Saturday, March 07, 2009
Sebuah akhbar UAE menyiarkan satu artikel menarik mengenai keperluan bahasa Arab dalam pengajaran saintifik dan kesusasteraan.
Suara-suara dari pelbagai peringkat di bumi Arab terus mahu bahasa Arab menjadi tunggak ilmu dalam desakan untuk menjadikan bahasa Inggeris sebagai bahasa pengantar.
Bilakah para puak gerombolan United Malay Nationall Organisation terutama mereka yang menjadi pemimpin mahu mengakui kesilapan.
Dari pemerhatian, ramai penyokong PPSMI terkeliru antara fasih dalam bahasa Inggeris dengan pengajaran Sains dan matematik dalam bahasa Inggeris. Kita tidak menolak bahasa Inggeris sebagai bahasa komunikasi.
Apa yang ditentang ialah meminggirkan bahasa Melayu yang telah bertahun menjadi bahasa ppengantar.
Saya adalah salah seorang yang berkelulusan SPM yang sepenuhnya dalam Bahasa Melayu yang mampu bersaing diperingkat antarabangsa.
Why Arabic must be brought to book
* Last Updated: March 07. 2009 9:30AM UAE / March 7. 2009 5:30AM GMT
ABU DHABI // Scholars say more works, especially scientific and academic literature, urgently need to be translated into Arabic to ensure the relevancy and survival of the language and culture.
With schoolchildren and students increasingly using English rather than their mother tongue, the federal Government and NGOs in various emirates have launched initiatives to promote Arabic as an integral part of the national identity.
But several academics said that if the Arab world was to make real progress it needed more – and better – translation and translators and the involvement of high office holders.They have also urged the creation of a national body to oversee translation and implement translation programmes.
Prof Ahmed Ankit, the vice president of external relations and cultural affairs at Ajman University, said giving people the chance to read in their own language was essential for progress in the global village.
“Translating books, journals and other vehicles of information is indispensable for the wide dissemination of knowledge,” he said. “The need for translation in the Arab world is now more urgent than ever. To keep up with the ever increasing scientific progress, which is largely made in the West, the Arab countries are required to promote translation and support learning foreign languages.”
But translation in the Arab world was declining in both quality and quantity, he said, because of a lack of funding for professional training.
Dr Ankit’s argument is bolstered by figures from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) showing that European countries translate many more books every year than Arab ones.
Spain, for instance, translates in one year about the same number of books that have been translated into Arabic over the past thousand years. Greece, with a population of 11 million, translates five times more books annually than the whole Arab world, which has a population of more than 300 million.
However, Dr Ankit believes GCC countries currently have a golden opportunity to lead the way to the revival of translation “thanks to favourable political will and financial resources”.
Dr Aboudi Hassan, a professor of translation at Ajman University and the American University of Sharjah, said two factors were contributing to the problem of too little translation: people reading less; and a lack of specialised professionals in the field.
“People no longer have enough time to spend on reading, therefore the so-called industry of book translating is not profitable.
“In other societies, book writing and translating are flourishing industries. This is because there is a large sector of the society in those countries still interested in reading and discovering,” he said.
Translators need have a sophisticated understanding of the language – and culture – they are working with, added Dr Hassan Mustapha, a social sciences professor at Alhosn University in the capital.
“One problem in the field is lack of extended grounding in the art and techniques of translation. There is also some confusion in the perception of commercial day-to-day translation as something similar to the hard graft required for serious goal-directed translation.
“And there is the question of sponsoring translation and translators. At the moment we have a few bodies that take on such a responsibility.”
The problem, he admitted, could require a real effort: “We should translate what is useful in practice as well as in theory, all at appropriate levels and for different age groups. All that must be carried out according to a plan and a vision and be part of a general and declared will to guide and lead and enlighten.”
Dr Said Faiq, a professor of translation and cultural studies at the American University of Sharjah, said translation in the Arab world today was an “ad hoc activity”.
“Translation in the Arab world remains largely an individual task with no clear national or pan-Arab criteria for the choice of works for translation, the setting up of competent agencies or monitoring bodies to follow up translation activity and translations.”
But he added: “The recently established translation agencies in the Gulf region, particularly the UAE, are good beacons for a renaissance of translation in the Arab world.
“Such agencies should be encouraged and copied in other Arab countries with a view to establishing networks of translation that can be linked together for the benefits of the Arab world.”
In the UAE, two major projects have been launched to promote translation into and from Arabic. The Tarjem programme is aiming to translate key cultural works to foster understanding, such as Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope.
Kalima, an initiative of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, funds the translation and distribution of classic and contemporary writing from other languages into Arabic. It recently rendered both Jurgen Habermas’s The Future of Human Nature and Stephen Hawkin’s A Briefer History of Time into Arabic, for instance.
Tidak! Kami bukan Melayu itu
Gamat menghunus keris plastik
Berkokok angkuh mengancam
Sedang ekor busuk dipenuhi taik
Kenyang dengan rasuah dan judi
Kami bukan Melayu tiga juta ahliMenang sorak di perhimpunan
Meriah kampong sudah tergadai
Diatas gimik nama ketuanan
Merompak hak-hak bumiputera
Setelah perlembagaan dipinda-pinda
Menderhaka demi survival perut
Anak-anak, kami bukan Melayu itu
Sanggup meludah bahasa sendiri
Kami sudah lama murtad
Dari menjadi Melayu bacul
7 Mac 2009
KJ says he is not an opportunist, that's BULL. In politics, politicians are always opportunists. Especially when you are KJ....the shadow of UMNO's politics in action.
Some excerpts from the Malaysiakini's interview.
But there is also doubt over your (talk of) reforms. Some people think that you're a bit of an opportunist...
I don't think it's being opportunistic. I think after the political shock, you'll realise certain things. You'll realise that maybe what you did before was not entirely what the people wanted. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with realising through experience that you need to change.
If Khairy Jamaluddin fails to win Umno Youth chief, what would that mean to you? What would that mean to Umno, given that you're trying to champion reforms within Umno?
If I don't win? It's the end of the universe and the whole world would crumble... [grins] No, of course not. Well, there are many ways to serve, you can serve with position or without, it's not the end of the world.
I hope that I'm not the only one that wants to bring reforms. Everyone wants reforms, and everyone is talking about reforms. But you have to ask what sort of reforms you are talking about. I think it was clear at the TV show (last month's Umno Youth debate), everyone wants reforms. (But) the other two (candidates) want a hardline approach.My view is that's the wrong way to go. I think we have to move to the centre, and we have to reclaim the agenda from 2004. The reason we were punished at the election, (is) not because we didn't jail protesters under the ISA, not because we are less Islamic or less Malay-centric. It's because we lost our way, we didn't reform fast enough.
Would (outgoing Umno Youth chief) Hishammuddin Hussein be a tough act to follow?
Every leader have his own time and own style. I don't think you should benchmark the next leader against Hisham or any other leader. Hisham inherited Umno Youth in a very trying circumstances in 1999 and he built it back up till what is it today and I think he deserve a lot for that and I don't want compare what's about to happen and what he had to go through. It's very difficult.
There is a question from our Parliament team - they say, although you are sitting next to Jerlun MP Mukhriz Mahathir, you don't talk to him. Why is that?
What's there to talk about? You know he wants to jail all the protesters under the ISA and what do I have in common with that?