SIBU: The federal government is obligated to accept English letters from Sarawak in official communications.
The Deputy Minister of Public Health, Housing and Local Government Datuk Michael Tiang said the federal government is under the law to accept all letters in English in Sarawak because the National Language Act 1963/67 was never extended to Sarawak.
“The federal government in fact has a duty to entertain English letters from Sarawak for official communications as the National Language Act 1963/67 was never extended to Sarawak.
“Sarawakians are therefore free to opt to use English or Malay for letters to federal government departments since both languages are official languages in Sarawak, particularly the use of the English language in Sarawak is guaranteed by Article 161(3) of the Federal Constitution,” he said in a statement today.
Tiang was reacting to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s reminder to all government departments not to entertain any letters written in a language other than the national language.
The Pelawan assemblyman reminded the prime minister that English and Malay are official languages in Sarawak, thus his directive does not apply in Sarawak.
“When I was in the federal court in Kuala Lumpur many years ago, the court also made it clear at that time that the letters in Sarawak which is written in English cannot be ignored.
“Which means we can use English in official communications and in our letter and the federal government cannot chuck it into the dustbin,” he added.
Anwar made an announcement during the launch of the Karnival Dekad Bahasa Kebangsaan and Dekad Membaca Kebangsaan yesterday (Oct 25) that official letters sent to government departments must be in Malay.
He stated that any correspondence not in the national language would be promptly returned to the sender.
He also expressed concern about the confusion regarding the use of international languages in official correspondence and stated that this directive should not be taken lightly.
Anwar stressed that achieving economic success would mean little if the national language, which is part of our culture was not mastered.
He clarified that his stance was not narrow-minded but stressed the need to prioritise the use of the national language.
