JOHOR BARU: A Barisan Nasional assemblyman has suggested that Johor take the lead and make it compulsory for all government and political events to be conducted in Bahasa Malaysia.

Dr Shahruddin Md Salleh (BN-Jorak) pointed out that many people in the country, including assemblymen themselves, were not well versed in the language.

He suggested that Bahasa Malaysia be the only language used at all functions, even if the majority attending the event were Chinese and Indian.

“No interpretation in any other language should be done,” he said, adding that the sovereignty of the national language should be respected.

He urged all 56 assemblymen in the state to take up Bahasa Malaysia lessons to ensure the proper use of the language.

He blamed the situation today on the education system, which, he said, segregated the races from kindergarten.

However, he also urged Malay parents to send their children to Chinese or Tamil schools in order to learn other languages.

“The Government can take the initiative to encourage Malays to send their children to vernacular schools,” he said.

“Perhaps 30% of the Malay students should study in Chinese or Tamil schools so that 100 years down the road, the Malays can also communicate in those languages.”

He told the assembly of his experience attending functions at his child’s school.

“I send my child to a Chinese school but my wife and I can’t understand anything at the school’s functions because these are solely conducted in Mandarin,” he said.

He added that the only Mandarin he knew was “ni hao ma” (how are you) and the only Tamil he knew was “nandri vanakam” (thank you and greetings).

Dr Shahruddin also said commercial signboards should give priority to Bahasa Malaysia and not use other languages only.

“Most consumers are Malays but business owners are not sensitive to them,” he said.