International Women's Day- where are we today?

This year the International Women's Day will be celebrated across the world on March 8 with its theme – Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030. At the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations, the issue of women's economic empowerment in the changing world of work will be debated.

Have we achieved the status of 50-50 in the workforce, government and as well as private sector in Malaysia? If not, can we achieve it by 2030? What about discrimination and prejudice against women in the workforce? What about the managerial position for women? These are some pertinent questions regarding the issue of gender equality.

Women are the other half of the human population. Women and men are like two wings of humanity. Inequality would surely hamper the flight of humankind to lofty heights of progress and development.

According to government statistics, we have about 50% of women in the civil service workforce. This means the other half are men. At the managerial position, women take up 35.65% of top level management posts in the government. According to Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa, there are 1,419 women at the top level management. This statistics show that the government is serious about gender equality.

Ali said measures would be taken to empower female leadership in the country's development, particularly towards making the 2050 National Transformation a reality. We also appreciate the government's stand in increasing the number of women in the workforce, including managerial positions in the years to come.

The story in the private sector is rather disappointing. Still it is a male-dominated sector. Women have also been severely discriminated in the workforce in the private sector. Despite having the credits and qualifications, women are always sidelined in jobs as more promotional positions are given to the men.

To cite an example, my daughter who works in the private sector has always been prejudiced and sidelined when she attends interviews for promotions, despite having better qualifications. Gender prejudice brings damaging effects not only to women but to society at large. Inequality also retards not only the advancement of women but the progress of civilisation itself.

Some private companies are dominated by men and by a certain ethnic group only. Men and women from other ethnic groups are not accepted in such companies. Even when the promotional post is advertised, it is outright discrimination when it states that only the selected ethnic group can apply for such posts.

We are a nation with many ethnic groups. We are all Malaysians and why should parochial ideas dominate the private sector. Jobs should be given to men or women, according to merit and qualification for the post, not based on gender or ethnicity.

There needs to be a new understanding to reshape our society based on gender equality.

All forms of discrimination should be discarded in the workforce, whether in the government or private society. Discrimination against women still remains the most widespread injustice in the world.

Award for Muar as a clean town

As a resident of Muar, I am delighted and honoured to read that Muar Town has been declared as one of five cleanest town in Johor (NST, 11 Dec 2016).  All the repute and applaud should be credited to the Local Municipal Council of Muar and the community for their excellent work and collaboration to achieve such as an accolade.

Such an award surely will inspire the Muarians to ensure cleanliness prevails throughout all times in the town. It gives us honour and prestige to be categorized as a clean town in Johor.  Muarians surely would want preserve this award dearly. We now stand tall among other towns in Johor and as well towns in the country. 

It is now the duty of all residents to preserve and sustain such a recognition throughout all times. This award will surely boost the morale of the residents to maintain cleanliness in all parts of the town.

Cleanliness although a physical thing, nevertheless influences the environment.  A proverb says "cleanliness is next to godliness". Therefore, cleanliness should become the hallmark among the residents of Muar.

Syabas and well done, the honourable President and the members of the Muar Municipal Council, and not forgetting the workers on the ground to maintain cleanliness in the town. 

Award for Non-Malay Writer by Johor Government

Award to Non-Malay Writer

Loan words in Malay Vocabulary

As a Malay linguist, I am duty-bound to elucidate the issue of vocabulary borrowing in Malay Language. 

First, we should understand that the Malay Language has been significantly enriched by loan words and phrases over the years from many languages via language contact, from Sanskrit to English language. Therefore, we owe a lot of words from these languages. 

Etymological studies conducted has ascertained this linguistic fact and truth. Influx of borrowed words do not in any way kill a language, including Malay Language. Rather, it is an appropriate way to develop a language, particularly the vocabulary.

Borrowing is part and parcel of language development. It is an essential element in vocabulary development. More than 80 percent of the current English words is said to be borrowed words from European, Latin and other languages. Does this mean English is a ‘polluted’ or ‘corrupted’ language?

In language, borrowing synonymous words for existing Malay words has become a norm and trend among users. We have many such words in Malay that were actually borrowed from other languages to become an alternate word, like aktiviti (activity) for kegiatan,  politik (politics) for siasah and program  (programme) for rancangan. As to the use the ban (bund) in Malay, the word has been long accepted in Kamus Dewan as an alternative word to permatang. Nothing is wrong in the usage of this word.

