KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — Eddin Khoo, the son of prominent historian Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Khoo Kay Kim, has offered to help Attorney-General Tommy Thomas improve his command of Bahasa Malaysia, the language required for all official government work.
Eddin, a former journalist and founder of Pusaka, an organisation that seeks to preserve and promote traditional arts and culture, said he made the offer to his “good friend” as he understands the importance of Thomas’ new role.
“In general, when he was appointed as the AG, he agreed that he was not fluent and had said he would brush up his command of Bahasa Malaysia.
“As his good friend, I could become his Bahasa Malaysia tutor. His role is important as it touches on legal matters,” he said in his speech at the ‘Strengthening Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) in New Malaysia’ forum here last night.
Thomas has drawn persistent flak over his admission of his poor command of the national language after being appointed AG last month.
Protests were held outside the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex earlier this month when he led the prosecution team to charge former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who is accused of criminal wrongdoing and corruption in the misappropriation of funds from 1Malaysia Development Berhad and had asked the court’s permission to conduct proceedings in English.
Prior to his appointment as AG, Thomas was in private practice for 42 years, and mostly in the superior courts where proceedings have been conducted in English.
In addressing the role of the DBP to strengthen the Bahasa Malaysia language, the cultural activist said there had been too many current issues that had been spun and politicised by the public.
Earlier in the forum, theatrical activist Che Shamsudin Othman said that DBP, being the body entrusted to uphold Bahasa Malaysia, had failed to flourish and strengthen the national language.
Citing Thomas’ case as an example, Che said the Malays were also to be blamed for the weakening of Bahasa Malaysia as the language had not been given economic value.
“DBP’s main failure is the fact that there are still many Malaysians who cannot converse well in Bahasa Malaysia. Take for example Tommy Thomas, he is not just an ordinary person. He is well educated and appointed as the AG, but he cannot speak the national language.
“I do not think he is wrong because he was raised in a world where people around him do not speak the language, people do not want to speak it because it does not have an economic value,” he said.
Che said the brains of Malaysians have been colonised to only see the value in the English language, which he cited as the colonisation of language.
“We tend to see that everything in English is good. What has DBP done to overcome the matter?” he asked.
Also present at the forum, attended by 250 members of the public consisting of academics and public and private officers, was political activist Hishamuddin Rais.
