ACADEMIC CHAIRS ABROAD ENNOBLE MALAY LANGUAGE - NAJIB

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 (Bernama) -- The establishment of Malay Studies academic chairs by the government at selected foreign universities is aimed at ennobling and globalising the Malay language, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

He said the chairs already established were the Tun Abdul Razak Chair at Ohio University in the United States, Malay Studies Chair at Leiden University in the Netherlands and Malay Studies Chair at Victoria University in New Zealand.

"Another such chair will be established soon at the Foreign Studies University in Beijing," he said at the International Malay Language Elocution Contest for the Deputy Prime Minister's Trophy held at the Putra World Trade Centre here tonight.

The text of Najib's speech was read out by Higher Education Ministry's secretary-general Datuk Dr Zulkefli A. Hassan.

Najib said the government was committed to ennobling the Malay language which now had some 300 million speakers, including those from the "Malay Diaspora" who had settled in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and the United States.

"Language lovers and proponents must change their mindsets to ensure that the Malay language remains relevant in this era of globalisation and be at par with the world's other major languages of communication, such as English, French, Spanish and Mandarin.

"To do this, we need imaginative, innovative and well-planned efforts to attract foreigners to learn and master the Malay language," he said, referring to Malaysia's academic cooperation with well-known foreign universities.

Najib said to date, 129 higher learning institutions in the American continent, Asia, Australia and New Zealand were offering Malay Studies.

He said the setting up of the Malay Language International Council in 1997, aimed at encouraging and coordinating Malay language studies overseas, was another proof of the government's commitment to ennobling the Malay language.

"We hope all these initiatives would help increase the number of Malay speakers in the world," he said.

-- BERNAMA