To avoid coining words and borrowing words according to the whim and fancy of users, rules and regulations have been put in place to ensure that the borrowing is done in accordance to the guidelines and rules of Malay Language.

We must also understand that not all words that are used are accepted as the standard form in Malay Language. Coined new words whether borrowed or coined, need to adhere to certain rules and regulations stipulated by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), the guardian of the Malay Language in Malaysia. 

For example, the popularly used word bajet (budget) is not a standard word but rather a colloquial one. If you look into Kamus Dewan 4^th Edition, the word bajet is categorized as kata basahan (colloquial word). The standard word, of course, is belanjawan.

Malay Language is truly a beautiful language. Borrowing words does not in any way tarnish or spoil the beauty of the language. Does the classical Malay texts, like Sejarah Melayu which is plenty of Sanskrit and Arabic words, in any way diminish the beauty of the language?

As said by our eminent Malay linguist, Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Nik Safiah Karim, borrowing is one facet of language development. Let us not be unduly perturbed by the use of borrowed words in the Malay Language. Accept it a norm and allow borrowing to enrich the vocabulary of our national language. 

Correct way to pronounce RM

The issue of correct pronunciation among language users in Malaysia has always been a concern of linguists, like me. One such pronunciation is the word ringgit and the symbol RM used to denote our currency. There are still many, including radio deejays and television commentators and even teachers who pronounce it wrongly. How do you actually pronounce RM - RM, ringgit, or ringgit Malaysia?

Etymologically, the official use of the word ringgit began in August 1975 to replace the British Malaya and Borneo dollar which was introduced in June 12, 1967. Although the name ringgit was officially accepted, but the currency was still called or referred as dollar ($). The symbol RM was then introduced in the 1993 by the government to replace the $ or M$ symbol to denote our currency. Although the symbol RM was used officially since 1993, but still there has been some confusion in the use of this symbol, in particular the way it is pronounced.

Firstly, we need to understand that there is a symbol and code for each currency used by a country. Currencies are expressed with currency code like AUD, USD, GBP, CNY and BND. For example, the American dollar is USD10 (ten American dollar), IDR 1000 (one thousand rupiah in Indonesia), and JPY100 (one hundred yen in Japan), EUR10 (10 euros in Europe), and GBY10 (ten pounds in Great Britain) and so on.

To denote the currency, we also use symbols like RM10, ¥100, € 10, £10 and $10. As such, when writing nine ringgit or ten ringgit, it should written as RM9.00 or RM10.00. As for Malaysia, the symbol for the Malaysian Ringgit is RM and its code is MYR. This is used exclusively to denote the Malaysian currency only. No other country use RM or MYR as its name or code for their currency, except in Malaysia.

There are several reasons for the use of RM for our currency. As there are several countries that use currencies that begin with the letter R, like Riyal, Rupee, Rupiah, and the Renminbi, our currency is named as RM. If the letter R only is used, perhaps there will be confusion of the name of currency’s country. To prevent this, in Malaysia we use RM, i.e. the letter R is that is followed by letter M to indicate the name of the country.

As explained RM is a symbol of our currency. Therefore, we need to put it at the beginning of our currency to demonstrate the value of our money, like RM10. It is not appropriate to be placed after the currency, like 10RM or any other way.

Now, how to you pronounce the symbol RM? Currently, we notice that some users are pronouncing RM inappropriately. For example, to say the ten ringgit (RM10.00), some say it as 'r-em' ten ringgit, some as 'r-em' ten, and some as ten ringgit. Which one is correct?

As explained earlier, the right way to pronounce it is ten ringgit. So when we say or read a sentence, “It costs RM10 to have a good meal”, we should say, “It costs ten ringgit to have a good meal”. It should be not said as “It costs r-em ten ringgit to have a good meal” or “It costs r-em ten Malaysian ringgit to have a good meal”.

We hope this brief explanation will help users to use the word ringgit appropriately, either as a term or its pronunciation.  We also hope radio deejays, television commentators, and teachers pronounce RM correctly so that the standard and correct way of pronouncing the ringgit is promulgated among the language users. In this way, we can help to standardize the use of term and pronunciation of the word ringgit among fellow Malaysians.

