Recently I attended a district level Bahasa Malaysia speech contest for students of Chinese-medium primary schools ( SJKC) to provide moral support to my son who was representing his school.
After few contestants had presented their speech I realised something odd is happening. If I closed my eyes and just listen to the speeches, I would have thought there are some representatives from Indonesian schools!
Some of the contestants spoke with great confidence but the way they speaks sounds like those Indonesian that we meet at coffeeshops or construction sites or maids in Malaysian homes. The Malaysian Chinese kids are speaking like Indonesians!
I suspect these child speakers with Indonesian slang must have learned their language from their Indonesian maids at home. These Indonesian maids living under the same roof as their employers spend a substantial time with these kids since they were babies and it is not suprising if these kids are learning spoken Bahasa Indonesia rather than Bahasa Malaysia.
The only time that the kids are expected to learn and speak Bahasa Malaysia at school was during the class lessons for the language but it is only between three to four hours a week. The learning opportunity will be lesser if the Malay language teacher prefer to speak in English or Mandarin to their students.
The ongoing debate on the ill treatment of some Indonesian maids and the decision of the Indonesian government to stop sending their maids to Malaysia is not the only maids related issue that need attention. The tendency of the Malaysian kids especially those of Chinese descent speaking Bahasa Indonesia rather than Bahasa Malaysia is something the powers-that-be and other interested parties need to ponder when addressing the Indonesia maids issue.
Unknowingly, Malaysia is already been slowly colonized culturally by Indonesia from within the comfort and security of our own homes. Maybe it is a blessing in disguise if the Indonesian government decides to stop sending their women as maids to the Malaysian homes.
As for my son, he did not win the speech contest but neither did he speaks in Bahasa Indonesia. We do not have an Indonesian maid. - Loka
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