"I sound stupid when I speak Malay..."

The Malays have a saying:

Kerana pulut santan binasa,
Kerana mulut badan binasa.

The recent fiasco over Sharifah Amani's "rude and unbecoming" award acceptance speech has triggered more interest than I thought it would. When I first saw it over the telly, I thought, "Wow, that speech smells so much like trouble - bet that's not gonna go down so well with certain quarters!"

But I thought with all the hype surrounding Siti N and Datuk K's wedding, Amani might just get lucky and escape media lashings. I was wrong. (Note that in a warped kinda way, it was kinda pleasant - all those stories like "Jurunikah gugup" and "Fairytale wedding" kinda make me wanna throw up already.)

The next day, the media did their job - many focusing on what they deemed as the most controversial part of the usually boring event in the book of Malaysia's entertainment history. Other artistes too chipped in with their own views - someone even mentioned that Amani is tainting her mother's good image.

And the minister invited too, did what needs to be done. What any respecting Malay would have done.

He said the remark Amani made may not have been uttered with sole intention of inciting negative response from the public especially Malays - however that is exactly what she did - and she must take responsibility.

I bet the minister must have had the insight that Amani, though she was speaking for herself, is the representative of artistes and urban youths of her generation - a generation which has been exposed to globalisation; a generation who thinks their mother-tongue, along with their ethic identity as well as the culture and routine that ties with it are no longer of importance.

They no longer feel proud saying "peti ais" - they rather say "refrigerator" - complete with an American/UK slang to go with it too.

Hence the minister added (which I think an advice that is also targeted to all parents of Amani's generation), "Harap ibu bapanya boleh mengajarkannya budi bahasa yang lebih baik..."

... as he knows that the generation is still young, and trainable.

I wonder if he knows that most urban parents of Amani's generation prefers speaking to their kids in English as they feel it will increase their kids' survival rate in the new economy? (Of course, some just want to be trendy and bangga tidak menentu kerna bisa berbahasa omputehs and not so much of their bahasa ibunda so...).

Hence the kids running around saying "I express myself better in English..." just cause they're never trained to express themselves in their bahasa ibunda in the first place.

That's no excuse - while you can embrace new elements that can take you further, should not one also be proud of one's heritage? If you can learn to express yourself well in one language, why not another?

And this is Amani, the young kebaya-clad star who's been called the muse to director Yasmin Ahmad, the very lady who celebrates Malaysia's diversity and proudly flaunts the strong characteristics of each ethnicity in each of her movie... seems a bit hard to just forget and forgive.

To me the minister's move is a reflection of the better yesterdays, days when even your uncles and aunts and teachers and ketua kampung can lepuk you if you are caught stealing your neighbour's jambu... and another set of whacking awaits when your parents pulak dapat tahu...