Origin of popiah

As a linguist, I am fascinated with the recent debate on the origin of popia as reported in local dailies. We read that the Indonesians claimed that popia or lumpia as it called in Indonesia originated from Indonesia.

As we all know, popiah is a popular food enjoyed by all Malaysians. Popia is not only popular in Malaysia and Indonesia, but also in other Asian nations like Singapore Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. 

This spring-roll actually originated from China and it was introduced by the Chinese when they settled in South-east Asia as early as 15^th century. As they settled in many parts of Asia, this delicacy was introduced as a food item in all these countries, including Indonesia and Malaysia.

According to the renowned linguist, Russell Jones, etymologically the word originated from China. In his book Chinese Loan-Words in Malay and Indonesian (2009), Jones states that the word popia comes from the Chinese word pop-pia, and lumpia from lun-pia. Over the years popia has undergone much improvisation according to the culture and location. For example, popia is a fresh spring roll where else lumpia is fried version of the delicacy.  

The word popiah was first was recorded in Malay Language by Teuku Iskander in his compilation, Kamus Dewan published in 1970 by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, the custodian of the Malay Language.  Tthe word popiah has also entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1986, as a Malay Chinese word originated from the Hokkien dialect, meaning a thin pancake.

I feel it is futile to debate on such petty issues as commented by Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Nik Safiah Karim recently. Chef Wan has also correctly pointed out that it is fruitless to argue whether popia or lumpia belongs to Indonesia or otherwise. Both are delicacies in each country.

Ironically, the Chinese are not even claiming that popia comes from China. The very fact remains that popia is a delicacy in Malaysia and as well in many Asian countries like Indonesia. In each country, it is called in different names.

So let us forge on without any enmity between the neighbouring nations of Malaysia and Indonesia focusing on much urgent issues of mutual cooperation and understanding among the peoples of the two nations. After all, language is just a tool to name items found in the world, including food items. 

The Other Side of Social Media

Today’s social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Facebook, Viber, Live, We chat, and Twitter has become an essential and indispensable tool for most of us. Facebook was first launched in 2004,  WhatsApp in 2009 and Viber in 2010. According to Wikipedia, we have more than 600 million active users for WhatsApp, 1.3 billion Facebook active users and 100 million Viber active users.

Besides individuals, institutions like universities, colleges, schools, departments have created WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Viber accounts to disseminate information in a faster mode among lecturers, teachers, staffs, colleagues, friends, students and acquaintances. Organizations and business sector also benefit from the social media. These media serve as instant messaging platforms, and are currently available free of charge. I too utilize WhatsApp to convey information to my students and fellow-colleagues. Of course, with these media we save time, and it is indeed a speedy way of conveying information.

For many of us, not a day will pass without us updating our social media. Some even update these social media before going to bed and the first thing in the morning after they rise from their beds. There are also media users who post messages in Facebook in order to get the most number of likes.

We also hear stories of how housewives, school and college going students hang-on to the social media every available time to log-on to these media to see the latest updates. With these media, information is disseminated fast and across boundaries within seconds from a person to another, and from one end to another end.

Although these media are useful for disseminating news, information and sometimes photos and videos, the other side of the ill-effects of the media needs to be looked at. At times, controversial issues and divisive issues and matters are posted in the media to attract more likes, especially in Facebook.

Among the controversial issues are on personal life, politics, religion and sex. We had many such cases reported in our country itself. Some of the social media users were brought to court for judgment. Medias like Facebook should be for individual and personal use and purpose. At times, users transgress the boundaries by posting and updates by insulting or smearing the names of others.   

We also have users, especially the young users posting trivial matters in their Facebook. It is irritating at times to read such updates, like “I am now having my coffee now at Starbucks Mid-Valley” or “I am now lazing around in Times Square”. Such updates are very personal and should not be shared in the social media.  Users should be cautious by not updating such petty stuffs.

Social media came to existence since early 2004 for the purpose of dissemination of information and news in a rapid way through instant messages and information. Let us utilize the best of the media, and not abuse them for personal gains and glory. Technology is for the betterment of society, and moderation should be the key word as regards to the use of social media.  In all matters moderation is desirable. If a thing is carried to excess, it will prove a source of evil.