatory terms towards the Indian and Chinese community.
The department was recently criticised after it used the derogatory term, “keling” to refer to the Indian community on its website.
Yesterday, the social media was abuzz again after some users shared a screenshot of the department’s page which translated the word “sepet” as “squinted small eyes, like the eyes of the Chinese people”.
Its director-general Datuk Abang Sallehuddin Abg Shokeran, however, dismissed the allegations and said the department had no intentions to spark racial issues.
Speaking to Malay Mail, Abang Sallehuddin said there will always be words that are not liked by the community although the word exists in the community.
“If not suitable for use, it will be labelled taboo.”
When asked why DBP chose to use a sensitive word such as “keling”, Abang Sallehuddin referred to the fundamentals of the dictionary.
“All the words in the dictionary are terms that are often used by the community. Hence, if it is widely used by the community it will be included in the dictionary.
“It needs to be recorded so that the community would know. That is the intent of the dictionary.”
Abang Sallehuddin, however, said the department will study and adopt new terms in the dictionary from time to time.
But as for the existing words, he said they will maintain them accordingly.
He added that the department referred to books, papers, novels, daily speeches and other sources to define the terms.
Hence, he added that it was common to see terms in the dictionary that was widely used by the community.
Commenting on the recent issues relating to the word “keling”, Abang Sallehuddin pointed out that the word was not sensitive in some parts of Malaysia.
He also noted that there were no issues with the word a few years ago and it’s only in recent years that its context had changed.
“For example, in the old text ‘Hikayat Hang Tuah keling’ the word was used to indicate a mighty force in India but now, the context of the word has changed.
On Monday, Abang Sallehuddin said the department would replace the word “keling” with the word “Indian” following the backlash.
However, a recent check on DBP’s website today showed that the word “keling” was still used in the definition of the word ‘tambi’ as: “a term used for Keling people younger than us.”
Clarifying the matter, Abang Sallehuddin said the department had a pending court case from 2003 and they were advised by the lawyers not to change the word.
Abang Sallehuddin was referring to the incident when a group of Indian community activists had demanded the word to be removed from the dictionary following a legal suit in 2003.
The department said the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that the use of the word was allowed in the dictionary as it was not malicious to any parties.
Abang Sallehuddin, however, noted that the department does not use the word “keling” in the 2005 edition of the dictionary.
